And here we are! The long awaited Chapter 10! Or Chapter 13, technically, however you want to look at it. This is the chapter I was most excited to write, and one where a LOT of stuff comes to light. You'll see for yourself once you go further.

Not much to say up here I don't think, other than I hope you enjoy!


Chapter 10: Holding Out for Some Heroes

The winds didn't let up for a second as the four girls pushed their way up the path and back to the elimination area. Little by little they kept pressing onward, making sure to hold their ground with each step. Being the smallest and lightest of them all, Sky had more than once almost been blown away by the wind, so Sammy and Ella held onto her arms as Jasmine stood behind them all to keep them from being thrown back.

Once they were off the incline and back on level ground, Sammy looked around and saw through squinted eyes that Chris, Amy and Scarlett were closer to the edge of the forest, animatedly yelling at each other while Chris messed with his favorite remote. "Over there!" Sammy yelled through the wind, and directed her friends towards the others.

Moving as quickly and carefully as they could, the girls kept pushing themselves forward against the force of the wind. But that effort turned against them when all of a sudden the wind vanished and the four of them fell face-first into the dirt with startled screams.

"Oww," Sky groaned, bearing the weight of the three others. "I don't think that's how wind works."

"With everything going all screwy, I'm surprised it didn't start cutting in and out faster than that," Sammy noted.

"That's 'cuz it didn't cut out," Jasmine said. "It's just isolated to the ceremony area!"

The rest of them looked back, and the telltale signs of high winds and hail were only affecting the cliffs where the ceremonies took place. Closer to the paths leading back onto the island, there wasn't even a hint of wind. "Okay, that's just slightly unsettling," Ella quietly admitted.

The four of them stood up and approached Chris, with Sky leading them forward. "McLean!" she shouted, pointing an accusing finger at him. "What's going on? What's happening to the island?"

Chris barely acknowledged her as he continued to fiddle with his remote. "I-I don't know what you're talking about!" he said. "The island's fine!"

"He insists that, but anyone with eyes can see the island is no longer in working order," Scarlett spat.

Chris was about to speak, but then the trees behind him then suddenly dipped down again and were replaced by brand new ones of a completely different type.

"Yeah, something's telling me Scarlett's on the money here," Jasmine snarled.

"What," he said hesitantly, but as innocently as he could. "You don't have vanishing trees in Australia?"

"No! Obviously not!"

The trees then disappeared again, only for Christmas trees of all things to take over. Chris laughed nervously once more. "W-What about Christmas? It's winter down there now, isn't it?"

"Wh- Christmas day is the same as it is up here, you drongo!" Jasmine yelled at him.

Taken back by the insult, Chris glanced anxiously at the campers surrounding him, from Jasmine's fierce glare to Ella's unimpressed stare, and over to Scarlett and Amy who were looking at him in exasperation and annoyance respectively. After a few moments, Chris groaned, inhaled and exhaled, and looked at them all in frustration. "Okay. Fine. The island's mostly artificial."

Practically no one gasped at that - the only one who did was Amy, but when she saw no one else doing the same she tried to play it off. "I knew it," Sammy said, allowing a hint of smug satisfaction in her voice. "Definitely the worst kept secret here."

"Uh, maybe not the worst," Sky whispered to her, nudging her in the arm.

Sammy chose to ignore the blush flaring on her face. "A-Anyway! What's going on here? Why's everything going all crazy?"

"We're having some technical difficulties, okay?" Chris replied, going back to his remote. "Just some minor mishaps that shouldn't be cause for alarm!"

"'Minor mishaps'? We almost got skewed by spikes shooting out of the ground!" Amy shouted at him, gesturing to herself and Scarlett.

"It's actually skewered," Scarlett corrected.

Amy let out a groan. "That's what I said!" To Chris, she continued, "So yes, it's obviously a cause for alarm! When are you gonna get off your lazy butt and fix whatever's wrong?"

"I'd have it done if you stopped yammering on!" Chris exclaimed, going back to messing with the remote. "But this stupid thing is being-"

He didn't get to finish the thought, as suddenly a large monitor burst from the ground between him and the girls. It had blaring sirens and a flashing red light on top of it, and a computerized voice was talking out of it.

"Self-destruct sequence activated. Island will explode in one hour."

Needless to say, its words did not inspire confidence.

"Self-destruct?!" cried everyone in almost unison, with some of them adding in sprinkles of 'No way!' and ''You can't be serious!'.

Sammy, however, began to visibly shake the second her brain processed this new information. The words of the monitor bore into her skull like nothing else had ever done before. She couldn't think, she couldn't breathe. And when the timer started counting down with 59 minutes left on the screen, Sammy thought for sure she was about to have a full on panic attack.

Self-destruct? Self… destruct?! What the hell?! WHAT THE HELL?! I don't want to die! I'm nowhere close to wanting to die!

She was practically vibrating on the spot, and more than likely would have stayed that way, with everyone else too busy causing an uproar to notice. Had Chris's familiar air horn not drawn her back into reality, it would probably have gotten much worse. "Zip it!" he shouted at them to get them to settle down. It helped, but only a little. His authoritative demeanor vanished once they did all calm down though, which did not help. "Uhh… Right." Putting the air horn away, he scurried over to a tree stump that had just recently popped out of the ground, pressed in on its rings in a particular pattern, and reached into it when the top slid open like a secret compartment. Inside was a black unspecified tablet that he pressed his finger on a few times, before scuttling back over to the contestants. "Time for your next challenge!"

"A challenge? Now?" Jasmine asked him incredulously. "Mate, are you off your rocker?!"

"Don't interrupt!" he shouted angrily, causing Jasmine to reel back in surprise. He cleared his throat and continued to speak in a shaky voice. "For this challenge… one of you will have to turn off the self-destruct, which is located in this underground control room." The tablet showed a high-tech room with multiple monitors, their screens filled not only with graphs but also shots of the forest, beaches, and the two shelters where everyone had been sleeping. "There are three ways to get there," Chris said, swiping on the tablet to now show a map of the island and three separate arrows pointing to three different locations. "So you'll split into three teams of two, and each go into one of these entrances. The first team to turn off the self-destruct wins immunity. Got it?"

All of a sudden Scarlett gasped, and grabbed the tablet out of his hands. "Wait! Let me see that!"

Chris, too startled by her outburst, let her have it. "Sure, whatever. If it'll help you shut it off, go ahead!"

It was all so much that her head could barely handle it. The island was literally going to blow up and now they were responsible for turning it off? "W-Why does an island have a self-destruct setting to begin with?" she quietly asked Chris.

"What do we do when we find the control room?" Sky followed up.

"Why is there no remote shut down out here?" Ella asked, gesturing around her. "If you have a tree stump that has a tablet in it, surely something like that should be here as well?"

"All good questions!" Chris said, beginning to walk away. "Too bad there's no time to answer them!"

"Wait, hold on!" Jasmine said, stopping him from going past her. "Our lives aren't really in danger, are they? This is just a challenge, right?" He sucked in air through his teeth and looked away awkwardly. "R-Right?!"

"Yeah, I dunno how to put this nicely… so I won't. This island will definitely blow up in…" He glanced at the screen. "57 minutes. If I were you, I'd start running."

"You're expecting teenagers to disarm an entire island, though?" Sky asked. "What can we do to turn this thing off?!"

"You'll figure it out!" he said, pushing past Jasmine. "If you want to live, that is. Which I'm sure is something many of you want."

"What about you?" Sammy asked, feeling the sweat beginning to pile on her forehead. "Why does it have to be a challenge? Why can't you help us? Or someone else! Like Chef! He's tough!"

"Chef can't help, because he's busy flying the helicopter."

"Helicopter?!" came another cry from everyone in unison. As if it was ready and waiting for its moment, a helicopter appeared in the sky and flew just over the seven of them. Sammy could barely make out Chef Hatchet in the pilot's seat, though she couldn't see him all that clearly.

An anchor crashed into the ground, and Chris casually climbed onto it. "And I will be helping! From a safe distance. Off of the island."

"Wait!" Ella screamed, holding her hands out. "If there's a helicopter, why can't we all just escape?!"

"Because without an island, there'll be no show!" Chris explained. "We've already lost one. There's not enough money in the budget to get a third one if this one goes kablooey!"

"That is the single most pathetic excuse I've heard!" Sky shouted at him.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night!" Chris shouted back. He sounded out the air horn one last time. "Challenge starts now! So get to gettin'!"

With that, the helicopter rose back into the air and left their field of vision. Everyone stared after it, unable to process just what had happened in the last five minutes.

"T-minus 55 minutes and counting," the monitor happily reminded everyone.

"I can't believe this is happening," Sammy murmured. "This is nuts. You can't go from hide and seek to blowing up the island! This isn't right! This isn't fair!"

"I'm sorry to have to say this, but it doesn't matter if it isn't fair, we don't have a choice!" Jasmine was in the right headspace, as always, and immediately began taking charge. "Scarlett, where are the entrances located?"

Scarlett flipped through the tablet a few times and held it up for everyone to see. "One is under a rock to the east of our location. One is in a hatch to the north, and seems to be located a fair distance above the ground. And the third is in an open hole to the southwest which doesn't seem to have closed properly. None of them seem to be particularly far away, and given everyone's base running capabilities I'd say it would take at least a collective ten to fifteen minutes to reach our designated goals."

"Alright, let's split into teams and dole out these secret entrances."

