OK, so we shall continue! Thanks for reviewing, Elizabeth Life Stone and Ali6132.

We all knew someone had tampered with the votes. Mike said he hadn't voted for Cameron, either. "But someone's been up to no good. We should search the cabins and see if we can find any clues."

We all agreed. While Zoey checked the drawers, I looked around the bunks.

"What?" I heard Mike say...but I heard a difference. It was definitely Mike who spoke, but then, it wasn't. It didn't sound like any of Mike's personalities, but then again, it didn't sound like Mal. It was deeper, but not really demonic.

"Find anything?" Zoey asked.

"Well, ye – no." Mike's voice was back to normal.

I heard Cameron gasp as he pulled out a bunch of votes from under Mike's mattress. "You!"

And at that moment, I knew it. My guess was wrong. Mike wasn't half himself, half Mal. He was all Mal. I didn't know when it began, but he'd been acting far too suspicious. He was acting similar to Mike, but...too much like him to be the real Mike. Obviously, he hadn't put the votes there, but then, who had? It sounded as if he'd put the votes wherever he was looking, which, if I remembered, was Alejandro's loser cabin bed. Hmmm...

Mike...no, I should be calling him Mal, explained it away. "As if! Why would I stick them under my mattress, then suggest searching the cabins?"

"He's right, Cam." agreed Zoey. "It makes no sense."

"None of it does!" Cameron cried. "It's unlike any equation I've ever encountered! Endangerment plus betrayal times evidence equals..."

"Cam, don't freak." I said, placing my hands on his shoulders. "We are going to find out what's wrong with this picture."

But Cameron wouldn't calm down. He'd gone completely hysterical. "I can't trust anyone!" he cried. "I'm a lone wolf...I'm the new Lightning! Sha...something!" He ran out of the cabin.

"I'll talk to him." I told the others.

Cameron hadn't gone very far, just out on the deck. I plopped down beside him. "Cam?"

Cameron only looked up for a second and then dropped his gaze.

"Do you remember what you were saying about Mike having another personality?" I asked. "That's what's wrong. You don't honestly think Zoey or I would double-cross you?"

Cameron finally held my gaze. "I...I guess not." he murmured. "But just about anyone else..."

"We'll work it out." I told him. "Tomorrow. I swear, we will find out what's going on."

That night, Zoey and I shared a bunk, while Courtney and Gwen took the other. They were starting to act a tiny bit less BFFFL-ish, but still a bit annoying, always giggling together. Gwen occasionally addressed a comment to me or Zoey, but mostly she only had eyes for Courtney. Lesbian porn would've been less intimate.

The next day, we were called to the McLean spa library or something like that...it was the room full of cameras, but anyway, everyone took about ten minutes to get there. I was one of the first outside, but I stopped when I saw Mal talking to someone inside, still as Mike. "I won't do it! No, Cameron's my friend! And Shannon is too!"

I didn't confront him, yet. I wasn't sure what he was trying to do.

"Um, what's going on?" Cameron had just arrived at the foot of the steps.

"Hey." Mal said. "Just Scott and Courtney were saying bad stuff about you."

"What?"

"Alejandro and Gwen, too. And they were saying a lot of the same things about Shannon."

"Gwen?" Cameron said incredulously. "I thought we were friends, but then, she was on the Villains' team... thanks, pal. Sorry I said I couldn't trust you. Obviously, I can."

I held back a gasp. Cameron couldn't be that dense! He couldn't! He had to know that wasn't the normal Mike!

"Good," Mal said, "But, you two are still in danger. Right now, it's four to four – you, me, Shannon and Zoey versus everyone else. We need to lure one of them into our gang, or split them apart."

"But how?"

"We'll think of something." The minute Mal was out of earshot, I left the place I was hiding at and went to Cameron.

"Cam, you didn't just swallow that, did you?" I pleaded.

"What do you mean?"

