The camera turns on to Chris walking down the Dock of Shame with a can of soda in his hand. He takes a sip before beginning his usual recap. The footage from the previous episode begins to play as Chris starts speaking. "Last time on Total Drama All-Stars, it was a game of Find the Needle in the Haystack that sent the campers looking for a key hidden somewhere on the island! Noah, being the schemer he is, got one of the interns to tell him where the key was. Noah was able to win it for the team, but not without a bit of a chase from Han and Junior. The Bass lost and sent Rosa and Junior home, the latter being a more reluctant goodbye for the team. Who will lose today? That's up to Chef this time, since I will be at a meeting. Find out who is going down right here, on Total, Drama, All-Stars!"

-Intro Plays-

The camera turns on the boys' Bass cabin where Ezekiel and Junior were getting ready for the day. Ezekiel noticed that Han had a bit more grim expression on his face. "Han, you still miss Junior ay'e?" Ezekiel asked.

Han shot a glare at Ezekiel, "He could still be here if you didn't get that last marshmallow." Han said coldly.

Ezekiel shook his head, "Don't think like that man. If you want to get mad at someone, get mad at Lizabeth. She and Rosa voted for Junior." Ezekiel said as he put his hands in his pockets and left the cabin.

-Confessional- Han

"Okay, I lost Junior, who was my biggest ally, and it's not even the merge. This sucks."

-End Confessional-

With the girls in the Gopher cabin, Vera and Amanda were talking about yesterday's challenge, while Mimi sat on her bunk playing on her Gameguy. "When will you ever got off that thing?" Vera asked teasingly.

Mimi ignored Vera and continued playing, today would be the day Vera would go, granted her team lost the challenge. The merge was coming soon and Mimi knew it. "Bug off Vera. I don't have time for you." Mimi said coldly. She just about had it with Vera.

Amanda was a bit confused why Mimi and Vera had such a bad connection, but she paid it no mind and left the cabin to head for the mess hall. Once she was out of the cabin, the loudspeaker blared out with Chef's voice. "ATTENTION ALL MAGGOTS! REPORT TO THE DOCK OF SHAME IMMEDIATELY FOR TODAY'S CHALLENGE!" Chef shouted over the loudspeaker, waking everyone who wasn't already awake.

Everyone rushed to the Dock of Shame and lined up where Chef instructed them to. Chef was dressed in a military getup, complete with a gun belt and whistle. "Okay maggots! Today Chris is at a big fancy pants meeting! So that means I'm in charge! Get ready to have some fun..." Chef said as Jasmine clapped, "Oh boy! I love fun!" she continued to clap.

Chef marched over to Jasmine and smacked her shoulder with a stick, "Did I ask you to speak? NO! So shut your mouth and listen!" Chef shouted at Jasmine, who still had a smile on her face.

Chef pointed to two canoes that were lying on the ground and gave instructions, "Listen up! Both teams will attempt to hold on to the canoe for as long as possible! Whoever drops out will be eliminated from today's challenge!" Chef explained as everyone got underneath their team's canoe and lifted it up.

Once everyone was holding on to the canoe, Chef placed two 80 pound weights on top of the canoes, which made it a lot harder to hold up the canoe. The Bass were at a bit of a disadvantage, since they were three players behind the Gophers. "This is so unfair. They have way more players than us!" Courtney complained, before being kicked in the leg by Valor.

"No one cares Courtney, shut up and hold the canoe." Valor said bluntly, which actually worked and Courtney stopped talking.

With the Gophers, both Mimi and Maddie's arms were getting very tired. Lily was hanging onto the canoe since she could not even reach the ground. Mimi was trying her best not to let go and wait for someone else to give up first.

Mimi was just about to give up, but Maddie let go of the canoe and walked out from beneath it. Chef smiled evilly and blew his whistle. "Looks like we got ourselves a quitter!" Chef announced as Maddie sat down tiredly on the ground.