As her mind was racing and asking how they could both be so calm, Sammy suddenly felt a warm and comforting hand wrap itself in hers. "Sammy and I will take one," came Ella's voice on her left, and a squeeze helped to bring her back into reality. She looked at her, and received a nod and a confident smile in return. Ella is so good at keeping me grounded and focused… God, now that I know what that feels like, I don't know what I'd do without her.

Sammy nodded back, and looked at the tablet once more. "We'll take… the hole. That shouldn't be too hard to find, if it's out in the open like that."

Scarlett flipped the tablet back around and examined it closely. "As has been said, the hatch to the north is not on ground level. I don't mean to choose for you," she looked up at Jasmine, "but you and Sky should tackle this one."

"What? Why?" Sky asked with folded arms. "Why can't we find the rock?"

"Because Amy and I do not have the physical capabilities to climb up to the top if we want to make good time." She turned back to Amy. "Isn't that right?"

But Amy didn't reply. Sammy looked past the others at her sister, only to see that she hadn't moved from the spot she had been at before the announcement. She was staring at the countdown, rigid and unmoving, her mouth hung open slightly and her skin pale as a ghost. The only part of her that was moving was her chest, rising and falling far faster than it should've been.

She's hyperventilating, her mind told her as her eyes widened. She's panicking.

Sammy pulled her hand out of Ella's and approached her sister. Each and every breath she was taking was sharp and fast, and her eyes didn't leave the screen even as Sammy put her hand on her shoulder. "Amy?" she asked, shaking her slightly. "Amy, c'mon, snap out of it."

She shook her a little harder, and Amy blinked and looked her way. For a split second her old scowl came back in full force, but only for a second. It was swiftly replaced by the fear she had just been wearing. It was the most vulnerable Sammy had ever seen her sister be, and likely the most she had ever shown anyone. "I-I don't want to die," she said. It was nothing more than a hoarse whisper, and Sammy had a hard time recalling if she'd ever heard Amy talk like this before. There was a good reason behind it, all things considered.

Sammy put both hands on Amy's shoulders and looked her square in the eyes. She may not like her sister all that much, but the last thing she would allow herself to do was to leave someone on their own when they were under emotional distress. "We're not gonna die. We're gonna get to the control room and shut this thing down. But we all need to do this, okay? None of us are going to take this sitting down, so you need to calm down and get your head in the game." It probably would've came off better if Sammy herself wasn't internally losing it, but everyone needed to do their part in this challenge, and Amy was no exception.

Her breathing didn't exactly slow down, but after a moment she nodded. "O-Okay."

Sammy did her best to smile comfortingly at her. "Good. Scarlett will watch after you. You're going to be fine."

Amy nodded once more, though didn't say anything. With that done, Scarlett walked by them and off into the forest. "We shouldn't delay. Who knows what other tricks and traps Chris may have waiting for us."

"You don't think he would've left any, would he?" Ella asked.

"This is Chris we're talking about," Scarlett said, looking back, "and we're heading into a bunker that was meant to be a secret this entire time. I would not put it past him to leave any sort of defensive systems on, even during a time like this. No, especially at a time like this."

"Hmm…" Ella moaned. "You may be right."

"If we're done talking, then we need to be moving." Scarlett took off once more. "Come on, Amy!"

Amy looked after her, and then back at Sammy and the others. She tried sucking in a breath and puffing her chest out, almost like she was trying to appear brave. It didn't really work. "Uh…" Another pained expression appeared on her face, but instead of looking away and leaving as she had been doing these last few days, she actually spoke up this time. "G… Good luck."

And without another look back, Amy ran off after Scarlett.

"Huh," Sammy said after a moment. "That's a first." Maybe… Amy really is trying to be a better person? She's having a lot of trouble, it looks like…

Still watching where her sister had left, she felt the hand retake its spot in hers. "Come on, let's go."

Brought back into reality, Sammy nodded at Ella. "Right." She turned back towards Sky and Jasmine. "You guys take care."

"Same to you," Jasmine replied, tipping her hat.

"Stay safe!" Sky told them. "Don't be afraid to run if things get messy."

"You as well," Ella said. "Though you'd both probably have a better time at that than us."

"Ah, well, I'm not gonna argue that," Jasmine said, and with that they took off up the trail leading to the Salmons' treehouse.

Ella glanced at her and smiled as best she could. "I guess that's our cue."

"Guess so," Sammy replied.

"T-minus 50 minutes and counting."

Sammy shivered as the mechanical voice spoke. "I'm not gonna get used to that. We need to hurry."

"Then let's be off," Ella said, and the two girls dashed off towards the Bears' shack.


"Is this the area on the map?" Sammy asked a few minutes later. They had been running through the forest long enough that they had reached an open area of grassland that looked rather identical to any other field on the island. "I'm pretty sure this is as southwest as we can go without hitting the island's edge."

"Something tells me we should've been given more than one tablet," Ella noted, squinting into the horizon. She had a hand above her eyes, despite there not being any rays of sun to block out. "The hole could be anywhere!"

Looking around on the ground proved fruitless, as there was just too much area to cover and too many slopes and obstructions to properly see everything. "We're too low down," Sammy said, and pointed to a tree that seemed to be in the middle of the field. "We need to get higher!"

The tree was a big one, thankfully, and its lowest branch was high enough that they'd be able to get a decent view of the area. That was also the one problem now presented to them - it was also too high for either of them to reach easily on their own.

"How do we get up there?" Ella asked as they approached the base of it.

"Umm." There wasn't anything movable around them, no rocks or logs that could be moved with little effort and get them up there as fast as possible. So in this case, there was only one option. "Get up on my shoulders, I'll lift you up there."

Ella gave her a surprised look. "Are you sure? Is that safe?"

"Being on the island is the farthest thing from safe right now," Sammy told her. She positioned herself under the branch and bent down on one knee. "Now come on, we're losing time."

"O-Okay." Unsteadily, Ella placed her feet on Sammy's shoulders.

Ella wasn't heavy, but neither was Sammy particularly strong. She grabbed a hold of Ella's ankles and put in the effort to push herself back up to a standing position. "A-Are you able to reach?" she asked, doing her best to keep them both balanced and also to not look upwards.

"Yes, I've got a hold of it!" Ella said excitedly. "I'll try to pull myself up!"

"Okay good!"

It wasn't a perfect climb - Ella accidentally used Sammy's head as a stepping stone, which she profusely apologized for - but she managed to get up there with time to spare. She carefully climbed to her feet and balanced herself against the tree, and resumed her search for the entrance.

"Anything?" Sammy asked after a moment.

"Mm, nothing that I can-" Ella stopped herself to gasp. "Wait, no, there's a hole in the ground over there!"

She pointed in a direction with a few slopes leading away from them, but Sammy couldn't see anything from her angle. She thanked her luck that higher ground was the right option. "Wow, that was fast! We'll be in the control room in no time!"

"No doubt about that," Ella agreed. "Just… one problem. How am I getting down?"

Sammy frowned. "Oh. I, uh, didn't think that far ahead. You might just have to jump."

Ella looked at the ground warily. "Um… Sorry, but I don't think that's going to happen."

"I guess it is a bit of a drop," Sammy said. Like before, there wasn't anything around that could be used as a cushion or to catch her. And as they were short on time, Sammy offered the first thing she could think of: herself. Again. "I'll catch you!" she yelled up, raising her arms out to demonstrate.

"What? Are you sure you can?" she asked. "Not to sound doubtful, but… I'm not sure that's a good idea."

"I know it's not, but we're running out of time and there's no other way down." She gestured with her hands. "C'mon. You trust me, right?"

"Of course I do," she said quickly. She looked around the tree and the surrounding area once more, just to confirm there wasn't any other way, and breathed in and out to steel herself. "Okay. Are you ready?"

"Always," Sammy told her.

She smiled radiantly. She bounced a bit on the branch, testing its rigidity. "I'll count to three, then I'll jump. One…" She dipped down once to psych herself up. "Tw- AH!" And then her foot slipped the second time she did it.

"Ella!" Sammy cried and attempted to position herself underneath her, but in the end it wasn't necessary. As she had demonstrated a few days ago, Ella's reflexes were far faster than Sammy gave her credit for - her arm shot out and grabbed a hold of the branch, and her grip was tight enough that she managed to stop herself from falling and hang there in a slow swing.

"Oh gosh," Ella said between gasps of breath. "Oh gosh oh gosh. My heart is pounding…"

"Are you okay?!" Sammy asked her. She found her own heart had sped up.

Ella grabbed the branch with her other hand as well, in order to reduce the strain. "I'm fine! I think!"

Sammy breathed a sigh of relief, wiping away lingering sweat from the run. "That was way too close." It wasn't the longest drop, but it still wouldn't have been pretty. "Are you able to get down now, or should I still help?"

She judged the height she was currently at, and shook her head. "I'm still not comfortable dropping down this high up. C-Can I ask for your help?"

"Absolutely!" Sammy got right underneath Ella and held her hands back up. "Okay, lift your legs up and fall into my arms! I'll catch you, trust me!" Before now, there'd probably be a part of her brain that was telling her that she would miss and hurt Ella, but now more than ever, the confidence that she could do it was overshadowing any doubts she had.

"Okay," Ella said. She raised her legs up so that she was nearly adjacent with the ground and stayed there. She was shaking, her arms clearly not used to holding her weight. "A-Are you ready?!"

