Author's Note: With this chapter we're now beginning what is probably the longest 'episode' for the fic, with so many characters to cycle through now (Twenty Eight in the Playa, plus Chris, Chef and the final four for Thirty Four in Total) it essentially means that I would either have to completely sideline certain characters completely, or make the chapters longer in order to compensate, which I'm doing, the chapter length for the next few chapters should be larger in order to allow every character to get something per chapter, even if it's just a line or two.
I'm gonna give four chapters for the casts to mix in together before the season finale, three chapters to make up episode 12 (meaning chapter 20 will have the elimination) plus the first part of episode 13, where the casts would then be split up with the reboot cast heading back to Wawanakwa for the canon finale, and the old gens staying at the Playa having the finale streamed live.
This doesn't mean that there'll be no interactions after the season finale, it wouldn't be fair to our final four otherwise as they wouldn't get any interaction with the others, but this was just to explain why the next few chapters will seemingly feel a bit slower paced compared to the others.
That small explanation aside, I hope everyone enjoys the new chapter. =D
Chapter Eighteen
It had taken a little bit of adjustment for several of the contestants to get used to having so many new faces at the resort, especially after some of the events that had taken place the previous night involving Ezekiel, but eventually things had begun to calm down by the next morning.
Dawn had eventually been able to explain what happened between her and the duo of Lauren and Zeke, pacifying Izzy in the process who was just relieved to hear that her friend was actually okay, however this had only caused more concerns for some of the others, particularly in the cases of Zeke's former Team Victory teammates Bridgette and Harold.
Dawn had pulled the pair aside as everyone else started to head back to the residential wing for the night, the interns supplying the newcomers with the spare rooms on the opposite end to where the current cast (plus Ezekiel) were staying. Geoff had stayed alongside the duo as Dawn pulled them aside, wanting to support his girlfriend with whatever was going on.
She had explained to them the full story about what happened specifically regarding the pair in question, telling them about Ezekiel's struggles specifically about his elimination in Egypt and his declining sanity spiralling from his anger towards all five of his teammates from that season. And how despite not being angry anymore, it was just replaced with fear of what any of them would do to him, begging them to give him a bit of time, and that she'll help to resolve things between the trio when he's ready to talk.
These thoughts had stayed in Dawn's mind even into the next morning, where she found herself accompanying Ezekiel and Lauren to the medical room, wanting to discuss how he's going to deal with the issue surrounding not just his old teammates, but everyone who had come to see him.
After several days of having the cure injected into his bloodstream, Ezekiel was really beginning to show some of the benefits from it, the latest dosage hadn't even knocked him out this time, owing to his increasing health, and his eyes were starting to look less bloodshot, the rings disappearing from around his eyes. His skin was still bright green, however it had become a lighter shade, the spots on his scalp and hands beginning to shrink slightly.
Finally, his hair was beginning to show more signs of being restored, as more small patches were slowly beginning to form on his head, the long strands that had remained from beforehand eventually being cut off by Lauren with a pair of scissors, after she had to be restrained from using a large pair of garden shears to do the job by Dawn and Dakota, the latter showing up to see this event unfold as she wanted to check on the progress of Ezekiel's treatment.
"You really shouldn't be using stuff like that just for a few strands of hair, you could have damaged his ears even further!" Dakota said towards the Scary Girl, glaring daggers at her, Lauren meanwhile just giggled, her mischievous grin hidden behind Ezekiel's toque.
"But I didn't! Besides I know my way around things like shears, I wouldn't have hurt him…" Lauren responded, her eyes drifting lovingly towards her boyfriend who was fitting his wig back onto his scalp.
When seeing the three girls looking at him, Ezekiel just shrugged dismissively. "I d-don't see the problem eh?" He grinned innocently. "I trust her to not h-hurt me."
Lauren continued giggling to herself whilst Dakota and Dawn just looked at each other and sighed, just deciding to move on rather than press the issue of Lauren handling dangerous equipment.
"Well, Lauren's more… 'interesting' methods aside…" Dakota started, shuddering slightly even as she turned towards Ezekiel, smiling toothily at him, her sharpened teeth from her time as Dakotazoid still being present.
"The cure seems to be working just fine with fixing your physical features…" She muttered, studying the Feral Homeschooler as Dawn and Lauren looked on curiously. "What about your 'other' mutations, you said you had acidic spit from your time in the mines?" She asked him, Ezekiel quickly nodding in response.
"I-I haven't tried to yet, my s-senses seem to be f-fine, although my s-speech is back and forth eh." Ezekiel replied nervously, not having tried to use his acid since he arrived at the resort, the last time he could remember using it was to protect Lauren from Fang back in the Fun Zone on Boney Island.