The teams placed down the canoes and headed to the mess hall as Chef had pointed for them to do. "You are so dead Maddie." Petunia said coldly as she left Maddie behind. Maddie shrugged her shoulders and laid back on the ground.

Once inside the mess hall, Chef placed five papers in front of everyone. "For your next challenge, you all will write a five page essay on what you love about me. Anyone who falls asleep or fails to complete the task will be eliminated!" Chef explained as he started a timer, "You all have 2 hours!" Chef yelled as he walked away to the corner of the mess hall and let everyone begin writing.

Noah went right to work, and was finished in a few seconds. Mimi was just amazed at this, how can he write that fast? Mimi fell asleep immediately after thinking this, having gotten almost no sleep.

The same happened with Han, he had fallen asleep as well on the table. "Who knew writing was such a tiring exercise?" Valor laughed to herself as she kept writing.

After the 2 hours were up, Chef collected essays from Viola, Petunia, Noah, Valor, Courtney, Ezekiel, and Jasmine. Everyone else was sent to their cabins. Chef began to look through the papers reading them. A small smile was on his face as he read them, until he got to Noah's essay.

The first page just said the word "I", the second page said "Like", the third said "Master", the fourth said "Chef", and the fifth said "Hatchet". "What on earth is this!? It's just one sentence on five pages!" Chef shouted.

Noah smirked, "You said five pages. It is five pages isn't it?" Noah taunted Chef as he began to leave the mess hall.

Chef blew his whistle, "Hold up soldier! We still have night training!" Chef announced, making the remaining seven groan a bit. Everyone was tired, so no one really wanted to do night training.

Chef led everyone to the obstacle course that had been set up by the interns. "You all will go through this obstacle course 50 times to move on to the next and final challenge!" Chef explained as he blew his whistle.

Viola and Valor were able to hop over the first obstacle, which was just one big wall, with no trouble at all. Everyone else had climb up, which took them a little longer.

Valor was able to get ahead of Viola once they reached the swinging axes. Valor crawled much faster than Viola and sped off as quick as possible. "Ha! This is too easy!" Valor said to herself as she grabbed the rope and swung over the mud pit.

After the mud pit, there was just a set of hurdles that Valor was able to clear easily. After only five minutes, she was already 12 laps ahead of everyone else, which actually impressed Chef. "I knew the girl was athletic, but this is impressive. She would make a great soldier." Chef said to himself as he watched.

Petunia was eliminated from the challenge once she sunk too deep into the mud to avoid the swinging axes and had to be pulled out by and intern. "Ugh. This mud is so irritating!" Petunia complained as she tried to wipe some of the mud off of her as she headed back to the cabin.

Jasmine was eliminated from the challenge when she tripped over the wall on the way over and it fell on top of, having to be helped by an intern. As she walked back to the cabin she waved at everyone left, "Good luck you guys!" Jasmine cheered.

After another 20 minutes of this, Valor finished her final lap and saluted to Chef, "I've finished my laps captain!" Valor exclaimed. Chef nodded with approval and pointed to a chair next to his.

"You maggots are weak! How can I expect to make soldiers out of you teens!" Chef shouted as he looked at his watch. There was 30 minutes left for everyone to finish.

In the next 20 minutes, both Viola and Ezekiel finished their 50th lap and sat down next to Valor. Viola watched Noah as he just finished his 43rd lap and started his 44th. "C'mon Noah! You've got this!" Viola cheered on.

There was five minutes left now and Noah was on his 48th lap while Courtney was still on her 45th lap. Valor didn't really care if Courtney made it or not, there was already two Bass who were moving on. If Noah did make it, it would just even things out. Noah finished and sat down next to Viola and regained his breath. "Putting a time limit on us like that is just unfair." Noah said as he and everyone else watched Courtney struggle to finish her 49th lap.