"Ready! Go ahead and drop!" Sammy called out.

She did just that. Ella didn't scream as she fell, but she was tensed up and preparing for the worst. But thankfully, for both of their sakes, Sammy had her feet planted on the ground and was able to catch her out of the air before anything bad happened. The force of Ella landing in her arms nearly toppled Sammy over, but she held her ground and was able to remain upright.

"Huh," said Sammy, slightly stunned. "That wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be."

Ella let out a loud laugh, relief in all of her features. "No, it wasn't at all!" She gave Sammy an incredibly grateful look. "Still, thank you all the same. It was scary at first, but worked out in the end."

"It was, and it did!" Sammy agreed. "But, uh, I'm gonna put you down now because you're a little too heavy for me."

"Aw," Ella whimpered, giving Sammy the cutest pout she had ever seen. "But I like being in your arms."

If anything was going to turn Sammy into a stuttering mess, it was certainly that. Her mind struggled to register those words properly and to simultaneously come up with a response that didn't make her sound like a total meathead. "Wh- I- Oh my- Huh-" Needless to say it didn't work out all that well.

Ella laughed joyfully and set herself down on her feet. With the pout turning into a mischievous grin, she said, "Oh wow. You are adorable when you blush. You know that?"

On the outside, she was frozen on the spot. But on the inside, all of her thoughts coalesced into one single, defining sound.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-

"Ella!" she suddenly said, surprising her partner and herself. "I-I have something to tell you!"

Her eyes lit up like beacons and her smile took up half of her face. "W-What is it?!" It was clear as day that she was expecting this. Sammy practically knew that as fact by now.

Don't screw this up don't screw this up don't screw this up- "Ella, the truth is, I-"

"T-minus 40 minutes and counting."

"-forgot about the countdown! We, uh, we need to go!"

NOOOOOOOOOO YOU IDIOT-

That was apparently the last thing Ella had been expecting, and it completely threw her off. The lights in her eyes fizzled out and she ended up caving in on herself. "I… Oh. Okay."

All of Sammy's mind was berating her at messing up again, but there literally was no time for it. At this moment, she'd rather spend as much time trying to stay alive so that she could confess to her another day.

God, if you told me this was what I was going to be dealing with before joining the show, I would've thought you were nuts.

Without another word, because if she spoke she couldn't guarantee she'd say anything good, Sammy grabbed a hold of Ella's hand and dashed off in the direction she had pointed in from the tree. They came upon the hole almost immediately - it was at an odd angle on the slope, and was not in a position where they would've been able to see it properly. The hole was fairly wide too, enough for both of them to jump in at the same time if they chose to do so.

They peered down in it, expecting to find the same sort of metal and secret laboratory-esque environment they'd seen on the tablet, but instead they were met with the very tip of a fir tree. "Not what I was expecting, but if this hole is where a tree pops up then it makes sense," Sammy said. "I think we're going to have to jump on it and make our way down."

Ella grimaced. "Oh yay. More tree climbing."

"I know it sucks, but we have to do it." Sammy looked up at her. "You know… that was actually a bit more sarcastic than what I'm used to from you."

Ella seemed to realize that as well, and smiled sheepishly at Sammy. "Oh, you're right. You must be rubbing off on me."

"Looks like it," Sammy said with a grin back.

There was another rumble, not as violent as the ones from before were, but it sounded much closer to them than the others did. In fact, it sounded like it was coming from right below them.

"Um, the tree is shaking!" Ella pointed out.

That's probably not a good thing. "Back up! Back up!" Sammy shouted, and they got out of there as fast as they could. Just as they were out of harm's way, the tree burst from the ground, shooting up to its maximum height in seconds. Hundreds of pine needles drifted out and down from its branches, landing around it and coating the ground a darker green.

"Whew," Ella sighed in relief as she stared at the tree's tip. "That was a bit too close."

"Yeah, for real," Sammy said. She was watching the pine needles fall to the ground, and saw something that caught her eye: the tree wasn't a very wide one, and actually left a decent amount of room between it and the edge of hole. What was more, it was on a sort of platform that did cover the gap between the two, and there was enough room for them to stand on if they hugged the tree's base. "Huh."

"What's up?" Ella asked her.

Sammy grinned up at her. "I think I found our way in."


As was the current case for most of the island's props, that tree in particular was also malfunctioning, and dropped back down into the ground a few moments later. The space between the trunk and the edge of the hole was just enough that both girls rode it down without any harm, though the speed it dropped at disoriented them heavily.

"Ugh," Sammy groaned, trying to settle her stomach and shake off the pine needles coating her. "Reminds me of those falling rides at amusement parks. I always hated those."

Ella walked up to her from the other side of the tree, brushing herself down, and as she looked around their new surroundings, she gave her a half smile. "On the plus side, we're in the bunker now."

She was right. Gone was the sky, the lightning clouds looming overhead, the fresh air and the surrounding nature (if it could be called that anymore). Now the two of them were in an incredibly large room with walls made entirely of metal and steel, with screens and dials and buttons lining it from top to bottom. Several pipes and huge gears were working nonstop as well, with steam being released every now and then and the sounds of grinding never ceasing. It gave off a very secret laboratory sort of feeling, which pretty much lined up with what Sammy had imagined it was going to be like.

In the direction she was facing was a wall with a door, leading perhaps towards other rooms like this one (there would have to be, if the entire island was able to have its trees and rocks and whatnot drop down into it). Behind her, however, the room expanded far, far back into the distance, and several other mechanical props were on their own platforms, ready to be raised up at the push of a button. "This is… incredible," Sammy said in awe, overwhelmed by the sheer size of the room. "How much did it cost to even design an island like this? Or was it already here and they just bought it?"

"That's technical information that you're not going to learn, brah," came Chris's voice. Sammy whirled around to see another monitor drop down from the ceiling with the host's face on it. "Besides, you ladies have bigger things to worry about. While you were busy slacking off and climbing trees up top, Jasmine and Sky accidentally set off the security system in here. So now there's a whole lotta killer robot animals roaming around and ready to tear you to shreds if they find you."

"What?!" Ella screamed. "Killer robot animals?!"

"Yep," Chris answered. "We had real animals, but the animal rights people were all 'blah blah blah blah', so we switched to robot animals. Some ended up with faulty wiring and turned crazy violent, though, so we locked them down here."

"Why didn't you just get rid of them?" Sammy asked. "That should've been the first thing you thought of!"

"We thought we could use them in a future challenge! And we were right! Technically." Sammy glared at him and by extension the rest of the Total Drama team. Chris completely ignored it. "Whatever, the point is, the halls are dangerous. It'd be way safer sneaking through the gear chamber."

Sammy took another look behind them to size everything up. Reasonably, they could make their way through there. But with the rising and falling of the platforms, the gears constantly turning, and the boiling hot steam bursting through the pipes, it wasn't a very appealing idea. "There's, uh, no safer way than that, is there?" Sammy asked.

"Nope! Either that way or the halls. Besides, according to my feed, you're about to be one exit short."

"What?!" both girls screamed, just as the door in front of them slowly opened. The light must not have been on in the other room, as whatever was behind the door was cloaked in darkness. The lack of both visibility and noise from it startled Sammy enough that she grabbed a hold of Ella in fright, who had the same idea and held onto her herself. If there really were killer robots on the other side, then it was likely going to be big and deadly looking, and Sammy did her best to prepare herself for anything.

'Anything' apparently did not involve adorable little tabby cats.

"Awwww!" the girls cooed as soon as they realized what they were looking at. It stared at them with big eyes, and licked its front paw to wash its head. It was the cutest thing Sammy had seen in days. Not counting Ella.

"Can I take this one home with me?" Ella asked, completely transfixed on the feline.

"You could," Chris said, warily watching it even from the other side of the screen. "If you got fire insurance."

That snapped them out of their reverie. "Fire insurance?" Sammy asked.

And that was when the cat decided to demonstrate. Its eyes suddenly glowed red, its mouth opened up much, much wider than a normal cat's should have, and there seemed to be a few sparks spewing from it. The inside of its mouth also seemed like it was growing redder…

Sammy knew enough about robot movies to know what was coming next. "We need to go! Like, now!"

She grabbed a hold of Ella's arm and booked it out of there, just as a giant burst of flame shot at where they had been standing, igniting the tree they had just hitched a ride on.

The girls' thought it was most appropriate to shriek for their lives and sprint as fast as their legs could carry them. Weaving around the almost randomly-placed platforms and artificial foliage, Sammy and Ella did their best to avoid anything that could cause them to slow down. A large misplaced wire required hopping over, a platform with a rock coming down nearly crushed them and forced them to stop, and a large gear blocked their way and made them run to the other side of the room.

A tree came down all of a sudden, startling them to a halt. What was odd about this one was that there was a bird's nest on one of the branches. Almost immediately the two eggs inside shook and hatched baby birds, chirping loudly at the girls. Sammy squinted at them and rubbed her chin. "Hey, aren't these the same birds Beardo saved during the Truth or Scare challenge?"

She would've examined further if the chicks didn't start shooting eye lasers at her.

"Duck!" Ella yelled, pulling a screaming Sammy to the floor and crawling away from the tree.

"Uh, I don't think those are ducks!" Sammy called back, smiling lightly despite the lasers still firing.

"Seriously not the time!"

"Sorry!"

