A/N: Response Time: To mattTheWriter072, I'm glad you enjoyed the irony in Max's elimination. Yes, you will find out later about what happened to the Roses. To XXCandyLoverXX, yup, it seems Max is even more enamored with animals than Veruca was. To MrWonkyWonka, I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter and the irony found within. To Linkwonka88, I'm glad you still found it funny despite it being gross, but I think you got cut off there. To Tessa, no problem. I understand that people have lives outside of FanFiction, so don't feel pressured to review for every single chapter. I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter, and I'm looking forward to your reviews for The Everlasting Gobstopper. But, again, there's no pressure, so take your time. Thank you for everyone who has reviewed, favorited, followed, or even read this story. You're the ones that keep this story alive. Now, I'm sure you're all happy that you're getting another chapter so soon, and a pretty lengthy one at that, so credit goes to dragonserpent18 for writing this one. Enjoy!
Leading the tour group down a hall, Willy Wonka stopped at a room with no label. "Ordinarily, this is just a conference room; however, today, it's something quite different," he said. When he opened the doors, he revealed a room that was empty, except for Oompa-Loompas in marching band uniforms. They immediately all started playing as confetti rained from the ceiling. The Oompa-Loompas started marching in a circle around Damon.
"Hail the conquering hero!" they sang as they played a song of victory.
"What's going on?" Damon asked.
"Well, you're the only one who's eligible to win; therefore, you win the grand prize!" Wonka exclaimed.
"I did?"
"You certainly did. And now, the prize is very simple. You get the—"
"Hold it right there, Mr. Wonka!" They all turned around to see Charlie Bucket standing at the door. He was holding music sheets in his hand.
"Why, Charlie! You've come back!"
"Don't 'You've come back' me, Mr. Wonka! First you do it to them, and now, you're doing it to their children? That is appalling!"
Violet asked him, "What are you talking about?"
Charlie looked at Mr. Wonka and asked, "You didn't tell them, did you?"
"Tell us what?" Mike asked.
"The reason why I left the factory. I bet he lied to you about it. I left because I found out the truth—Wonka deliberately sabotaged you all when we were at the factory, and he lied to me about it. Now, he's doing it to your children! I even have proof!" He threw the music sheets on the ground. A few people picked them up and saw the songs that played when they were at the factory thirty years ago. He then showed them four more music sheets—these ones labeled "Claudia Gloop", "Jake Teavee", "Rouge Mattingly", and "Maximillian Rose".
"How could you, Mr. Wonka?" Violet asked. "You told me you were guilty about what happened. Now, you didn't just harm me, you willingly harmed my child?"
"That's exactly what I'm saying. The reason I didn't get hit with a trap is because it was rigged in my favor. Except, this time, you rigged it in Damon's favor, didn't you?"
Wonka finally gave in. "Okay, it's true! I did all that years ago! But you've all grown into better people because of it! Augustus, you may be a bigger than usual, but you still want the best for your daughter! Veruca, well, she's not here right now. Still, she may be doing the same thing her father did, but she's not the same person she was before! Mike, your child is not exactly the best person in the world, but you've become a great young man. Even if you did cheat again. Violet, you used to be incredibly unpleasant, but you're nice, and are very great to be around. Maybe I should've learned children are not perfect, but I felt only Charlie deserved to win because he's always been a wonderful person. So, please, Charlie, come back to the factory! If not as a co-heir, then as a worker! You've been such a delightful addition to this family!"
"I-I don't know. I was thinking that maybe I had been too hard on you by leaving for just one mistake you made in the past, and I was thinking about coming back, but, after finding out you made the same mistake once again, I really don't know," Charlie said. "But how would you have a co-heir?"
"Well, Damon reminds me of you, but as a scientist. You both would do splendid here. You're both great people."
Charlie sighed and said, "Yes, about that…You should take another look. Your 'heir' is much more dangerous than you think."
"What are you talking about, Charlie?"
"You think these kids are brats? You have no real idea. This kid is by far the worst out of them."
Damon grew defensive. "How dare you say those nasty things about me! Just who do you think you are?"
Charlie said, "Someone who's been keeping an eye on this factory for thirty years. I know when something's wrong with it. Mr. Wonka, did you know about the security issue that happened?"