"Well I suppose we could test it out now if you want, the serum should have enough of an effect now to know if it's sticking around or not…" Dakota asked him, wondering herself if his acid spit would be like her strength, with the cure not completely getting rid of the mutation.
"But w-where?" Ezekiel asked her, Lauren grinning creepily at the thought of seeing him use his acid once more while Dawn looked slightly uncomfortable at the potential destruction of the wildlife.
"In the forest of course, we'll use that cave Dawn said she found you in…" Dakota replied, not noticing Dawn breathing a small sigh of relief. Lauren did however, and she laughed slightly at Dawn's expression, drawing attention to the pair.
Noticing the attention she was now receiving, Dawn grinned nervously as she explained her small discomfort about what Dakota had planned. "Sorry, I just thought you were planning to use it on the wildlife, but if it's uninhabited I suppose that cave wouldn't be a bad shout to use." She explained to them, quickly gaining a small nod from Dakota as Lauren grinned once more.
"Do you w-want to come with us D-Dawn?" Ezekiel asked the moonchild.
Dawn however shook her head, standing up as she began to excuse herself from the room. "I'd love to stay and help you with this Ezekiel, however I have some other issues to tend to first, especially if we are to help you get used to the others once more. I'll be back to help you soon okay…" She smiled once more at the trio, gently opening the door and backing out of the room just as Izzy walked up to the door, grinning wildly at Ezekiel in particular.
"Hey Hey Homeschool! What's up!" She smirked slightly, noticing Ezekiel begin to scratch his head in confusion.
"The ceiling…" He absentmindedly muttered before his eyes widened slightly, realising what she meant. "Wait no! I'm f-fine!" He shouted, drawing laughs from the three others in the room with him.
As her laughter quickly died down, Izzy wiped a fake tear from her eye, grinning at the trio once more. "So are you free right now, we can catch up with some of the others?" She asked him, frowning slightly when both Ezekiel and Dakota shook their heads.
"Sorry Izzy, we need to test some things involving the cure…" Dakota responded as Ezekiel smiled regretfully at the redhead.
"I can afterwards, I w-won't be long, and maybe you and Lauren can get to know e-each other better!" Ezekiel grinned at the pair, Lauren and Izzy both glancing at each other, remembering their conversation from yesterday.
Izzy grinned at the Scary Girl, knowing exactly what they could do to pass the time. "Sooo… Lauren, you wanna go and scare that Damien guy again?" She asked her.
Lauren laughed maniacally in response, "You know me so well…" She responded eerily, the two crazy girls quickly linking up arms and skipping out of the room, laughing to themselves as Lauren quickly threw Ezekiel his toque, winking at him as she left. Leaving the ex-mutants alone in the medical room confused as to what just happened.
After a moment to process what just happened, Dakota turned to Ezekiel, "So, shall we get going then? Then you can head back to your girlfriend and her new best friend?" Dakota asked him as she began to walk out, Ezekiel nodding along as he quickly put on his toque before following Dakota out of the room, beginning to retrace the steps back to the cave where he'd spoken with Dawn the previous day.
"One steamboat, Two steamboats…" Ripper muttered to himself just outside of the resort, Owen next to him as they both competed against each other in one of the most disgusting things that had ever happened at the resort.
After Owen had heard that Ripper had recently taken the world record for the world's longest fart during his time on the show, and after Ripper had heard that Owen had been one of the previous holders of said record, the pair had taken to challenge each other to see who could outlast the other, having been forced outside to do so by the other guys, them all being too disgusted by the thought of being stuck in the main lobby with those two.
Inside the lobby, Chase and Zee were happily talking about some of the things that had happened to them during their season to several of the guys who had arrived the previous day. These guys being Geoff, Sam and Harold, each of them listening keenly to some of the more painful moments from the new season, finding Zee's experience with the cassowary a memorable moment in particular.
Eventually the noise had stopped from outside the entrance to the resort, with the doors opening soon after. Everyone else in the area immediately covered their noses, attempting to block the smell as Ripper and Owen walked into the lobby, both looking prideful at the results from their competition.
"I'm impressed dude, I've never met anyone who's come close to my record!" Ripper grinned at Owen.
"Same here, not even my brothers could come close to my record, but you surprised me man." Owen grinned back at him.
"I don't even wanna know how they're bonding over this…" Sam muttered to Harold, both of them looking slightly sickened.
"I know right? It's so gross!" Harold responded, not being as subtle as Sam and quickly drawing Ripper's attention.