Once they were a safe enough distance from the tree, they took off at another run, dodging what they could and leaping over anything small enough. They apparently managed to outrun the cat, as there were no more fire blasts being shot in their direction, but Sammy kept running all the same as she wanted to get out of this deathtrap labyrinth as soon as possible.

Another platform, the biggest one they had come across by far, lowered itself in front of them, sloshing water around them and soaking the girls from the waist down. Sammy was about to complain when she noticed how… warm the water was.

"Holy crap," she said, gazing in shock at the structure before her. "This is our lake and waterfall!"

It was unmistakable, even down in this lifeless bunker. Everything from the trees to the bushes that had been nearby it were still there; even the rainbow seemed to be nothing more than part of the prop, a sort of hologram that was flickering on and off. It really took away from the majesty of it all.

What was freaky about it was that the river connecting to it above ground was not with it, and so the water still pouring from the waterfall had nowhere else to go except onto the floor and into nearby drains. At least they thought that far ahead.

"What in the-" Ella gasped, stepping uneasily in the water it was leaving behind. "But we're nowhere near where the waterfall was up top! Are we?"

"No, I don't think so," Sammy replied. "But my guess is they can move these things wherever they want to."

"I suppose it wouldn't be impossible for them, no. That's probably why the confessional was always somewhere different, maybe."

The sound of a meow was heard, and Sammy turned back to see the cat had at some point caught up to them. It stared at the water from its perch on one of the large wires, looked back up at her with its unblinking stare, and started charging up its fire breath again. "Oh crap!" she shouted, and just barely managed to pull Ella to the ground before they got incinerated.

Once the fire dissipated, Sammy and Ella hastily stood. "Run! Keep going!" Sammy said to her, and turned to leave. But the rumbling of the waterfall frightened them enough that they stopped moving and stared at it. It shook, the water pouring from it coming out sporadically and all over the place, and then all of a sudden it shot up to the ceiling. Both girls were already out of the way of the water, but whether it was coincidence or just sheer dumb luck, Sammy wouldn't know. The cat wasn't free of the falls, and with its mouth open as it charged up its next fire blast, the water poured straight into it and immediately caused it to start convulsing.

Sammy gasped and began backing up. Ella did the same, and both girls covered their head and ears as the robot cat exploded in a distorted yowl, sending mechanical bits and almost-lifelike fur all over the place.

Thankfully it wasn't a big blast, but it left Sammy's ears ringing. They uncovered their heads and looked around to make sure the coast was clear. The wire it was on was thick enough that it only got singed and not outright damaged. "You know, I'm not sure whether to feel sad for it or not," Ella mused, watching helplessly as some of its fur floated by on the water.

"I know what you mean," Sammy said, turning away from the robotic remains. "But I think I'm rather okay with it being deeeeeeeeeeead Ella your headband is on fire!"

"What?!" She ripped the smoking accessory off of her head and threw it into the water in one swift motion, and watched as the flame died and the headband became soaked. Technically the flame on it was only small, but still it was only a matter of time before it got worse and could've burned her hair.

Ella stared at it longingly, and slowly the adrenaline left her body. "That was my favorite headband," she whispered. It started to drift lazily towards the drain, so she picked it back up and shook off the water as best she could. She examined the scorch marks, and grimaced when she saw the top of the right side of the bow with a large, scorched hole in it. "It was one of the few things I bought for myself, out of my own money. And now it's ruined."

Sammy felt her heart split in two, and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I'm so sorry this happened."

Ella put her hand on Sammy's. "I am, too. I…" Whatever she was about to say, she didn't say it. She looked at the hand she just raised up - her left one, with her one remaining glove still on it, the vile blueberry stain still there from when she threw up. She held both that hand and her right one out, and looked between the glove and the headband several times.

"What is it?" Sammy asked, having no clue what was going through her head.

"I…" She then looked at her clothes, at her pink blouse and skirt and shoes, and then to the room around her with its metallic sheen and ceaselessly blinking lights. Once again at what was on and in her hands, and then over to Sammy, though what she was looking for Sammy wasn't sure.

"Is… everything…?" she trailed off.

Ella didn't hear her. With one final look back at her glove and headband, she frowned, nodded once, and said to herself, "Alright."

And with as much strength as she could muster launched the headband across the room.

"What are you-" Sammy started, but didn't get a chance to finish as Ella pulled off her one remaining glove and threw that aside as well. With the items gone, she let out a breath and stared at her bare hands. The only thing remaining was the sleeve from Sammy's uniform, but Ella seemed reluctant to touch that.

Then, her eyes lit up in recognition, and without thinking it over she started messing up her hair. It somehow had been well-kept, even under these trying circumstances, and remained looking like a princess's haircut despite all the hardship. But Ella's fingers coursed through it, took the tight curls out of it, and allowed it to flow a bit freer along her cheeks and ears.

Sammy had to admit, she kind of found it really attractive.

Once she was done, she shook her head one last time, her hair swishing back and forth. "Remember how I said I was doing my best to stop losing myself in my hobbies?" Ella suddenly asked.

"Yeah?" Sammy replied slowly.

"I don't think stopping to act like one was enough. Dressing as a princess wasn't helping either." She clenched her fists in confidence and looked up. "I… think I'm in need of a wardrobe change when I get home."

Sammy watched as the glove, having landed on the platform of a rock, was sent straight back up to the surface. "Are you sure you're okay with this? There's no shame in not wanting to change too much, you know?"

"This is what I want though. It's too easy for me to slip into my old habits this way. It's like… looking and acting the part both was an excuse to keep doing it. So if I do or have neither, then there'll be less of a chance of it happening. Right?"

Sammy slowly nodded. "I guess there would be, yeah."

"So as soon as I can, I'm changing up these clothes and getting a haircut. It's something I'm going to need, I'm sure." She ended the discussion there, and started off for the other side of the large room. "But that's a discussion for later. Come one, the island won't shut itself-"

The floor suddenly opened up beneath her and plunging her into darkness.

"ELLA!" Sammy screamed, attempting to reach after her but just barely missing her hand. "NO!" The last thing she saw was Ella's scared face looking up at her, before she was lost to the shadows.

The sounds of loud clanging and Ella's yelps and screams reverberated out of the hole. Looking around helplessly, Sammy decided the only thing she could do was go down after her. Even though she was unsure of how far it went, that wasn't going to stop her from trying to save her. Without any hesitation Sammy leapt in after her.

Whatever sort of tube she had jumped into reminded her a bit too much of both skydiving and the giant orb at once. She couldn't see where she was going and she bumped into the sides of the tube countless times, and the dread of freefalling never left her stomach. Sliding down the tube whenever it was lightly curved left or right only managed to help slow her descent a fraction, and she was still falling way too fast; wherever she ended up, she was probably going to get hurt.

But Ella was still ahead of her, falling just as fast and into the unknown, and it didn't take a genius to know that Sammy was going to go after her immediately.

It took far less time than she was anticipating, but she soon saw a light at the end of the tunnel.

And she unceremoniously crashed into the ground with a thud and a yelp.

"Ow…" she groaned when her mind caught up with her body. She attempted to push herself up, and was quickly greeted by two sets of arms helping her do so. Ella was on her right, looking disheveled but otherwise okay. On her left, Sky was looking concerned and also dripping with water. "Hey guys," Sammy said to her and Jasmine, who stood alongside them. "Just thought I'd drop by."

Ella lightly smacked her upside the head. "There's a time and a place for that, you know."

"Yeah, I know," Sammy replied, straightening out her clothes. "I think it's a coping mechanism, or something. Never noticed it before now."

"I'm just glad you guys are okay," Sky said, looking Sammy up and down. "You guys are okay, right? Nothing broken or twisted?"

"Not that I can tell," Ella replied, testing out her joints. "Just sore all over is all."

"That's better than the alternative," Jasmine said. "And also better than getting mauled by killer animals. I've never tango'd with a robot crocodile before, and lemme tell you it's not something you'd want to ever have to experience."

"We got chased by a robot kitten," Sammy said, grimacing at the memory.

"A robot kitten? That… doesn't sound so bad," Sky replied.

"Yeah, but it shot fire out of its mouth."

"Oh. Then I retract my statement."

"Guys!"

Everyone jumped and looked around to find out where the static-y voice was coming from, but they didn't have to look far as a monitor came down from the ceiling and switched on. "I'm so glad I found you!" came Scarlett's voice from it. Oddly, her image wasn't shown, but rather lines that reacted to her talking. "I'm in the control room, but you can't shut down the self-destruct from here! Chris was lying!"

"Feh," Jasmine scoffed. "That figures."

"Typical," Sky groaned.

"We really should've seen that coming," Ella said with a sigh.

"Guys, listen," Scarlett said, drawing their attention back to her. "You can only shut it down here." She showed them a map of the floor they were on, and a dotted line starting at one point went down the hallways to a room and ended in an X.

"Is that where we are?" Sky asked, pointing at where the line began. "Then that's not too far from us!"

"Good job, Scarlett!" Jasmine congratulated, and took off down the hall with Sky in tow, turning a corner not too far away.

Ella started after them, but stopped when she noticed Sammy hadn't budged from her spot. "What is it?" she asked after turning back.

Sammy looked between where the screen had been, and her friend. I don't trust Scarlett, that much is obvious. But… even she wouldn't try and mess with us during something like this, right? …Yeah, I'm just being paranoid again. "Nothing," Sammy told her, and ran off after the other girls.

