Author's Note: Sorry for the late chapter, I've been busy lately so I haven't had much time to spare writing this fic. I've seen the recent leak as well from Chris's Spanish VA and while I'm not going to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it, I've gotta say I'm really disappointed with what's been revealed. It's not gonna damage my hopes for the second season too much but considering how most of the world don't even have the first season officially it's really annoying to see leaks of the second one already coming out.

That aside I hope you guys all enjoy this latest chapter.

Chapter Eight

It was the next morning, and for a lot of the contestants at the Playa Des Losers things were not looking bright for them. It wasn't anything to do with the weather, in fact it was quite a lovely day around Lake Wawanakwa, but it was more so to do with the events of the previous evening, when everyone witnessed Scary Girl and Ezekiel being dragged into the resort following their capture on Boney Island.

True to her word the previous night, Axel had already left the resort to explore the forest nearby, accompanied by interns to ensure she didn't 'pull a Scary Girl' herself and attempt to escape.

Everyone else had opted to stay at the resort, knowing that they would have to encounter the pair sooner rather than later so preferred to just relax while they still could with varying levels of success.

Caleb and Nichelle were having the most success, having spent the least amount of time around Scary Girl due to being on different teams, and were just lounging around on deck chairs by the pool. MK was on a laptop nearby, looking unconcerned about the whole situation but refusing to associate with any of the other contestants.

Damien on the other hand looked incredibly tense about the whole situation, unlike everyone else at the resort he'd spent several days around Scary Girl, having been the main target of her mischief on the island. He was sitting by the pool reading a book, a drink by his side, attempting to disassociate from the situation that everyone knew was coming.

Unbeknownst to any of them, two figures were sneaking out of the building and heading straight towards them. Diving quickly behind some bushes near to where Damien was sitting, Lauren grinned maliciously and motioned at Ezekiel to stay hidden, wanting to get some scares in before she introduced him to the others. Ezekiel nodded happily, making sure to adjust his toque in the process, not used to having either the beanie or any 'hair' on his head again after being bald for so long.

He watched through the bushes as Lauren creeped out of the bushes, tip-toeing quickly towards where the unsuspecting Damien was sitting. MK looked up from her laptop, seeing the Scary Girl approaching him and smirked, already seeing the chaos that was about to unfold, quickly glancing at the others and noticing that she was the only one currently aware of Lauren's presence in the area.

Damien was still quietly reading, trying his best to enjoy the moment, completely unaware of Lauren now standing right behind him. She leant over slightly to see what it was, quickly finding it boring when she saw it was a Chemistry book. She smirked, seeing that she was still unaware of her presence, and sweetly asked him, "Watcha reading Damien?"

Damien immediately screamed hearing her voice so close to him, jumping into the air in fright. Proceeding to quickly lose his balance and fall into the pool, drink spilling over in the process and his book being tossed into the nearby bushes. Caleb and Nichelle quickly looked up, surprised at Lauren's sudden appearance, seeing her smirking as Damien resurfaced, coughing.

From their respective spots, Ezekiel and MK were both trying to suppress laughter, in MK's case, she failed to do so, attracting the ire of Damien who glared at her, as well as the attention of everyone else. Ezekiel meanwhile was barely able to keep it together, picking up Damien's book.

Quickly remembering about the Scary Girl currently standing above him, he looked up nervously to see her giggling uncontrollably at how afraid everyone seemed to be at her return.

"Oh it feels sooo good to see some familiar faces again." She said eerily, her grin stretching to an almost inhuman degree.

"Yeah, the feelings are definitely mutual." MK muttered sarcastically to herself.

"H-Hey S-Scary…" Damien stuttered out, feeling extremely unnerved at how close she was to him. "H-How was your time on Boney Island?" He continued, beginning to climb out of the pool, wanting to quickly put a bit of distance between himself and the Scary Girl.

Lauren beamed happily at him, "Amazing!" she shouted, her creepy smile on full display. "I explored, visited a mutant sanctuary, and fought a mutant shark. That was so much fun!" She continued, a dark glint appearing in her eyes at the last part.

Damien looked cautiously at the others watching from their chairs, "Please tell me she isn't serious about their being a mutant shark." He pleaded.