"And what exactly are you doing here nerd!" Ripper said to Harold, venom beginning to leak into his voice as Owen and Sam looked over in concern, also beginning to draw the complete attention of the others in the room. "This is an Alfalfa Male zone only, now scram!" He continued, completely misspelling the word 'alpha' in the process.
"Hey! I have a right to be here just as everyone else does." Harold responded, beginning to get mad himself, "And it's 'Alpha Male' not 'Alfalfa Male', Gosh!" He shouted at the Alpha Male, who glared in response.
"Just get out nerd before I make you!" Ripper almost growled towards him, grabbing Harold by his shirt and pulling his fist out ready to punch him.
"Just go dude, if he doesn't want you here then neither do I…" Chase said absentmindedly, agreeing with Ripper.
Ripper let go of Harold's shirt, his fist still ready in case he refused to leave. Harold however just glared at the pair, muttering "idiots" under his breath before storming off angrily out of the lobby and further into the resort.
"Dude you probably shouldn't have gone so far, he's not that bad…" Owen complained, placing a hand on Ripper's shoulder.
"Owen's right man, the guy was pretty chilled out, I mean he liked the stories we were telling the guys…" Zee agreed.
"I mean, I did have some issues with him at one point when we were back on the Island during our first season, but that was only because of his problems with leaving things lying around on the floor in the cabin, Harold's a decent guy otherwise…" Geoff finished, the others glaring at Ripper and Chase.
Ripper just scoffed in response and began to walk out of the entrance to the resort, "Whatever… I don't need to deal with a nerd like him anyway…"
The others watched him leave the area, most of them glad to be rid of the guy as Chase looked sheepishly towards the others. "So uh, no hard feelings right guys?" He asked them, only receiving more glares from Geoff and Sam.
"Dude, you could have helped to back Harold up instead of siding with that douchebag…" Sam responded, annoyed with the pranksters lack of responsibility.
"But Ripper wasn't wrong though?" Chase began before being interrupted.
"Seriously, come on man, surely you realise that this is just making you look bad right?" Geoff argued, hoping he could get through to Chase about his actions being stupid.
Unfortunately for the Party Dude, Chase wasn't in the mood to listen to anyone's reasoning, quickly standing up from the couch and walking off.
"Geoff man, I thought you'd be cool with this, but I see Ripper was right to back away from this…" Chase complained as he left through the front doors to the resort, hoping to catch up to his friend, leaving the others in the room behind.
Owen and Zee both just sighed slightly, realising that the good mood that was in the lobby earlier had completely evaporated due to Ripper and Chase.
"Bummer dude…" Zee muttered, opening a can of soda and drinking it.
"Well, since the mood here has been ruined…" Sam started as he got up from the couch, the others all doing the same. "I'm gonna go play some games back in my room while Dakota's over checking up on Zeke. See you guys later." He finished, waving the others goodbye as he walked up the stairs towards the residential wing.
Owen similarly started walking towards the exit, this one heading towards the pool area. "Yeah I'm gonna go see how my little buddy Noah's doing okay guys?" He grinned slightly, also waving goodbye, quickly leaving Geoff and Zee standing alone in the middle of the lobby.
Not seeing much point in sticking around, Geoff turned to Zee, pointing in the direction of the hallway where Harold had stormed down mere minutes ago. "So Zee man, wanna go help me look for Harold so we can clear this mess up with him?" He asked Zee.
"Sure man…" Zee smiled, beginning to follow Geoff out of the lobby.
Within the Gym area, several of the former contestants were seen minding their own business as they each went about their own routines.
Axel and Nichelle were training with each other, as they had been ever since the night Nichelle arrived at the resort, Nichelle pleading for the survivalist to help her try and get stronger after her humiliating performance during the season, with her reluctantly accepting.
"Come on Nichelle, pump those skinny arms, faster!" Axel called out to her, watching the 'Action Star' struggle to do push ups.
"I… I'm t-trying as hard as I can, Axel…" Nichelle replied slowly, panting from exhaustion.
"You really think those excuses are going to help you perform your own stunts in the future, you're not going to always have that 'Jerry' guy to bail you out!" Axel shouted at her, trying to convince Nichelle to do better, only to sigh in disappointment when she dropped to the ground, completely exhausted.
"I'm sorry Axel… I-I just can't keep it up…" Nichelle groaned, breathing heavily as she lay on the floor under Axel's feet. Axel rolled her eyes slightly before kneeling down to the 'Action Star', extending a hand to her and helping her to sit up.
"Look… I'm not going to sugarcoat things Nichelle, your performance was abysmal…" Axel began, Nichelle quickly looking at the ground in shame.