One right turn, one left turn, and one door straight at the end of the hall was all it took. Jasmine and Sky were banging on the door, which for some reason hadn't opened when they approached it. "Scarlett, give us a hand, would ya?"

"Just give me a second…" Scarlett said over the intercom. The moment Sammy and Ella approached the other two, the door flew right open. "There! Go on in!"

Without another word the four entered the room, but stopped dead just past the entrance. If there was a word that could describe ominous, disturbing, self-centered and pathetic all mixed into one, it would be able to describe the room they now found themselves in. In front of them were several clones of Chris McLean, all hooked up to individual helmets that connected to other machines, with wires haphazardly hanging between all of them. There were at least 20 of them, and they all had the same plastic smile on as the real Chris did. Whereas the real Chris's smile was annoying, now it was straight up terrifying.

"This is a new level of creepy," Sky said quietly, warily looking at the Chrises.

"This is the room, right, Scarlett?" Ella asked sceptically. "The button to turn off the self-destruct is in here, right?"

"Oh," Scarlett's voice came on again, and something in the tone of her voice caused Sammy to freeze. "Did I say that?"

Sammy gasped loudly as the door behind her slammed closed and trapped them inside. Oh god! I knew it! Dammit, why didn't I trust my gut?!

"Sorry, but the only things you'll find in here are your deaths!" Her voice had grown louder, more maniacal. Even based on that sentence alone, Sammy was able to pick out just how cruel it sounded.

The other three shouted and screamed in protest, Jasmine cursing Scarlett out, Sky pounding on the door, and Ella pleading for her to open it. Sammy could only watch, frozen, as the Chris clones in front of them slowly, agonizingly slowly came to life. Their eyes turned red, their demonic grins widened, and they dropped down from the ceiling like predators hunting prey.

"TOTAL… DRAMA… TOTAL… DRAMA…" they repeated endlessly, approaching the girls at a tortuously slow pace, their arms outstretched in front of them. Just like the real Chris, these ones seemed to love drawing out the tension.

"It's like an army of zombies!" Jasmine pointed out.

"You're right… Too bad we just got rid of Shawn," Sky lamented. "He'd probably be able to kick all of their butts!"

"But he's not here!" Ella replied, clinging to Sammy in fear and tears. "And we are! And we're going to die!"

Sammy held her tightly, her eyes fixed on the multitude of (what were now obviously highly realistic) robots. They weren't walking very fast, but that probably made things worse. It just meant that their deaths would be long and drawn out.

And now there was nothing that they could do. Scarlett sealed the entrance shut, there weren't any noticeable escape hatches to get through, and even if there were they'd have to climb over dozens of killer robots to get to it. This… this was it. This was how she died.

And of course, today had to be absolute crap on top of it.

Having a highly-vivid nightmare, being forced to eat outdated meat, and voting off one of her friends had been bad enough. But then the island threatening to that blow up and being ripped apart by robots before that happened was just adding insult to injury. She was surprised that at this point, she hadn't given up entirely. Honestly, under normal circumstances, she probably would have. But these weren't normal circumstances. There was one singular reason why Sammy hadn't thrown in the towel yet:

Her.

Sammy glanced at Ella, quivering in fear with her eyes shut tight at what was about to happen. Then she looked back at the robots, their beady eyes and wicked grins unnaturally stuck on their faces.

This day sucks. It's sucked from the moment I woke up all the way to now. And it's about to get so much worse…

But that doesn't mean I can't try and salvage one good thing out of it.

"Ella."

She looked up at her. "W-What?"

Sammy's breathing picked up again and she tried to calm herself. Ironic that it was this that was causing her to get butterflies, and not the imminent death in front of her. "I-I don't want to die without getting another chance to say this."

Ella didn't say anything as Sammy took her hands in hers. Her hands were soft and her fingertips were calloused and were just as welcoming as always. The danger around them seemed to simply fade away, with nothing in their mind or their senses other than each other. Staring into Ella's beautiful, deep brown eyes, Sammy finally, miraculously, spectacularly said what she'd been meaning to say all night.

"Ella, I love you."

Ella gasped sharply, her wide eyes growing wider and shining even brighter.

Then Sammy continued, and she immediately wished she really hadn't. "I-I mean, I don't actually know if it's love but I know I really, really like you. And these feelings are real, honestly, they've been real ever since that day with the bear and the monkey and I didn't know what to do with myself, I don't- I don't even know if you really like me back so I'm probably just making myself look like a fool, like always, like, haha, Sammy's so silly, so uh, I'm just going to shut up-"

She was interrupted again.

Not by words from someone else's lips.

But by someone else's lips pressing against her own.

Sammy had heard second-hand that first kisses were meant to be magical. Fireworks lighting up in the mind, being unable to focus on anything else, that sort of stuff. Sammy had always been hopeful that her first kiss would be just as incredible as what she had heard.

Needless to say, it was.

She also wasn't entirely sure how to kiss, so she left it chaste and tame, out of fear that anything different would be weird. After what felt like simultaneously forever and not nearly long enough, Ella pulled away from her.

Her eyes were glistening and her grin was as big and bright as the sun. And while it was true that her dress was dirty and stained and she didn't exactly smell the best (none of them did), Sammy couldn't think of anyone more beautiful than her.

Ella let out a shaky, relieved, and almost euphoric sigh, and she followed up with one single, meaningful word.

"Finally."

Sammy let out a giddy, exasperated laugh, though the exasperated part was directed mostly at herself. It's just like everyone said. Ella does like me back, and I was probably the only one who didn't notice it. God, I'm so stupid. But I'm glad I actually worked up the courage to say it!

"Hey, that's great you guys are happy," Jasmine suddenly said, snapping her out of her thoughts. "But we're still about to die here."

The Chrises were still coming and had made much more ground than Sammy had realized. "Oh, right, I forgot about them."

Ella wrapped her in a hug, though it was one of both affection and fear. "I-I guess this really is it, huh?"

"I guess so," Sammy murmured. Her cheek was pressed against Ella's, and they held each other as tightly as they could. "Sorry it took me so long to say that. I spent a bit too much time trying to figure things out, I guess."

"It's okay, I forgive you," Ella said. "I admit I was doing the same. I'm just upset that I won't be able to sing for you now…"

"Aw, yeah, I would've liked to hear you one last time," Sammy said, the disappointment washing over her. "You have such an amaz-"

All of a sudden, Ella gasped sharply once more. "SING!"

"Uhh, what?" Sammy asked, surprised at the outburst.

The songbird broke away from Sammy and quickly stepped up towards the robots without a trace of fear. Sammy was about to reach out for her to bring her back, but before she could Ella took in a deep breath, steeled herself, and started.

"If you told me that I'd be a part of this show,

I'd give you a look and say, 'How would you know?'

But now I am here, and I can easily say,

I wouldn't want this any other way.

The future is scary, the past is just the same,

Two separate pictures, trapped within a frame,

But now that I've met you, these things will start to change,

And the feelings I have, they're really not that strange.

So please, Robo Chrises, spare us your hate,

We'd rather our lives not be left up to fate,

And since there's someone special with me tonight,

I'd love to take the time to bask in her light!"

Sammy wasn't sure when her mouth had fallen open in awe, and she quickly pulled it back up before she started unattractively drooling. The song was light, a hopeful song with a dash of desperation, which was understandable. But just like every other time Ella sang she did it with such passion and love for it.

In the midst of it all, though, the robot Chrises had suddenly stopped walking towards them. They looked upon her in surprise, their wide eyes showing their captivated interest in her song. The whole room was silent, save for the bleeps and bloops coming from the walls, but then the silence was broken by, surprisingly, the robots.

"That was rad, dude!" said one of them, followed by another, and another, until they were all saying it on repeat, and clapping for her as an audience would. "That was rad, dude!"

Even from behind, it was easy to tell that Ella was incredibly flustered. To have the things that were about to kill you suddenly congratulating had to be jarring. Looking between all of them in shock and unsure what to do, Ella simply decided to bow to them. "Um… Th-Thank you very much! Now… uh. Shut down! Power off! Or something."

Without warning, each one of their hands shot out to their sides, none of them caring if they hit each other in the process, and in unison they said, "Tune in next time for more mayhem on Total… Drama… Paaaaaahkitew Island!" And just like that, they went limp and fell to the floor, their eyes closed and practically no life left in them.

Dead silence continued to reign over them, and no one had any idea what to say. "Ho…ly… crap," Sky said slowly, her eyes nearly bulging out of her head.

"Blimey," Jasmine was likewise stunned, a hand up to her hat like it was threatening to be blown off. "Ella, mate, that was incredible! How the hell did you know that'd work?!"

Ella turned back around and sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck. "Oh, um… Truth be told, I didn't."

"You took a gamble with it?" Jasmine grinned and offered a hand for a high-five, which was immediately accepted. "You got balls, lemme tell you!"

"Um. Thanks? I think." Then she turned to Sammy, and her grin returned in full. "So? How'd you like it?"

Sammy was unable to keep her excitement down any longer. She squealed in delight and tackled Ella in an embrace and, feeling her own courage spiking through the roof, kissed her cheek multiple times. "OMG! Ella! That was so awesome! You rocked it!"

"Aww, thank you!" Ella said, accepting the shower of kisses with grace.

"I'm still not exactly sure how that worked though," Sky said, walking up to the robots and kicking one of them, to which it didn't reply.