Mr. Wonka scratched his head and said, "No, I didn't."
Charlie explained, "Well, ever since I left the factory, I made occasional trips back here just to make sure things were still going well—I couldn't bear myself to leave it completely; however, just about a few days ago, someone broke into the factory. We have no idea what this person took, but we do know he tried to fool the retinal scan. He succeeded, but we have the assailant's eyes on record. We also have reason to believe this person deliberately set off the alarm, so we have no idea how long he was here. The intruder had quite a rare pair of eyes—they were yellow."
The entire tour group gasped as they all looked at Damon to notice that his eyes were yellow as well. All of a sudden, Damon started chuckling, which lead into an uproarious, crazed laughter. "You know, I just knew I was going to get caught eventually. Man, I had you all unaware until Goody Two-Shoes ruined it. Oh, well. Can't be helped, I guess."
"Son," his father asked. "What did you do?"
Damon's eyes shifted to the kids. "I taught those vile nitwits a lesson, Dad! When Rouge was almost scalded, I saved her to look good. But I busted the temperature controls in the first place. Crossing wires is way too easy. Jake would've been frozen by the pills, but I didn't know that, so I weakened the main pipeline so it would break on him anyways. I got inside the machine that Claudia fell into and broke open the inner wall. All she had to do was lean against it for it to fall apart. Poor, little, rotten Max was way too easy. Feigning that I lost my contacts, no one even noticed me unscrew the ledge to the toothpaste dispenser. Right away, it shook and made the ledge fall over."
"Why would you do that to us, Damon?" Claudia asked. "To think, I even had a crush on you!"
"Sorry, Claudia. But you were rude to me as much as everyone else. I am so sick of being bullied. In my hometown, I am feared by the other children. I use my inventions to hurt them, but only when they deserve it. They're too scared to tell anyone, and my dad, who doesn't have time to spend with me, never knew what I was doing." Damon flashed a demented smile. "When I broke in here, I only scouted around for things I could use to hurt the others if they treated me poorly. Although, I did get something interesting."
He held out a flash drive. "This little baby carries all of Wonka's inventions that aren't constructed yet. I completely wiped the hard drive right after, so he has no other records left. I could always sell this thing, but instead…I'd rather crush Wonka's dreams."
He dropped the flash drive on the floor and smashed it with his foot. Mr. Wonka immediately screamed, "NOOO! Those were my precious blueprints! I had great ideas, and now they're gone!"
Rouge became angry and said, "You traitor!" She tried to kick him using her martial arts, but he grabbed her leg and squeezed it tightly with his grip. She screamed in pain as a result.
"You know Rouge, in order to betray you, I have to actually be your friend." Damon lifted her leg and made her fall on her back. Jake immediately remembered that extremely hard grip he felt in the Invention Corridor. Before he could say a word, Damon interrupted him. "I see you remember me using the same grip on you, Jake. Turns out, I'm pretty strong despite me being just a 'loser who just fiddles with dumb machinery all day', huh?"
Rouge got back up and tried to fight him off. He blocked her attacks, and knocked her on her back with a leg sweep. "You are so pathetic! You're no winner! You don't deserve to be called one! You think because you know martial arts, you can beat me? I know it just as well as you do. By the way, I did trip you on the bus."
He ran down the hall, and everyone chased him. Damon got to the Great Glass Elevator and opened it. He got inside and laughed when they smacked into the doors.
"The reason I succeeded in outfoxing you is because of one thing: I'm always prepared. I counted on getting caught. I think I'll be leaving now." Damon pressed the "UP AND OUT" button as well as the thruster button, allowing him to escape safely. Just before going, he winked at Claudia. The elevator flew out, and he was never seen again. He essentially got away with pulling off one of the most daring blindsides in history.
"I can't believe what just happened," Mike said. Everyone agreed before looking at Mr. Wonka. His mouth was wide open.
Charlie told him, "Mr. Wonka, after what we just witnessed, I will gladly be your heir again, but they deserve another chance to be a co-heir."
Immediately after, Max and Veruca came back to the tour group, dripping in tomato juice.
"Oh, hello," Wonka said. "Glad you could join us again."
After noticing that Charlie was standing amongst the group and the Great Glass Elevator had just launched away, Veruca asked, "Did we miss something?"
"Did you ever!" Charlie replied.