"However…" Nichelle looked up once more, noticing Axel's usual hardened expression having softened slightly as they looked at each other. "You are slowly improving, this time last week you could barely even do one push up, now here you are doing multiple at a time…" She finished, grinning down at Nichelle who smiled gratefully.
"Aww thanks darling!" Nichelle grinned, Axel lifting her up onto her feet. "I never thought you'd turn out to be such a softie." She smiled, laughing slightly when Axel's face dropped slightly from embarrassment.
"Don't push it… you've still got a long way to go before you're doing your own stunts!" She muttered to Nichelle, who grinned back, now more determined to carry on now that Axel had given her a pep talk.
At the other side of the gym, Caleb was busy lifting weights once more, this time competing against Brick due to Axel being too busy with Nichelle. Unlike with Axel however, this matchup was not nearly as evenly matched as Brick quickly found out, the cadet visibly struggling to keep up with the levels of strength that Caleb was making look easy, the bodybuilder quickly noticing Brick struggling to keep up.
"Dude, you feeling good…" Caleb asked him, having yet to break a sweat whilst Brick was huffing and puffing, his shirt dripping with sweat from the amount of weight he'd been trying to lift.
"Who, me?" Brick responded, grinning despite his muscles beginning to strain from the effort. "I'm good, I can k-keep this up as long as I n-need to…"
"Are you sure about that?" Caleb said, gently putting his weights down on the floor, looking ready to help Brick if needed. "If you need me to help you adjust to the weight I'm happy to help, don't feel the need to overexert yourself just because you want to look good." He gently scolded him, having seen this exact scenario happen before at his local gym.
Brick blinked, realising that he was trying to be overly competitive now that he was back at the Playa, unconsciously going back to the days where he'd compete against Jo. Reluctantly he nodded at Caleb, allowing the bodybuilder to take the weights, swapping them down for a set of weights much lighter than before, before giving those to Brick.
Afterwards, Caleb began helping Brick to lift them successfully, giving comments on his posture and helping him to not overwork himself like he was beforehand.
Lastly, over by the treadmills, the now reunited trio of Wayne, Raj and Tyler were on the treadmills. The three of them making good progress on their paces, although unlike the Hockey Bros, Tyler's was steadily getting more wobbly as time went on, the Jock trying his hardest to not trip over and make a fool of himself.
"Yo coach, you feeling good over there?" Wayne asked Tyler, noticing him stumble once more, barely clinging onto the side in time before he could fall.
"Dude, just slow down, you're gonna hurt yourself at this rate…" Raj said in agreement, pointing at Tyler's screen, quickly noticing that he was trying to push himself to go faster than his fellow sportsmen.
"Please… This is nothing…" Tyler grinned weakly, giving the pair a thumbs up.
This however quickly ended up being the Jock's downfall, Tyler's legs stumbling once more, this time unable to grab onto anything in time, sending him flying off of the treadmill straight towards where Axel and Nichelle were training, Nichelle only having the time to widen her eyes slightly as he flew at them, resulting in a collision that left all three of them lying on the ground moaning painfully.
"Ah, what the hell just hit me…" Axel groaned in pain, glancing around the room in a daze while her vision unblurred before eventually noticing the Jock sitting up, clutching his head in pain whilst Nichelle was still on the ground, head spinning from the collision that Tyler had caused.
"Sorry Axel, it was an accident…" Wayne and Raj both said to the survivalist, the pair having ran over from the treadmills after witnessing Tyler fly off them just moments before.
Axel glared at the pair, glancing down at the still recovering Tyler before she stood up. "Whatever…" She muttered towards them before storming out of the gym, not wanting to deal with the clumsy Jock or anyone else for a while as she started to head through the halls of the resort.
Unbeknownst to her, she passed by a hidden Dawn, the moonchild hiding around the corner, having witnessed the last few moments of what just happened in the gym. She raised an eyebrow curiously, quickly sensing that something was up with the survivalist, before silently following her, intending on talking to the troubled woman.
Izzy and Lauren both grinned mischievously as they peeked through the bushes towards the pool area, quickly spotting their prey sitting on the edge of the pool.
Damien sat there completely unaware of the two crazy girls spying on him, gleefully chatting away with Kitty about various different topics now that he could talk to somebody who wasn't from the show. Sat by the pool bar was Noah and Emma (RR), the couple sharing a drink as Emma discussed a possible lawsuit that she could try and make for Chris's neglect and abandonment of Ezekiel over the last several years, Noah nodding in agreement as he read one of his books next to her, with MK rolling her eyes from her deckchair nearby after overhearing their conversation.