"That's not Mike, that's what I mean!" I said. "I don't believe for a minute that Gwen of all people would badmouth us. And Courtney wouldn't say stuff behind our backs – she'd say it to our faces. And I know Scott wouldn't do that to me, at least. Mike is not himself – he's become Mal, I'm sure of it. And I'm also sure that he tampered with the votes."

Cameron frowned. "I'm not so sure about that, Shannon. After everything that happened with the votes last night, I'm sure someone other than him tampered with them. What if you are wrong?"

"Well..." I paused. "Okay. But you do trust me, right?"

Cameron managed a smile. "I was just upset last night. I didn't mean all that. Of course I trust you – and Zoey. I wouldn't have stayed with you for a whole year if I didn't trust you."

The talk we had didn't stop Cameron glaring at Gwen while Chef showed us a screen in the video library. It was pretty much like Skype, with Chris talking to us from it.

"Welcome to episode one hundred of Total Drama!" the image exclaimed. "To celebrate, I have anextra-special one hundredth episode challenge! I hope no one is allergic to rhinoceroses, fire, or poison..."

Sure, he seemed happy, but I spotted something that was out of place.

"Look out!" most of us said at the same time.

"Right next to you!" I cried out. "It's-"

Chris didn't even bother to look. "Please, don't interrupt." he said. "I'm..." Suddenly, he was captured in a sack and the camera went blank. As if that wasn't enough, Chef choked on his coffee and spilled it all over the controls, turning all the other cameras off, too.

"Ezekiel." I finished. Anne Maria's admirer and the feral freak show was back, and now he'd kidnapped Chris.

"New challenge!" bellowed Chef. "Find Chris!"

"You want us to hunt for Zeke?" Gwen said incredulously. "No way! He's psycho crazy!"

"Hey, if no one saves Chris, there ain't no show!" Chef pointed out. "Which means no winner, and no million dollars!"

Alejandro spoke up for the rest of us. "We accept this challenge, but only if the one who finds Chris gets immunity for the next vote."

"And permanent residence in the spa hotel for the rest of the competition!" added Courtney.
"And they get to send one person to Boney Island." Cameron finished, still shooting death glares at everyone, especially Gwen.

"Deal! Just find Chris!"

Zoey suggested that Zeke took Chris to the mines, since he was there last time. We'd all have to find different ways of getting in, though, since the old way in was sealed up from the mine challenge last season. At least we got torches from Chef.

Gwen didn't get to team up with Courtney this time, since Scott said something about it being their one hour anniversary (I gave him a thumbs up at that development) and not wanting a third wheel. Alejandro also refused to team up with her, so she followed the rest of us.

We found tons of holes that we expected led to the mines.

Gwen began panicking. "I can't go down a hole. I have a phobia about being buried alive. No way-" She was cut off as the ground broke apart underneath her and she screamed the whole way down. I didn't think about it, I just jumped in after her. I didn't care what happened, but no way was I going to make Gwen face her fear alone again. She'd already done it twice on this show, like last season.

When I fell, Gwen had disappeared, but someone landed on me.

"Ow!"

"Sorry! Wait, Shannon, is that you?" said a familiar voice. "Are you okay?"

I clicked my torch as the person got off me. "Yeah, I think so, Zoey. But Gwen's disappeared."

Luckily, it didn't take long to find Gwen. We walked a little way through the tunnels, and when we finally found Gwen, she screamed. "Zoey, Shannon! You scared me half to death!" Suddenly, she hugged me. "Thank you so much!" She stopped for a moment and added "Don't ever do that again!" Then she hugged Zoey. "You're the best!"

We knew Gwen was just acting weird because of her phobia, but we couldn't help exchanging glances of amusement over her. To Zoey's credit, she handled it perfectly.

"I'm here, I'm here..." she said comfortingly. "Deep breath in..." Gwen obeyed. "Blow out the candle." Again, Gwen let out her breath. "Better?" Gwen nodded. "Good. Let's keep moving."

"Don't worry, Gwen, we've been down here before." I said softly. "We lived that time, and we will this time too. Last time, the only thing that put us in danger is toxic waste, and there's none of that down here."