Caleb just sighed in response, "She's serious Damien, there were mutants in previous seasons."

Damien groaned, "What is wrong with this show…"

Lauren laughed maniacally at Damien's despair. "It's not so bad, he's harmless, me and my friend took care of him no problem."

Nichelle raised an eyebrow at this, "And where exactly is this 'friend' of yours?" She asked, already knowing the answer but worried about them being close by.

Lauren noticed this, and saw the perfect opportunity to introduce him whilst also getting a little bit of fun out of the others. "Oh he's close by, in fact would you guys like to meet him?" She asked sweetly, head tilting slightly to the side.

Caleb and Nichelle glanced worriedly at each other whilst Damien had finally got out of the pool, looking just about ready to bolt. Before any of the four could say anything in response to her question, Lauren gestured towards the bushes where Ezekiel was hidden, calling for him to show himself.

Bracing himself mentally for rejection by the others in the vicinity, Ezekiel leapt out from behind the bushes, landing near where Lauren was standing, right in front of where Damien was. His eyes widened at the sudden appearance of the Feral Homeschooler, and almost lost his balance once more.

Ezekiel looked around nervously at the contestants, noticing each of their reactions to seeing him. Lauren was obviously happy to see him, having spent almost all of her time with him, so he smiled at her and moved on. He could tell Damien was panicked at his appearance, but put that partially down to Lauren's earlier jumpscare. The girl with the beanie looked uninterested for the most part, whilst the other two looked somewhat uneasy.

Caleb was the first to speak up, having quickly noticed the difference in Ezekiel's appearance from the previous night when he was first brought back to the resort, "Huh, he's got his hair back?" He said to himself.

"I thought he would feel more welcomed by everyone here so I made him a wig to look like his old self, with a few personal adjustments." Lauren responded happily, looking around at each of the other contestants in the area, before frowning slightly. "Where's that angry girl anyway?"

"You mean Axel? She didn't want to deal with either of you just yet so she left the resort to explore." Nichelle replied, shrinking down slightly when Lauren's expression darkened, her hands beginning to twitch slightly.

Ezekiel frowned in concern for the Scary Girl, seeing her discomfort, and moved to try and calm things down before any bad blood between the cast could form.

"I-It's okay." he spoke up for the first time, the others being shocked that he could actually talk whilst Lauren looked up at him in slight interest. "W-We knew not everyone w-would be ok with u-us, isn't that w-what you tried to say e-earlier… That we'd h-have e-each other if they d-didn't accept us?" He continued, Lauren's eyes softening slightly in recollection, before smiling at him, agreeing with his statement.

"You didn't mention he could talk now?" MK frowned at Damien, having moved over to where the others were.

"I-I didn't know either ok, when I saw them on Boney Island he was just standing there. Scary Girl was the one doing all of the talking." He responded.

"H-Her name i-is L-Lauren eh! N-Not S-Scary Girl!" Ezekiel almost snarled at them, Damien slowly shuffling back towards the others at the Feral Homeschooler becoming semi-hostile. Lauren just smiled seeing their discomfort.

"Hey chill out man, none of us actually recall ever hearing her real name before. Even Chris and Chef kept calling her 'Scary Girl' the whole time she was on the show." Caleb said, trying to reason with Ezekiel.

"It's true." Lauren said to him, placing a hand on his shoulder, a devious grin emerging on her face. "Chris said it once when I first got there, then it was just 'Scary Girl' from then on."

Ezekiel thought back to their first conversation after their brief fight on Boney Island, trying to recall if what she said lined up.

"W-who… you…" Ezekiel attempts to say once he recovers from her landing, words partially coming out as growls. Lauren tilts her head at the feral homeschooler, her creepy smile once again widening at seeing him struggling to speak. "ME!" she says excitedly. "I'm Lauren, but everyone always calls me 'Scary Girl', at least the others on the island did, most people just scream and run away when they see me." She continued, still smiling as if nothing was wrong with what she had just said.

"It… t-true…" Ezekiel slowly said, already beginning to regret getting angry towards the others. "Y-You did s-say everyone… c-called you 'S-Scary Girl'..."