"That's not going to work, you really think that Chris wouldn't have a team of much more experienced lawyers to bail himself out…" MK said to the pair, drawing glares from both of them as she laughed to herself. "Wow for a lawyer yourself 'other Emma', you're not very smart are you?" She snarked.
"Why you!" Emma began to respond, quickly getting irritated by the snarky thief's words before Noah held a hand out in front of her, causing her to look at him as he responded in her place.
"Yeah, this coming from the kleptomaniac who outed herself as a criminal on international TV…" Noah began, closing his book as he continued to glare at MK, "Seems like you're the one who isn't very smart, do you think the RCMP aren't going to arrest you the moment you're done with the show?" He smiled, seeing her confident expression quickly drop, replaced with an annoyed but concerned look.
"Aw crud I never thought of that…" She muttered to herself, drawing smirks from Emma and the two crazy girls listening in from the bushes.
Izzy watched gleefully at the two snarky contestants who began to argue back and forth with one another, whilst Lauren kept her gaze firmly on their target, waiting for an opportunity to present itself where both herself and Izzy could strike.
Eventually an opportunity presented itself when Owen ran out of the doors, bounding straight towards Noah and grabbing him in a bone crushing hug, unwillingly sending the pair both tumbling into the pool as the others stared in shock at what just happened.
That is everyone stared in shock apart from Izzy, who to Lauren's dismay proceeded to cackle wildly at Noah's misfortune, leaping out from the bushes in order to join in with the chaos that Owen had caused, unintentionally splashing Damien and Kitty in the process when she dived into the pool to join the pair. The bookworm groaning in slight pain as he finally resurfaced.
"Great… Life, why do you hate me so!" Noah complained, looking up at the bar to see MK looking down at him, laughing at his misfortune.
"Wow… sucks to be you smartass!" She cackled, smirking at the glares she received from both Noah and Emma, the latter reaching a hand down to pull Noah back up onto his chair.
MK's small victory over the bookworm quickly diminished however, as another hand reached up and yanked her down, throwing the thief into the water as Izzy grinned sadistically from next to where she was sat, drawing a satisfied smile from Noah in the process.
Damien and Kitty both watched from their position, the former taking his hat off in order to squeeze the water out from it, neither of them noticing Lauren gleefully sneak up behind them.
Lauren gently kneeled down behind the pair, her head tilting with a small audible crack as she positioned herself to be really close to Damien, her purple lips stretching as far as they could go in a huge twisted smile. Right as Damien began to notice that something was off, he began to turn around right as he heard Lauren whisper something to him, her twisted grin still on her face.
Damien's head quickly whipped around, seeing the jumpscare Lauren had prepared for him, and shrieked, startling everyone else in the vicinity, Damien jumping a couple of feet into the air from fright as he proceeded to slip off of the edge of the pool, quickly falling in.
Kitty looked slightly freaked out from next to where he was sitting, staring wide eyed at the grinning Lauren, who slowly twisted her neck to look towards the younger sister, another audible crack being heard as she looked over.
Lauren giggled slightly at the terrified girl, pushing her into the water to join Damien, the latter resurfacing just as Kitty was pushed into the waters, glaring at the giggling Scary Girl.
"Are you serious Lauren! Why always me!" He demanded, starting to get annoyed with her antics.
Lauren just shrugged playfully, "Well maybe if your screams weren't so pleasing to hear, I wouldn't scare you!" She replied, grinning widely at him, Damien rolling his eyes in response.
"Sometimes I wonder what Zeke sees in you…" He mutters quietly, Kitty only barely able to hear him from her close proximity.
Lauren's attention however quickly shifted to another figure climbing out of the pool with a cheshire catlike grin on her face, the smile from Lauren's quickly morphing into a small frown as Izzy walked up to her beaming.
"Ah that was fun, don't you think Lauren!" The Crazy Girl grinned playfully towards the Scary Girl, only for Lauren to glare back, "Huh… what did I do?" She asked.
"We were supposed to get Damien together Izzy… Why did you abandon me?" Lauren whined slightly, pouting.
"We were…" Izzy replied in confusion, before her eyes widened almost comically in realisation. "Oh crap we were!" She shouted, looking at both Lauren and Damien apologetically, the latter still in the pool from Lauren's earlier jumpscare.
"Maybe next time?" Izzy grinned nervously, saluting Lauren before leaping over to the spare chair at the pool bar in between where MK was sat before and Noah, who just looked at the Crazy Girl unimpressed.
"Wait… what does she mean 'next time'?" Damien said to himself, slightly panicked as Lauren sat on one of the deckchairs nearby to where Damien and Kitty were sitting before Lauren had shown up, still slightly ticked off at Izzy.