"Oh, I just had a thought earlier," Ella said to her. "See, my singing was affecting the animals on the island, right? But it was only the animals island. Back at home, they didn't really seem to care for my voice all that much. So when Chris told us earlier that all of the animals were robots…"

"You thought it would work on these robots, too?" Sky asked, surprised. "That's… actually a pretty good leap of logic. Can't say I would've thought about it."

"If everything here has the same innards, then it was no wonder it worked," Jasmine noted.

"You know… You literally saved our lives there," Sammy said to her in awe. "You're like… an actual hero now, you know?"

Ella's jaw dropped open as she realized that, and she couldn't help but burst out laughing at the thought. "I guess I am now!"

A bang sounded throughout the room, startling the girls and causing them to turn towards the door. A second one, then a third rang out, and everyone was ready to make a mad dash away from whatever was on the other side.

Then the door was blown right off, slamming into the floor. And what came through was unlike any other robot Sammy had seen. It was huge and oddly shaped, nearly reaching the top of the door frame. It stared down at them with angry red eyes and razor sharp teeth. Claws were at the ends of its elongated arms, and though its legs were nothing more than stubby little wheels, it managed to scare her like nothing else had before. Something about it was just so menacing and intimidating and…

…Familiar?

Ella stepped up once more, unafraid and ready to calm it down, as the three other girls backed up as much as they could without tripping over any of the Chrises. Its glowing eyes bore into her, sizing her up as if trying to figure out which part of her to eat first…

But then the furrowed brows shot up, and the mouth full of teeth slammed shut.

And then the robot let out a happy groan and fell onto its back.

Staring in shock, the four of them glanced at one another, not sure how to react, until suddenly Ella gasped and ran up to the robot. "Scuba Bear?!" she cried out, and dropped to her knees to give him some more belly rubs. "Aww, I missed you, you silly ol' teddy bear!" It growled in joy and waved its arms and stubby legs around happily, and absolutely did not look like it was going to attack Ella.

"That's Scuba Bear?!" Sammy asked loudly, staring at it in shock. She groaned and threw her hands up in the air. "Great! As if my nightmares weren't scary enough already!"

Sky groaned and thoroughly rubbed her eyes. "This is all starting to get to be too much for me," she said wearily.

"You can say that again," Jasmine said. She then pointed to the door. "But now we got our ticket out of here! We need to go and stop Scarlett!"

Ella instructed Scuba Bear to start hibernating, which it promptly did, and the four were just about to head for the door when a face poked itself out from the side of it.

"Amy?!" Sammy shouted, and dashed up to her sister. "Are you okay?! What are you doing here?! What happened with Scarlett?!"

Amy, taking a moment to stare uncomfortably at the room full of unconscious Chrises, dismissed it with a shake of her head and looked back at her twin. "I-I'm fine, I think. That stupid robot had me cornered here against the door, but then it calmed down a bit when it heard her singing." She pointed past Sammy and towards Ella. "Then it started going for the door, and I just sorta, stood to the side and let it go to town."

Sammy let out a breath of relief. In all honesty, the events of the last half an hour were so chaotic that she kind of forgot about Amy entirely. "I'm just glad you're alright."

Amy blinked at her in mild surprise. "Oh. Uh. Thanks."

"T-minus 20 minutes and counting," came the robotic voice, prompting everyone to look up to the ceiling.

"We're running out of time," Jasmine said, walking up to the two of them. "Amy, take us to where the control room is, stat!"

Amy looked like she wanted to argue against the command, because that's just how she was, but just as quickly seemed to change her mind and nodded. "It's not too far away," she said. She urged everyone to follow and they all took off down the hall.

"So what happened?" Sammy asked as they turned the corner. "With Scarlett? She's gone kinda…"

"Nutso?" Amy finished for her.

Sammy frowned. "Well, I wasn't gonna say that, but pretty much."

"We found the control room almost right away," Amy explained. "The entrance under the rock led us right to it. We tried to get in, but there was this electric number pad thing that shocked you every time you put in a wrong password. Scarlett pried it open and managed to do… I dunno, some sort of science stuff with it and opened the door after messing with the wires. Then she takes off her glasses and lets her hair down, or up or something and then goes all sociopathic and gets that stupid bear to attack me! Like, seriously out to hurt me! It- It-" She let out a ragged breath, and it was only then that Sammy noticed how vulnerable and defenseless she still looked. "I thought it was gonna kill me. I was… so terrified…"

She really must have been, if she was willing to admit to it. "I'm sorry," Sammy told her. "I told you Scarlett would watch over you, but I guess she did the opposite…"

Normally Amy would have chewed her out for that, but not this time. "It's fine. Not like she made it obvious she'd be willing to off us."

It only took a few minutes to arrive at the control room door, tucked away at the end of another hallway and with even more buttons and gauges and dials lining the walls. The keypad was off its hinges just as Amy said, but the door wasn't budging no matter how many times Sky banged on it.

"Scarlett!" she cried, the fear evident in her voice. "Open up, please! Can't we just talk this out?"

"Attention, vermin!"

Sammy tensed and looked up at the giant screen at the back of the room. Scarlett appeared, looking like an entirely different person. Gone were the glasses and the bun; her hair was sticking out at almost every angle, and she was sporting a grin that could give cartoon villains a run for their money. If there were any doubts remaining that Scarlett could be reasoned with, the look she was giving them all - like she was looking at bugs on the bottom of her shoe - did away with them entirely.

"Either Chris gives me the million, or everyone gets eliminated!" she said menacingly. "Permanently!"

"You can't do this!" Ella screamed at her.

"Don't you care that you're basically murdering us?!" Jasmine asked her. "That's just sick and wrong!"

"If I truly cared, I would've shut off the island ages ago!" Scarlett countered. "So don't bother preaching to me about morality! Especially since you only have…"

"T-minus 15 minutes and counting."

"...not very much time left, it seems!" Scarlett cackled, and everyone gasped in panic. "I'd say it was nice knowing you all… but we all know that isn't true!"

The monitor switched off at that point, leaving the five of them in silence. Sammy and Ella shared a look, one where no words needed to be exchanged - this was the endgame. If they didn't do something now, they were as good as goners. Chris was definitely not going to help, having seemingly disappeared, and Sammy didn't even consider him likely to try anything anyway. They were on their own, and they needed to act now.

The only problem was that one of them wasn't in any condition to help.

"This is it," Amy said, shaking her head in disbelief at the blank screen. "We're going to die. We're going to die and we can't do anything to stop it." Her rapid and haggard breathing returned, and she clutched at the sides of her head in terror. "We- We're going to die! I don't want to die! I don't want to die!"

"Amy! Amy! Calm down!" Sammy shook her sister, but her urging fell on deaf ears.

"I can't die, not yet! I'm only 16! There's stuff I haven't done yet! I have to get out of here! I have to- I have to…" Her voice trailed off as she finally noticed Sammy's presence, and she stared at her sister with wide, frightened eyes. "I… I…" She placed her own hands on Sammy's shoulders. "I need to talk with you." And as if that wasn't enough, Amy said something she'd likely never said before. "Please."

This isn't a joke. This isn't some sort of trick she's trying to pull on me. Amy is scared, she needs help, and she's looking to me for it. Now that Scarlett's turned on us, I'm probably the only person she feels even remotely connected to… and I don't know how to feel about that.

Sammy frowned, and turned back to the others. Without even waiting to consult one another, Ella nodded at her. "Go ahead," she said. "We'll figure something out."

"Okay, thanks," Sammy replied. To Amy, she said, "Alright, let's talk."

Amy didn't say anything, and almost automatically followed her when Sammy directed her to the wall. The two of them slid down against it, being careful not to disturb any of the pipes or buttons on it, and sat in silence for a moment. Sammy noticed that Amy was trying to start, but seemed to be unsure where to start.

"If you're going to talk, you should do it soon," Sammy said. "We have about… 14 minutes left."

"I know!" she nearly shouted, though clammed up when the others looked their way. "I know," she said more quietly. She rubbed her hands over her eyes and looked like she was on the verge of tears. "So, uh…"

"Go on."

"You know… God this is gonna sound stupid, but you know how in TV shows if a character is about to die, they'll say something crazy like, their life flashed before their eyes?"

"Uh… Yeah…?"

Amy huffed. "Yeah, well, I think maybe that happened to me? When I was cornered by that robot bear?"

"…Oh."

"And, uh…" She was practically forcing the words out of her mouth by this point, like a part of her was desperately trying to keep them in. "I kinda… realized that I'm sort of… maybe… not all that nice to you?"

Sammy, unwilling to say anything snarky lest she ruin the moment, but also realizing just how much of an understatement that was, simply gave Amy a look.

Her sister saw it, and groaned into her hands. "Okay, fine! I've been a complete and utter bitch to you for all of our lives! You happy now?!"

Am I happy? I don't actually know. She supposed she was glad Amy finally admitted it, but it was a rather late realization. Besides, admitting to it and stopping it altogether were two separate things. An abuser can know they're an abuser and still refuse to change their ways. "I don't know," she answered her. "I wish you figured that out earlier, though. Better late than never." Something about Amy's expression told Sammy she wasn't expecting that answer, and not in a good way, but she didn't say anything about it. "But if you really are aware of it… can you at least tell me why you're such a bitch to me? And none of that 'because you were born' crap either, that's not an answer."