Ezekiel slowly shambled forward towards the others, with them becoming slightly uncomfortable with his growing presence. He stopped in front of a nervous Damien, before retrieving the book that Damien threw into the bushes during his panic earlier from his front pocket.

"Y-You d-dropped this eh." He stuttered out, holding it out timidly, trying to not damage the book with his claws. Damien quickly took it back, muttering a quiet "thanks" towards him before retreating away from him.

"So what is there to do here then?" Lauren asked the others, bobbing up and down on her toes, a creepy smile plastered on her face once more.

"Whatever you want. We only really have to show up at the dock when an elimination happens. We just can't leave the resort without security in case someone tries to sneak back on to the show." Nichelle explained to her.

"Yeah, kinda like what your freaky boyfriend did on that plane in his last season." MK snarked at Lauren, only for Ezekiel to growl at her at the mention of the place where he'd lost his humanity.

Lauren's smile twitched briefly at that last comment, and her face reddened slightly, however this went unnoticed by everyone else.

"Speaking of which…" Damien diverted the conversation before Ezekiel would get too angry at MK, keen to avoid any fights from breaking out. "What's going to happen to you now?" He asked Ezekiel curiously.

Everyone else looked at him for an answer, while Lauren smiled, having already heard it from his conversation with Chef Hatchet.

"A c-cure is supposed to be d-delivered here for me s-soon." Ezekiel explained to them. "A-Another person was a-also mutated when they c-competed and it f-fixed them too."

"Dakota…" Nichelle's eyes widened, remembering the TV star who'd briefly suffered through a transformation during her brief time on Total Drama.

"So you're gonna be fully recovered then?" Caleb questioned.

"That's what Chef said." Lauren stated, grinning happily. "So it'd be really nice of you guys to help him get used to people again."

"You'll do it right? Friends?" She asked once more, a dark look in her eyes, as if daring them to say otherwise.

"No problems here, right guys?" Damien replied quickly, knowing first hand what the Scary Girl was capable of, he glanced hopefully at the others to see if they agreed with him.

"Yeah why not." Caleb responded.

"It'll keep things interesting around here at least," Nichelle said.

All eyes were on MK, who just scoffed at them, "Fine…" She eventually said, "But don't expect me to want to be friends with him, or you 'Lauren'."

Lauren just tilted her head and smiled eerily once more, unnerving most of the people nearby.

"Is he gonna be in those rags the whole time?" Nichelle asked the pair, gesturing towards Ezekiel's battered appearance, specifically the several holes in his hoodie and jeans, recoiling when she realised that Ezekiel wasn't even wearing shoes.

Lauren blinked once, before quickly looking him over, realising in her joy over restoring his 'hair', she'd completely forgotten about the rest of his appearance.

"Oh crap…" She eventually said, before grabbing Ezekiel and dragging him off back towards the doors. "I completely forgot, I've ruined your first impressions no no no…" She trailed off quickly, having run into the resort already with Ezekiel in tow.

The others just glanced at each other, extremely confused about the whole situation.

"Soooo…" Damien began, "Who's gonna tell Axel about this?" He asked the others.

"Not it!"

"Not it!"

"Not it!"

"Not i…" Nichelle cut herself off, realising that she was last. "Oh crud…" She deadpanned.

"If it helps Nichelle, we could always just sick Lauren on her if she makes a fuss about it." MK said to her, a sly smile on her face.

"Honestly I don't know who's more unbearable at times…" She responded, sighing in frustration.

"Yeah, we can't send them to the hospital, the drone can't reach that far in time…" Chris said over the phone, annoyed about the whole situation.

"Look, either they'll have to compete with their injuries or they'll just have to recover on their own elimination or not." He continued, "I don't have time for this, the elimination ceremony is soon and I have to prepare myself for it."

Chris then ended the call and proceeded to throw his phone across the room.

"You know…" A voice began saying, Chris quickly turning around to see Chef Hatchet by the door. "I went to the Playa Des Losers resort this morning, right?"

"Yeah and…?" Chris responded slightly confused about where this was going.

"Look, I called in a favour to do with the Ezekiel situation, there's gonna be doctors there to help try and cure him from his mutation." Chef explained to him.