There was now one minute left and Courtney was crawling underneath the swinging axes. 30 seconds left, Courtney ran out from underneath the axes and swung over the mud pit. 10 seconds left, Courtney began to run over the hurdles, knocking most of them down. Chef blew his whistle, signalling that time was up. "Noah, Viola, Ezekiel, and Valor, follow me to the final challenge location!" Chef shouted as Courtney hopped over the last hurdle.

Noah smirked at Courtney, who was kicking the ground in rage. "So close, but yet so far. Don't worry, I'll make sure we win. Oh wait, we're on different teams." Noah said as he and everyone else left Courtney.

Chef brought everyone to a big tree with two branches that stuck out. "Your final challenge will be to hang on to the branch upside down for as long as possible. Gwen set the record at 38 minutes, so let's see if you can beat it!" Chef explained as everyone climbed up the tree and hung down on the branches.

Viola and Noah hung on the left branch while Ezekiel and Valor hung on the right branch. Courtney walked over beside Chef and watched to see how it would go. "C'mon Valor! You can beat them!" Courtney shouted.

Valor nodded her head and tried to think about nothing else as she hung. Viola attempted to do the same thing, but the blood rushed to her head quickly and Viola let go of the branch, falling on the ground.

Viola stood up dizzily and gave a thumbs up to Noah, "You got this Noah!" Viola cheered on as she walked over to where Courtney and Chef were.

Valor began to feel a bit dizzy as well, but tried to keep her grip. She lost it quickly though and let go with her hands. She was still hanging with her legs, as Ezekiel was already doing.

Noah felt the same rush of blood in his head that Valor was getting and tried to close his eyes to lessen the pain. "By now you should feel a rush of pain coming from your head. You are getting tired and begging to let go inside." Chef began to describe the head rush that the two were getting.

After another 5 minutes, both Noah and Valor hit the ground at the same time. Chef blew his whistle. "The game is over! The Bass win!" Chef announced. Ezekiel smiled, but continued to hold on. Courtney and Viola were both in disbelief.

Chef then turned to Ezekiel, "Now, it has been 24 minutes since you first started hanging there. I have a deal. If you can beat Gwen's record of 38 minutes, then the Gophers will lose two members. If you fail though, your team will face elimination." Chef said, making Viola's eyes widen. Ezekiel might actually pull it off.

Ezekiel nodded his head. "Very well. You have 14 minutes remaining starting now!" Chef announced. Everyone watched, wondering if Ezekiel would actually beat Gwen's record.

Courtney rolled her eyes. She didn't want to cheer on Ezekiel, but she still wanted him to beat Gwen's record, for multiple reasons. "Ezekiel, you better beat that boyfriend kisser's record or you'll get it!" Courtney shouted.

After another 12 minutes, Ezekiel still hung, not even feeling a head rush of blood or anything. He was raised on a farm and like in the Awake-a-thon challenge, he could go for long periods of time like this. "1 minute left prairie boy!" Chef announced as he looked down at his timer.

-Confessional- Courtney

"I feel terrible for talking down Ezekiel now. He puts so much effort in for our team yet I talk to him like that. He's so nice too, and dreamy... wait! I didn't say that! Edit this out!"

-End Confessional-

Ezekiel still clung on to the branch as Chef's timer began to tick down to the last few seconds. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Chef blew his whistle. "You can come down prairie boy! You did it." Chef said as he saluted to Ezekiel as he hopped down.

Ezekiel walked over to Valor and gave her a high five. A single tear ran down Chef's eye, "Prairie boy, if you ever have plans to join the military, come see me." Chef said as he continued to salute. "Yeah, I'll do that ay'e." Ezekiel said as the five campers walked away from Chef and to the cabins.

Chef continued to salute as another tear came from his eye. "You do that soldier! You do that!" Chef shouted out.

-Confessional- Mimi

"We lost finally. I'm voting Vera, although you should know that at this point."

-Confessional- Noah

"This vote won't really be for helping the team. If we are losing two people, this has to be the last challenge before the merge. I'm voting Popo. He has been able to avoid literally any attention."