Amy frowned and ran her fingers through her hair. It was greasy and unwashed and wasn't exactly flattering, something Amy likely knew very well. Quietly, she said, "It is an answer though…"

Sammy sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "If you're not going to be serious about this, then I'm just going to help the others-"

"Shut up a second and let me finish," Amy snapped at her, then immediately winced. "Uh… shit. Sorry."

Sammy rolled her eyes at the outburst. "Alright," she said, gesturing towards Amy. "Finish."

Amy let out a shaky breath, paused for a moment, and asked a single question.

"What do you… remember about Dad?"

Sammy's mouth opened and her eyes widened in surprise.

That was entirely out of left field. She hadn't seriously thought about her father in years. It didn't help that neither Amy nor Mom talked about him much, but Sammy never really had a reason to think about him. What could he have to do with the way Amy all this time? "I… remember he left when we were like… what, four? Five? He left without even getting a divorce with Mom, if I recall correctly. Just walked out one day without any warning. A note on the fridge, and that was it."

"Yeah." Amy nodded and sighed. "Do you know the reason why?"

Sammy slowly shook her head. "I… can't say I do. It wasn't something I thought about asking. I don't really remember much of Dad so it never exactly bothered me."

Amy scoffed. "Well, I did ask about it, once. And Mom was pretty open about the answer."

Sammy wasn't sure if she liked where this was going. "And… what was the answer?"

Amy, frowning in both irritation and sorrow, looked her square in the eye.

"Because Mom and Dad weren't expecting twins."

The words sunk in, and slowly the meaning behind those words dawned on her. "Wait," she said, her mind desperately trying to play catch-up. "W-Wait, wait wait… You mean…"

"Yup," Amy confirmed the unasked question. "He left literally because you were born."

Time almost seemed to halt for her. "But… No, no, that can't be true," she said. "He loved us. I remember him saying so himself!"

"Maybe he did. But love doesn't put food on the table. Doesn't put money in the bank."

It took a little while for her to wrap her head around it - she was the one responsible for their father leaving? Because she was another mouth to feed? It just seemed so unbelievable… Sammy remembered plainly they had little money back then - she and Amy would share the few toys they had, before Amy decided to steal them and hide them all away, but she never realized that it was seriously hurting their parents. It just wasn't something she thought of back then, especially now since Mom had a good job as a lawyer and they were no longer hurting for money. The loan she got from her own parents also helped contributed to that.

There was part of her that believed Amy's words, while also a part of her that was calling BS. But even if it weren't true, there wasn't enough time left for her to deny it. Amy was talking, finally, and Sammy wanted to keep it that way. If it's not true, I'll just play along for now. And if it is… well, I'll deal with that when we're out of this situation. Or, if we get out. "Okay, so, I'm the one who drove Dad away then," she said to Amy after a few moments. "But what does that have to do with you hating me?"

Amy took a moment to compose herself, like she was getting her thoughts in order. She rubbed at her eyes to keep the tears at bay. "Dad left when we were four. I asked Mom why he left after our fifth birthday. She said it was because it was hard to take care of four people in the house. She made it easy for a kid to understand, but… I dunno. I missed Dad. I wanted him back. We hadn't spoken to him for months by that point. Still haven't heard from him to this day, really. And when I thought about how living was doable with three people, I… started to resent you."

Sammy remained silent as she listened.

"I started… getting mad at you after that. Picking on you, hiding our toys or, or even breaking them, so that you didn't get to play with them. I guess you already know that, though…"

"Yeah, kinda," Sammy muttered.

Amy didn't hear her. "And, I kept at it for years, and it sort of… became my normal. I'd wake up and casually think about the ways I'd torment you, even years later. Somewhere along the way I started believing I was the better twin, because you were the one who made Dad leave so obviously that meant you were worse than me. But then…" She sighed. "Then I noticed our grades, and how yours were better than mine, so I did everything I could to stop that. But because I felt like I had… I dunno, control or power over you, I… I made you do mine. I made you use your money to buy me things. I…" She let out a shaky breath. "I did so many awful things. All because I didn't want to see you happy."

Sammy's mind was far away as she took everything in.

"And I… I suppose how I treated you ended up being how I treated other people. I couldn't keep friends longer than a few weeks at most. And I didn't want you to be able to beat me in anything, so I drove off any friends you were about to make."

Sammy's fists clenched in anger, but she held her tongue.

"As time went on it just… became so much easier to bully you. And every time it happened I felt so powerful and… and strong. But then one day I just sort of… randomly had this thought. And I was reminded that I knew you were always the better one of us. It pissed me off so much that I started doing worse and worse things to you. Making you shave your head, getting that one guy, I forget his name, to send you that stupid poem, throwing your assignments into the fireplace to tank your grades… I did everything I could to drive the feelings of helplessness away. I hated feeling weak, so the only thing I could do was make myself feel strong…

"Then we joined this stupid game, and everything went back to hell. We got split up, so I couldn't keep track of you. I thought it'd be fine if I kept at it during the challenges, but apparently it wasn't enough, since you somehow managed to get everyone on your team to be on your side. Even someone on my team was standing up for you, which just made everything worse! I tried to get everyone to back me up, but… no one bothered to listen to me. And it just made me feel so… pathetic."

Sammy had no clue she made her sister feel that way. A small part in the back of her brain was jumping for joy, but the larger part of it was feeling guilty, as ridiculous as that sounded.

"Then we started losing, which only hurt more. You called me out on having no friends, which I knew was true but couldn't admit to it. I tried asking Topher out, and he was cool with it at first, but it didn't feel right and I… I couldn't bring myself to take pride in it and rub it in your face. Then he called me out on it and broke up with me, then ignored my very existence. Then I thought I found a friend in Scarlett, and look how that frickin' turned out. And now we're here, about to die because the host of this show is too much of a narcissist to save our lives and I'm only realizing that my life is just as… as hollow as I feel about myself."

She sighed heavily, licked her dry lips, and put her head against the wall. "So there. You asked why I hate you? Because you made Dad leave, and everything went spiraling out of control after that."

Silence. Nothing but dead silence between them. Sammy was trying hard to process everything her sister just laid out for her, but there was just so much… "Your hatred for me is… irrational. You know that right?"

"Yeah," Amy answered sharply. "I'm not stupid."

Sammy chose not to comment on that. "So you blame me for Dad leaving. I know where you're coming from, but it's not my fault I was born. That really can't be pinned on me."

"Samey, I was five when I started thinking that. Not everything made sense back then."

"And what about now?"

"Now? Now I know you didn't choose to make Dad leave, obviously. But… by the time I realized that it was too late, and I couldn't make myself understand it. I couldn't change the way I thought. I still can't. Even right now, I feel sick to my stomach telling you all this, even though I've been wanting to do this for days." She huffed. "But every time I tried I always ended up falling back on my old habits. It sucks."

"Isn't the fact that you are telling me all of this because you are able and willing to change, even just a little bit?"

Amy had no answer to that.

"Let me ask you something," Sammy said. "Now that you've told me this, are you going to keep it up? If we get out of this mess and we're able to keep living, are you going to keep picking on me and making my life miserable?"

Amy still had no answer.

Sammy groaned lightly. "A different question, then. Do you want to go back to the way things were?"

More silence, but only for a short while. With a slow shake of her head, Amy said, "No. I don't think I want to."

"Well… there you go," Sammy said. "If you have the desire to change, you can."

Amy looked at her doubtfully. "It can't be that easy."

"I won't lie, it isn't. But if you keep at it for long enough, before you know it you'll start to become a better person without realizing it."

She thought those words over, and nodded. "Okay. I'll stop." Awkwardly rubbing her arms, she said quietly, "Um… Sorry. About everything."

Sammy sighed gently. "I know." She stopped talking at that, but Amy gave her a look like she was expecting more. "…What?"

"Uh… I said 'I'm sorry'," she repeated.

Sammy looked from side to side, as if this was another trick. "I… I know. I know you're sorry. And I'm thankful you can say that you're sorry."

Amy gestured with her hand, in a 'keep going' motion.

Sammy raised her brow at her, but then realized what she was trying to get at. "Oh. Ohhh. Uh… Yeah, now I'm sorry to have to say this, but for everything you've done to me? Yeah, no. I don't forgive you for apologizing for it."

It was apparently the opposite of what Amy wanted to hear, and her brow shot up in surprise. "Seriously? Even though I apologized and promised to do better?"

"Uh… yeah. Obviously." Sammy gave her a look of bewilderment. "Saying sorry and promising to do better doesn't suddenly erase 11 years worth of bullying and trauma. You have to earn my forgiveness before I give it to you."

It was almost as if Amy was only realizing that for the first time. Her mouth hung open and her eyes were far away. "Oh. I see." She paused. "How… How should I do that?"

Sammy shrugged. "Just… try not to be a total ass to me and other people. Stop and think if what you're about to do or say is mean or rude and, like, don't go through with it. And… if you really want me to forgive you…" She smiled wryly. "Start calling me by my real name, okay?"

After a moment of mulling it over, Amy nodded. "Okay."

Sammy sighed and leaned upright against the wall. That's probably as good as I'm gonna get from her.

"T-minus five minutes and counting."

Her eyes shot open and she looked up at the speakers in the room. "Five minutes? I didn't realize we'd been talking that long…"

Amy was hyperventilating again and had curled herself up into a ball. She was muttering to herself, and though she was tempted Sammy chose not to try and overhear. "Look," she said to her sister. "Obviously we don't have the best relationship. But there was… always a part of me deep down that wished we did. I always hoped I'd have a sister I could gossip with, or go out for food or ice cream with, like you'd see other siblings do." With sorrow in her voice, she finished, "But I guess that was wishful thinking."