Lauren tilted her head towards the forest where Ezekiel had run off to yesterday, beginning to wonder how he and Dakota were doing at the cave testing his mutations to see if they were beginning to disappear or not.
Bridgette, Emma (Reboot), Sierra and Cody were sitting in one of the smaller lounges within the resort, Sierra talking to Emma about the new season, her scribbling notes down onto a notepad about the sixteen contestants for her blogs, several pages having already been filled with lots of trivia about each contestant currently at the resort, the final four not having nearly as much due to them still competing. Cody and Bridgette idly talking to each other once they were unable to keep the Superfan from interrogating Emma.
This all came to a halt when the door slammed open, with Harold storming into the lounge, still pissed off at Ripper and Chase after his rejection from being allowed to participate in whatever the guys were doing in the main lobby.
"GOSH! Those two idiots and their stupid 'Alpha Male' philosophy… It's just like Duncan and Geoff on the island all over again!" He shouted in anger, quickly drawing the attention of both Emma and Bridgette.
"Wait, who are you talking about?" Bridgette asked him, sounding slightly irritated at Harold's indirect slander towards Geoff but also remembering how the Party Dude used to be like back on the island during the first season.
"Those idiots Ripper and Chase! Apparently I'm not 'cool enough' to hang out with them but Sam and Owen are!" Harold continued ranting, quickly beginning to annoy Emma with his slander of her boyfriend.
"Hey! You don't get to talk about my boyfriend Chase like that!" Emma almost growled at him, quickly standing up from her chair as she attempted to grab Harold by his shirt, only to be held back by Sierra and Bridgette.
"Emma! Calm down, I'm sure Harold has a reason for it." Cody said, trying to defend his friend whilst trying to avoid turning Emma against him.
Harold sighed angrily, sitting across from the others with his arms folded. "Okay it was mostly Ripper, but that Chase guy just had to keep on goading him, agreeing with every stupid thing that came from his mouth…" He muttered dejectedly, Emma's expression softening slightly upon hearing his reasoning.
"Oh well he's just going along with what the other guys are doing, that's all…" Emma said nervously, trying to dismiss Harold's earlier comments. "It's just like with his YouTube channel."
"Wait, he has a YouTube channel?" Cody asked, slightly interested in seeing this.
Emma nodded happily, "Yeah, he has a series called 'Three Guys in a Beach House' and they do lots of pranks, we actually had almost one million subscribers before we both joined Total Drama." She replied, before frowning slightly, "Although I guess it's gonna be called 'Three Guys and a Girl in a Beach House' again since I'll be coming back now that I'm back with Chase."
"Beach House…" Cody absentmindedly muttered, typing the name of Chase's YouTube series into his phone, quickly finding the channel and opening one of the videos, plugging his headphones in so it didn't bother the others. "I'll check it out, see how good they are." He grinned towards Emma as he slipped his headphones on, pressing play and beginning to watch the video.
With Cody now being distracted for the foreseeable future with clips of Chase's various different pranks, Bridgette looked at Harold, the latter having calmed down from his brief rant about Ripper and Chase. However she could tell that he still looked slightly downcast about something, and she had a strong feeling that she knew exactly who it was about…
"You're still thinking about what Dawn said, aren't you Harold?" Bridgette called over to him, also drawing the attention of both Sierra and Emma, the pair looking curiously towards the duo as Harold slowly nodded in response.
"Gosh, I just can't get over what she told us, about how Ezekiel seems to be afraid of us because of what happened on the plane?" Harold looked over towards her, Emma tilting her head in confusion.
"Wait, what happened on a plane?" She asked them as Sierra widened her eyes slightly in realisation.
"Wait, you mean when you guys voted him out in Egypt?" She gasped, Bridgette and Harold glancing at each other before they nodded at Sierra.
"Even though we did it because of him costing us the challenge, we all inadvertently caused what happened to him when we voted Ezekiel off." Bridgette responded, looking away from Sierra and Emma with a guilty look on her face.
"Plus it was the second time he'd been voted off first, I can see why he stuck around in the first place, Zeke just really wanted to redeem himself but paid the price for it…" Harold continued.
"I know Leshawna voted him out as well, we'd agreed on it after we boarded the plane, Lindsay apparently voted for everyone so hers didn't count, and DJ seemed pretty downcast about his curse, between the mummified dog and the bird he'd hurt in Egypt, he was already considering voting himself off…" Bridgette explained.
"But to be honest looking back on that challenge, Chris probably only said that whole 'bring your reward for immunity' thing last minute just so we'd end up voting for him." Harold said, causing Sierra to gasp once more.