Chris's already annoyed expression only darkened at the mention of his least favourite contestant. "Why would you waste time and money doing that!" He practically shouted at the cook.

"I haven't, Dakota Milton and her father have bankrolled this. Look I'm just saying that if those two need hospital treatment, we're already gonna have the doctors on standby with Ezekiel's treatment. I'm sure they can spare a couple hours on treating their injuries but only if we let them go."

Chris sighed angrily to himself, before glancing angrily at Chef, "Fine… But if this goes wrong then it's coming out of your pay check!" He said once more before slamming the door in Chef's face.

He turned around to the discarded phone and picked it up, quickly dialling in the number of the person he was speaking to before.

When it picked up he began speaking once more, "Hello sir, it's McLean again, we've got the situation handled…"

Night quickly fell at the Playa Des Losers, and most of the contestants were stood waiting on the dock for the next eliminated contestant to arrive. Lauren and Ezekiel were noticeably missing, although the others weren't too concerned with their absence.

Axel on the other hand looked pissed off, having been informed about the earlier encounter with the pair by Nichelle, as well as the agreement that she'd been unwillingly dragged into.

"If the rest of us have to do it then so do you Axel, even MK's agreed to it." She'd said to her.

The others were stood talking about the remaining contestants, making bets on who'd be the next to arrive at the resort.

Suddenly they could hear the doors to the resort slam open, Lauren skipping out happily, Ezekiel trailing out behind her. His clothes had been mostly restored, all the holes in his hoodie and jeans having been patched up, with his shirt replaced and having found new shoes that looked similar to his old ones. The tattered and slightly burnt toque still remained however, covering up the brown and purple wig underneath.

Nichelle and Damien smiled slightly, already seeing the Feral Homeschooler looking slightly more human, whilst Caleb remained neutral. MK rolled her eyes and turned back around to face the water, and Axel glared at the pair, not having encountered them yet that day but still mad about being forced to interact with them.

Lauren strolled past them without any interaction, preferring to sit at the edge of the dock, humming to herself peacefully. Ezekiel on the other hand stood away from everyone else, not yet feeling comfortable around most of the other contestants apart from Lauren.

Damien, almost feeling pity for the guy, started to make his way over to Ezekiel to talk to him, when Lauren suddenly started cackling, causing the nearby MK and Caleb to shift away cautiously.

"Look! Bodies!" She shouted happily, pointing at the approaching Drone of Despair, seeing it carrying two severely injured contestants.

"Oh my god what happened to them." Nichelle said in concern, rushing up to see who it was.

The drone landed, dropping the duo down as softly as it could. One of the bodies laughed weakly in celebration, whilst the other weakly asked to himself, "D-Did w-we w-win, coach?"

"Is that Wayne and Raj?" MK asked, eyes raised in alarm, whilst Damien looked worried for them.

Some interns brushed past the contestants and quickly picked them up, only pausing for a moment at the two faces that they'd been sent to capture the other night, before taking them back into the resort.

One of the interns stayed behind to address the contestants, "According to Chris, they'd suffered an accident during the challenge and needed to be medically evacuated." They'd started to explain, before pointing suddenly at a puzzled Ezekiel. "Because there are already doctors coming in to treat his condition, Chris has decided to send the two here under the guise of a hospital, so they're effectively eliminated." They finished, before leaving the contestants on the dock looking extremely confused.

They all glanced at each other with varying expressions of concern for the two injured contestants. Ezekiel being the most confused since he'd yet to meet the hockey bros, seeing this, Lauren grabbed his hand and began to lead him back to the resort, doing the best she could to explain who they were to him.

Damien and Nichelle quickly followed suit, still concerned about Wayne and Raj's condition. The others, not really knowing what else to do, followed suit.

End Chapter

Author's Note: So I just finished writing this chapter and realised that it was probably for the best that I split this off from Chapter 7, but we've now officially hit the merge in universe and counting Ezekiel we now have Nine contestants at the resort.

The first steps have been made in slowly restoring him to his former self, even if Lauren is essentially forcing most of them into it, and we'll see in the next couple chapters how the Hockey Bros react to his presence, being the first eliminated contestants to not be in on the Boney Island shenanigans in the previous chapters.