She didn't intend to strike a blow to Amy's self-loathing, but the pained expression on her face told her she did just that. "I know," Amy said. "I'm sorry."

Sammy tried to find something more uplifting to say, especially if these really were their final moments. But nothing was coming to her. So she hugged her knees tight to her chest, attempted to calm her steadily increasing heartbeat, and waited.

Then there was a roar coming from down the hall.

Sammy sprang to her feet and glanced down, only to gasp and back up.

"W-What?" Amy asked, also standing up. "What is it?"

But Sammy had no time to answer, as Scuba Bear screeched into the room, its wheels leaving tire tracks on the metal floor. It raised its claws up and roared once more, and sent both girls screaming and cowering in the corner of the room.

"Okay, robot bears are so much worse than real bears!" Sammy declared.

"Don't eat me!" Amy screamed, covering her head with her arms. "I'm all skin and bones, no fat at all!"

"Both of us are!" Sammy added.

"No, it's okay, he's friendly!" came Ella's voice, but strangely it was in the direction of Scuba Bear.

Amy gasped and pointed at the robot. "It ate her!"

"What?! Ella, no!" Sammy shouted, with half a mind to dive into its mouth to fish her out.

"No, no, I'm okay!" All of a sudden Ella popped up from behind the bear, almost like she was riding on its back. "He gave me a ride, is all!"

Sammy let out a huge sigh of relief. "OMG!" she cried out, tears beginning to form.

"What the heck are you doing with him anyway?!" Amy asked skeptically.

"Simple!" Ella said, and the grin she was sporting told Sammy everything: she was going to stop the countdown, and no matter how many times Scarlett would put up a fuss, she wasn't going to quit. "I'm shoving back!"

She pointed dramatically to the door and screamed, "Scuba Bear! CHARGE!"

The robot let out another ear-splitting roar, backed up towards the wall (which was where Ella hopped off his back) and slammed right into the door. Without missing a beat, it reared back and flew into it again, and again, and several more times afterwards. The door was solid enough that it was taking several blows to even dent it, but at the rate Scuba Bear was ramming it it wouldn't take long to take down.

Jasmine and Sky re-entered the scene, skidding to a stop just before getting hit by the robot, and started to catch their breath. "Crikey, this guy can move," Jasmine wheezed, fanning herself.

"Is it working?" Sky asked, leaning against the wall for support.

"Almost there!" Ella answered, her eyes never leaving her 'minion' at work. Scuba Bear struck once, twice more, and on the third plowed right through the door and into the control room.

"NOOO!" Scarlett cried out from the inside, though Sammy was not in the right position to see what she was doing.

Ella ran in as soon as the door was down. "Scuba Bear! STAY!" she cried out. Jasmine and Sky shared a look and a nod, and they immediately followed in after her with their own cries of attack. Sammy and Amy also looked at each other, though in confusion, and cautiously walked to the door.

There were sounds of a struggle, that much was for sure, and if there was any sort of fighting then it was likely that Scarlett was on the receiving end. Sure enough, looking through the door frame showed that Jasmine and Sky had Scarlett tied up by her own hair and was fighting to break free of it.

"We did it!" Sky cheered, high-fiving Jasmine.

"Hell yeah we did!" Jasmine agreed. "We work pretty good as a team, don't we?"

"We do! But this was really Ella's idea." Sky zipped over to Ella and wrapped her in a hug. "Which, by the way, was awesome! Way to think on your feet, Ella!"

She graciously returned the hug. "Aww, thanks! It wasn't really that big a deal, though."

"You really should've seen that one coming, mate," Jasmine said haughtily to Scarlett, who only growled in anger and kept wiggling to break free.

Sammy felt herself finally calming down, but then she remembered the other elephant in the room and looked back towards the control panel. The main monitor over it showed the timer - and that it was currently counting down around the two-and-a-half-minute mark.

"Aw crap!" Sammy ran forth, past Scuba Bear and Ella and the others and brought herself to the console. There were far too many buttons for her to know which ones did what, but at least the keyboard in the center looked familiar. "Umm…! Uhh…!" She thought back to her computer at home; she was far from an technology guru, but she did know of a way to get rid of programs that were acting up on her. It was highly unlikely that this would work in the same way, but it was worth a shot - at this point anything was.

She inputted control-alt-delete, waited for a few agonizing seconds, and was pleasantly surprised when the task manager popped up. "Oh!" she gasped. "It worked!"

"End task!" Sky suddenly shouted from behind her. "End task!"

"R-Right!" Expertly moving the mouse over the program that helpfully read 'SELF-DESTRUCT', Sammy clicked it, then the End Task button, and then…

Silence.

Silence, because the countdown stopped counting down.

When the timer stopped at 2 minutes 17 seconds, Sammy was half-convinced it was still a trick. It was only when she stared at it for a solid ten seconds longer, and was then pounced on by an enthusiastic Ella and having kisses planted on her cheek, that she realized that they were fine. That they were going to live. That everything was going to be okay.

Sammy started to laugh, the relief flooding every inch of her body. The laughing soon turned to tears, and she crumpled to the floor and wrapped Ella in a soothing, snot-covered embrace.

"We're alive!" she sobbed into Ella's shoulder. "We're alive! W-We did it!"

"You did it!" Ella corrected. "You shut it off. Now you're the hero here."

Through the tears, Sammy laughed again. "We're both heroes. H-How about that?"

Ella's grip tightened, and Sammy swore she never felt anything more comforting in her life. "That sounds perfect."

"Yeah," she said quietly, and allowed the tears to keep falling. "It does."


I don't know if I should say this since I'm the author, but I loved rereading this chapter and what I had happened here. It feels kinda like when you laugh a bit too hard at your own joke and everyone's just looking at you funny… But regardless, so much has been aired out! Sammy confessing to Ella, Amy elaborating on why she hates her sister… I want to say I did at least a halfway decent job writing this one.

So let's start with some interesting facts: Ella throwing away her headband and other glove wasn't something I was originally going to do during the planning phases, but added it in as I was making the first writeup of the chapter. She's been doing a good job with keeping herself away from her old habits, but feels like she could do better. Dressing in bright pink and wearing long princess gloves and a cute ribbon headband certainly wasn't doing her any favors. Her style won't change too much - her favorite color hasn't changed or anything - but she's going to ditch the princess aesthetic and just sort of wear, you know, normal clothes. Her messing up her hair was added on like, my last read through of the chapter, and I think it just helps her even more.

Also originally, I actually had Shawn remain in the game at this point. There was no specific reason for keeping him around if I recall, but then I realized that if he DID stick around, Ella wouldn't have gotten her chance to shine against the robots, since he would likely take command of that situation and save the group from them immediately. So I needed to boot him early so that there wasn't anyone or anything stopping Ella from realizing the trick to the robots and singing them into submission. Speaking of, I actually kinda sorta foreshadowed Ella doing that a while back. I wonder if anyone remembers when that was

Amy was always going to tell Sammy why exactly she hates her guts, but with how I view her character, she needed an actual, honest to goodness life-threatening situation in order for her to say it. She's far too proud of herself (while also despising herself) to simply say what it is she wants to say, even though she still wants to, so something had to force her to say it. The part about their father was also planned from early on, since I noted that in the show the twins only ever refer to their mom and never their dad, though after coming up with it I started to notice I'm not the first author to think of something along those lines lol. I made sure that it was only one aspect of Amy's backstory that drove her to become the person she is (was?), and that the rest of it was on her and her mindset of always being the best no matter what. Though she still said before that she hated Sammy 'because she was born', she was really saying that because she wasn't able to admit that her own behaviors were technically her own fault. Again, too proud to blame herself.

Also, because I probably won't get any other opportunity to give any details about it, allow me to tell you the backstory of Sammy and Amy's parents (who are still unnamed at this point): their mom left her home in the States to get away from her parents and try to live life on her own, but it was very difficult for her. Not only was she trying to get through law school, but the job she had didn't exactly pay the best. She ended up meeting the girl's father at some point, they got married and planned to have children. They really didn't have much money to their names, but their mom chose to hold off on her degree to save, and they were rationing quite a bit to make room for one more in the house. But then it became apparent that they were going to add two more. Babies obviously cost a lot of money, time, patience and work, doubly so for two at the same time, but unfortunately the girls' father was just impatient and easily agitated enough that he couldn't handle the pressure he was under. So one day he left, leaving his wife to deal with two little girls. It was even harder for her now, and with the job she had at the time it was bound to get worse. So she swallowed her pride and asked her parents for help, who were more than willing to give it to her in the form of a loan of money (and it ended up being a lot more than expected). Their mom used it wisely, spending on the girls as need be while also choosing to continue her classes at law school. Eventually, thanks to her hard work, she graduated and made it big, and earned herself a nice job in the local law firm. Unfortunately this also meant that she still had very little time with her kids, which is why Amy has been able to get away with a lot of the stuff she's pulled. But now, thankfully, the girls are no longer in need of money.

I think that's all I wanted to say. I hope this chapter was to everyone's satisfaction! The conclusion to this one (another mini chapter) will be posted… at some point! Not sure when yet. But look forward to it! I know I am :)