"That's true! After all Chris hated Ezekiel, he didn't even want him to compete, it's why he tried to throw him out as we were taking off!" Sierra began explaining to the others, Cody having since taken off one of his headphones in order to keep up with the conversation.
"Wait, are you saying Chris changed the rules to make sure he was voted off first again?" Emma asked the superfan, looking slightly confused at her explanation.
"Pretty much yeah…" Sierra replied to her, nodding.
"He probably lied to him as well during the London challenge when he tried to capture us all in order to get back into the game." Cody agreed, "I mean would Chris have actually gone through with that had Zeke won the challenge?" He asked the others, not noticing two figures appearing at the entrance to the lounge.
"Nah man, Chris wouldn't have allowed that…" Zee called over to them, startling the geek as he and Geoff walked over to the others. Geoff immediately embraced his girlfriend as he sat next to her, Zee sitting over next to Harold, briefly turning to address him.
"Sorry about earlier dude, Ripper was just being unfair and he left himself after we all called him out on it." Zee spoke to him, smiling at Harold, who returned it after thinking to himself for a moment.
"It's fine, I'm used to idiots like him trying to walk all over me, he's just Duncan with even less of a brain…" Harold responded, getting a laugh out of Cody with his jab at Duncan.
"That Ripper thing aside…" Sierra interrupted, looking over towards Zee, "What do you mean when you said Chris wouldn't have allowed it?" She asked him.
"Because he already admitted it to us." Zee frowned slightly as he said this, remembering the incident with Chris from the other day while everyone else gasped at the news.
"Wait, WHAT! What happened to make him say that?" Sierra almost shouted at Zee, wanting answers.
"Basically he showed up the other day when all of the guys were hanging out, dragging Lauren along with him…" Zee began, giving a brief recap of what happened whilst explaining in detail about the London comments in particular…
"You could've at least treated his condition after you found him in London." Caleb argued.
"And waste the potential drama this caused, I don't think so. Ezekiel was more of an asset when he was feral than as a contestant, I wasn't going to waste it, besides we had a deal back then and he failed to meet up to expectations." Chris responded, shrugging his shoulders at Ezekiel's failure in London. "Besides, it wasn't like I was gonna let him back in anyway…"
Ezekiel's eyes widened, "What?" He questioned.
"I never wanted you back on the show, I only would've allowed it if there was no other choice, but since we also found Duncan during that challenge, I didn't need you!" Chris explained, grinning sadistically at Ezekiel, receiving glares from almost everyone else in the room.
"So you just let him suffer like this for no reason!" Lauren said slowly, walking up to Chris with a sadistic grin of her own. "Even I wouldn't go so low as what you did to him." She growled out, glaring at the host maliciously.
"...And then after that he just pissed off Lauren, threatening to sue her because she brought Ezekiel here…" Zee finished explaining, to the shock and anger of the others in the room.
"Oh Chris is so gonna get it when I find him!" Sierra shouted, pissed off at the host after what Zee had just told her, Harold, Bridgette and Cody nodding in agreement as Geoff just shook his head.
"That is so not cool of the guy…" Geoff muttered, looking annoyed about what the host had said as Cody stood up to walk out of the room.
"Codykins? Where are you going?" Sierra asked him as the geek opened the doors to the lounge.
"To find Noah and Emma, we need to figure out how to get a lawsuit through on Chris, and since Courtney's not here they're the best we've got!" Cody declared as he left, Sierra quickly jumped out of her seat, running after him.
"I'm coming with you!" Sierra called out, leaving the room as the others looked at each other confused.
"Do you think we should go too?" Harold asked Bridgette and Geoff, only for them both to shake their heads.
"I think we need to discuss how we're gonna be able to apologise ourselves first before we deal with something like that…" Bridgette responded as Zee and Emma looked at each other.
Dawn walked down the hallway of the residential wing of the resort, taking a moment to herself as she entered the area where the current contestants were staying in order to reflect on what happened earlier in the medical room.
While she didn't want to give anything away that would cause concern with the others, there were multiple reasons beyond the potential destruction of the wildlife in the area via acidic spit that had Dawn feeling slightly uncomfortable towards the end of her conversation with the trio.
One of which just so happened to be the 'Scary Girl' AKA Lauren, she had been too focused on trying to help Ezekiel the previous day in order to really get a good read on her aura, so she had taken a chance to read it during their time together in the medical room earlier in the day.