-Confessional- Lily

*Squeak squeak* (I'm voting for whoever Viola is voting for. I have a bad feeling in this vote for some reason. We are both voting for Maddie this time.)

-Confessional- Petunia

"As much as I would love to vote for Mimi, Maddie is not someone I am very fond of."

-End Confessionals-

Later that night, all nine Gophers had gathered around the campfire. Chris had gotten back from the meeting and arrived with a plate of seven marshmallows. "Gophers, it's been a while since you last arrived here hasn't it? Anyway, two of you are going home tonight. If I call your name, you are safe." Chris said as he grabbed six of the marshmallows.

"Noah, Mimi, Petunia, Amanda, Viola, and Lily, you all made it to the merge!" Chris announced as he tossed the six their marshmallows.

Chris then turned his focus to the remaining three campers who were all waiting for their marshmallow. Vera held her hand up to catch the last marshmallow with a smug grin on her face, Popo was sweating nervously while eyeing the marshmallow, and Maddie closed her eyes and crossed her fingers. "The final marshmallow of the night goes to...

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...Vera."

Chris tossed the last marshmallow into Vera's already opened hand. She popped it into her mouth. "I'm glad you guys let me stay." Vera said in a fake happy voice while glaring at Mimi.

Maddie stood up and burst into tears, "You jerks!" she cried out as she ran down the Dock of Shame and headed for the boat.

Popo stood up as well and straightened out his parka. "I guess I stayed in my doldrums for too long didn't I? Well, see you guys. No harsh feelings?" Popo said as he walked away down the dock of shame.

Chef came up to Chris and whispered something into his ear. "I have news for all of you campers! There are now 12 of you, but there were 26 in the beginning, which means we will need a returning player to come back. Who will that be? Find out in the next challenge!" Chris announced as he and Chef both walked away.

Once everyone had left the campfire, Ezekiel went back to his usual spot on the Dock of Shame and sat down. "Wow... I made it to the merge ay'e." Ezekiel said to himself.

Courtney noticed Ezekiel sitting on the dock by himself and walked up to him. "Hey, Ezekiel, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been so cold to you." Courtney apologized as she sat down next to him.

Ezekiel turned towards Courtney and faintly smiled, "It's cool ay'e. I knew you didn't really mean the stuff you said." Ezekiel said in response, confusing Courtney a bit.

"Wait, you're not mad? You're not going to say anything back?" Courtney asked.

Ezekiel nodded his head, "Of course I'm not mad. My pa told me that holding grudges ain't helping anyone. I also learned a thing or two from Duncan. He told me if a girl is talking you down, she secretly likes you inside." Ezekiel said, making Courtney blush.

"Wha? Of course I don't like you! You little..." Courtney began, but held her rage in. Instead, she leaned over and gave Ezekiel a small kiss on the cheek. "There. Now do not say a word to anyone about this!" Courtney said as she walked away.

Ezekiel felt his cheek and smiled, luck was starting to come to him for once. Ezekiel looked up at the stars and his smile faded. Nothing bothered him, he just didn't feel the need to smile anymore.

Well, that was a quick chapter! I ended up typing this whole thing in two hours, what a coincidence! Anyway, I would normally just pick, but I decided to let you guys vote for who is coming back. It doesn't have to be from this series either, it can be any Total Drama character! Also, who do you want to see gone next? Leave your answers in the reviews and have a nice day!

Elimination Order: Lucy, Joey, Lucina, Mary-Sue, Marx, Marinna, Linus, Ryan (Quit), Josh, Dawn, Rosa, Junior, Maddie, Popo

Remaining Contestants

Valor, Courtney, Ezekiel, Han, Jasmine, Lizabeth, Vera, Viola, Lily, Amanda, Noah, Mimi, Petunia

Votes:

Vera: Popo

Viola: Maddie

Lily: Maddie

Mimi: Vera

Noah: Popo

Petunia: Maddie

Amanda: Maddie

Maddie: Popo

Popo: Maddie