A few minutes later, Gwen started freaking out about something, and suddenly, I felt something like claws haul me up and away. I screamed, and I heard Zoey scream with me.

It felt like an eternity before I was dumped into a cage with Zoey. In front of the cage was...Ezekiel. And behind him was the party stuff Chris had for the hundredth anniversary of the show. And even further back was a bubbling tub of toxic waste (guess I spoke too soon), and suspended over it was Chris himself, tied up.

Scott and Courtney were dumped into the cage next.

"Thank goodness you guys are okay!" Zoey exclaimed.

"Know what's not okay?" Scott said, addressing Courtney. "That you kissed Cameron! And on our two hour anniversary! That's just cold."

"I'm telling you, he kissed me!" Courtney argued.

"That's not what I saw!"

"Well, if you don't believe me, I don't want your dumb shoe lace ring!"

"Good, because having one loose sneaker was making me crazy!"

"What exactly happened?" I snapped. "You've got ten seconds, Courtney, and if I don't like the answer, I will kill you."

"Cameron kissed me and then said I kissed him." Courtney admitted. She paused. "Like you could take me anyway."

I delivered one of my famous slaps. "That, my dear Courtney, is what I'm known for. I could take you on any day of the week. Yeah, I know you can fight, but so can I."

Courtney huffed and didn't take the bait.

I wasn't going to do the same to Cameron. I knew he didn't even like Courtney – her story made no sense. Mal had to be behind this whole thing.

Soon enough, Alejandro, and then Mal got dumped into the cage. "I guess it's all up to Gwen and Cameron now." Courtney remarked.

"Just Gwen, I suspect." Alejandro told her. "The last time I saw Cameron will likely be the last time I saw Cameron."

"What the hell did you do to him?" I demanded.

"Nothing! I tried to help, but he would not accept!"

"So you just left him hanging there?" Mal said. "Not cool!"

Alejandro looked at him suspiciously. Yeah, he'd never said anything about hanging. Mal had done something, and I knew there was only one thing I could do now: Pretend. If I wanted any chance at surviving, I needed to pretend I didn't know anything about Mal, and treat him as if he was still Mike, while still looking out for him.

As it was, Cameron and Gwen came up together. Cameron distracted Ezekiel (which caused him to be crushed by rocks), while Gwen freed Chris. Chef arrived, and Gwen shot Zeke with his pasta blaster.

"Cameron!" cried Gwen, running to the rocks and pulling him out.

The bonfire ceremony was very melancholy. Cameron was too injured to continue, and had to be flushed. And he had to go back to his bubble temporarily.

"I'll miss you, Cam." Zoey said.

"Miss you too." Cameron said past his bandages.

"Cam, I heard about you and Courtney, but I think I know who told you to do it, and I don't blame you. Am I right?"

"Mike...yeah." Cameron said. "Good luck."

"I love you, Cam, and I'll try to win this thing for you." I swore.

Gwen approached Cameron's bubble next. "You get better, okay?"

"Thanks, Gwen."

Mal was the last to approach. I couldn't hear what Cameron said, but I crept near enough to hear his reply. "Oh, Mike's gone. I'm Mal. And I let you fall. So long, sucker."

I ran away. Mal had only confirmed what I knew, and that meant that

As for Gwen, she won immunity, was permanently allowed in the spa hotel, and chose to send Alejandro to Boney Island. Again. Seriously, he hadn't done enough to deserve another night there this season. If it was back in the third season, yes. Now...no. He'd spent a night there after what he did to Heather, and deserved it. Now he didn't really deserve it at all.

That night, I wanted to warn Zoey, but Courtney was taking it all up with her whining about how Scott dumped her after Cameron kissed her, blah blah blah. I was so sick of it that in the end, I just put a pillow over my head to drown her out.

So yeah, that's episode 9 done. By the way, there is a plot twist coming up, and it involves Courtney. Not next chapter, but soon. I'm sure people will like it...