Frankly it was… horrifying for the moonchild to experience. It wasn't as pure black as someone like Mal's had been (or at least the parts of Mike's aura that had represented Mal's), however Dawn had never seen an aura as terrifying as Lauren's. There were some colours mixed into her otherwise dark, and it was ultimately why Dawn was willing to give Lauren a chance, being able to feel how Lauren felt about her past, and ultimately her feelings towards Ezekiel were what was making her feel more at ease about the Scary Girl.
Dawn had no doubts about that if she had met her even just a week ago then she probably would have just screamed at the sight of her aura, but with the small positive elements starting to seep in she knew that overtime Lauren would become a much better person, even if her creepy factor never truly went away.
She could tell, considering how some of the others who competed with Lauren had mentioned how much better she had been since they arrived at the resort together, and while she could still instil fear into the hearts of those around her she seemed genuinely happy with him around.
All except for one person from that cast…
The survivalist known as Axel…
Dawn obviously knew about the fight between her and Lauren, the video had been all over the internet, and it was the main reason why she'd even shown up at the resort due to Ezekiel's appearance confirming his survival. But she had asked around for more information on what happened.
Dawn stopped outside Axel's room, her eyes closed in thought about what she knew about the situation. Something was off about the survivalist since the previous night, it was the other reason why she had excused herself from joining Ezekiel, Lauren and Dakota in the forest.
She knocked on the door gently, waiting patiently for the survivalist to respond.
Axel opened the door, both annoyed and curious about who wanted to speak to her, only to see the moonchild smile back at her.
"What do you want?" She asked Dawn impatiently.
"I just wanted to talk with you for a moment, may I come in?" Dawn replied.
"Whatever, just make it quick…" Axel said, pushing the door open for the moonchild to walk in.
The room was similar to most of the other bedrooms that the resort had supplied for the contestants, the main difference with Axel's being the various weaponry being slung around the room, an Axe even being embedded in the wall next to Axel's ensuite bathroom.
"So…" Axel began as she sat on her bed, pushing out a chair for the moonchild to sit on. "What did you want to talk to me about?" She asked again.
"It's about this whole issue you have with Zeke and Lauren…" Dawn began, only for Axel to growl slightly.
"Great… what have I done to offend Zombie Boy and Scary Girl this time!" She shouted impatiently, glaring at the moonchild who smiled patiently in response.
"Nothing. I just…" Dawn paused for a moment to think about her next words, aware of Axel's increasing impatience.
"JUST WHAT!" She screamed at her.
"I know you're having second thoughts about if you hate Ezekiel…" Dawn replied, causing Axel's eyes to widen slightly in shock, before she quickly narrowed them in disgust.
"What the hell are you talking about, I know you saw that video, you should know that I hate both of them and vice versa." Axel growled.
"That may be true for Lauren, but I can sense your aura, you feel like you've been too harsh on Ezekiel but you don't know how to apologise." Dawn continued, her smile widening slightly when she heard Axel sigh loudly.
"Great, I forgot you're the one with the freaky powers…" Axel muttered to herself before addressing Dawn. "So what, you think just because I pity him slightly over his suffering that suddenly means that I want to be friends with him." She replied.
"No." Dawn's simple response causing Axel to do a double take. "You want to apologise despite knowing that you don't want to be friends with him, you feel like you were wrong to threaten him over his Zombie-like appearance."
Axel stayed silent for a moment, unintentionally proving Dawn's assumptions correct.
"So what, it's not like he'd hear me out anyway, and even if he did Scary Girl certainly won't!" She shouted once more.
"You're not wrong there, Lauren probably won't forgive you but Ezekiel may if he knows you're sincere." Dawn told the survivalist, placing a hand on Axel's shoulder.
Axel glanced at Dawn's hand for a moment, feeling unsure about what to say next. Despite her rough exterior Axel did feel genuine regret over some of the things during her time at the resort, this incident being the main thing. Her pride however kept her from admitting this, she knew Dawn somehow would know regardless of what she did, and as she looked back up at the moonchild she saw Dawn smiling in reassurance towards her.
"I can help you two make up if you need my help, no one else would have to know, not even Lauren…" Dawn said softly, knowing that Axel was conflicted on the situation.
The survivalist thought on this for a moment, before reluctantly agreeing. "Fine, what do I need to do…" She muttered.
End Chapter
Author's Note: For those of you unaware, with the UK release we got small bios for each character, giving a small (if sometimes inaccurate) explanation for each character, on Chase's it said his YouTube account was almost at a million subs.
Also we've now passed the 75k word count, I never thought I'd make it this far and I've still got so much to add before the end of this fic. =D
Thanks so much to everyone on both FF and AO3 who have supported the fic so far! Here's to hitting 100k words soon enough!