Author's Note: Heya, this chapter is going to be somewhat of a 'side chapter', and by that I mean that Ezekiel and Lauren won't be the primary focus in this one. I want to expand a little more on the other characters' perspectives in this chapter and give our main duo a bit of a break from the spotlight.

With that being said I hope you guys all enjoy the latest chapter.

Chapter Ten

"Hey Sierra, any luck with finding Ezekiel?" Cody asked her from the couch, Sierra still typing away at her computer.

"A lot actually, turns out he tunnelled into The Fun Zone after his attempt on Chris's life, and he's been stuck on Boney Island until recently." She responded cheerfully.

"Really? That long? How did they find him anyway?" He questioned.

"That's what I'm still trying to find out, but I think it has to do with that Lauren girl?"

Cody perked up in interest, "The Goth Girl? How so?"

"They seemed pretty close in that video, and I was able to decipher what was being said despite the audio issues. Take a look!" She said, motioning for Cody to come and watch again.

When he put the headphones on Sierra pressed play on the clip once more, starting from when Ezekiel ran over to Lauren.

"W-What happened Lauren?" Ezekiel asked with concern evident in his voice, hands placed on her shoulders.

Lauren looked away slightly embarrassed, "I overheard what she was saying to you." She admitted.

"What?" Ezekiel responded as Damien looked on confused.

"When you were going to the medical room, I overheard her threatening you and I wasn't gonna let her get away with it…" She admitted, slightly reddened from embarrassment.

"This true Zeke?" Damien questioned him, Ezekiel nodding slowly in response.

"Y-You didn't have to fight for me L-Lauren, I'm used to it a-anyway…" Ezekiel said to her, feeling bad that she'd gotten into a fight because he didn't stand up to Axel straight away.

She smiled softly at him, pulling him into a hug which he accepted immediately. Damien looked shocked at this, as did the others watching from across the room.

"They do seem quite close, do you think maybe she was the one who found him?" Cody asked.

Sierra pondered this question for a moment, before smiling brightly at him, "That's gotta be it, you're so smart Codykins!"

Cody blushed slightly in response, before shaking his head, eager to get to his other question, "Anyway, what about the others? Did you manage to get into contact with any of them?" He asked.

"Some of them. Dakota's already been in contact with Chef about curing him, there's doctors over at the Playa now treating him. Izzy and Dawn have asked about him as well…" She trailed off quickly, something Cody picked up on immediately as he realised what the problem was.

"You had to tell Dawn didn't you?" He asked her, receiving a sigh followed by a quiet nod. "How did she take it?"

"Horribly." She began bluntly. "She really tried to help him and the mutant animals after Revenge of the Island, and she feels incredibly guilty over him being stuck on Boney Island for so long, no one had even thought about him being stuck in the Fun Zone." She explained to him.

"That's not her fault though, Chris was the one who turned her sanctuary into his own personal playground, you even told me how dangerous it was in there." Cody said angrily, although entirely at Chris McLean and not Sierra or Dawn.

"I know…" She said quietly, she turned back around to the computer and brought up the chats with several of the other contestants. "I'm checking constantly to see if the others respond soon, although I'm aware that they'll all be busy."

"It's fine Sierra." Cody said, smiling at her. "You've done enough, if you want I can take over for a while? You need to rest, you've been at this all night." He offered.

Sierra smiled gratefully, hugging Cody before making her way out of the room to rest, Cody taking her place at the computer, immediately opening up chats on his phone to talk to some of the others.

"So what's the deal with Scary Girl and that other guy anyway?" Ripper asked.

It was another day at the Playa Des Losers resort, and tensions were starting to brew up between all of the contestants after Lauren and Axel's fight. Ripper, having no idea of the events of the last few days, was understandably confused about everything.

"That guy was a former contestant called Ezekiel and she found him on Boney Island. They've basically become best friends and when she got found and brought back here, he came too." Nichelle summed up, before sighing and glancing at Damien. "Do we really have to explain this to every person that shows up?" She asked him.

"Pretty much? I mean for Wayne and Raj we didn't have to, I'm guessing Zeke already told them." Damien responded to her, before facing Ripper, "Also turns out her name is actually Lauren."

"And? I'm still gonna call her 'Scary Girl' anyway…" Ripper said dismissively. "And what does Axel have to do with it exactly?" He asked once more.

"She doesn't like Ezekiel and got on Lauren's bad side because of it. I've tried talking to Axel and she isn't backing down from it, they're likely going to come to blows again…" Nichelle trailed off.

"I'll talk some sense into her…" Ripper declared, standing up from his deckchair, only to be hoisted back down by Nichelle, "Hey, what gives!" He shouted at her.

"No offence dude, but you're definitely not going to get through to her, you're basically her least favourite person here, and that probably includes those two." Damien responded, Nichelle nodding alongside him.

"Besides, you're not exactly known for being the nicest person." Nichelle continued, pausing for a brief moment before holding her hands up in an apologetic gesture, "Uh, no offence…"

"Hey! I can be nice when I want to be." Ripper complained, "And it's not my fault that we're both over competitive."

"Axel is over competitive, you're just an ass…" Nichelle responded, rolling her eyes at him.

"I wouldn't have worded it like that, but she's not completely wrong." Damien agreed.

Ripper scoffed at this, but ultimately relented, "Fine I won't bother Axel, still, what exactly are you guys going to do about this."

"Axel will come around eh." A voice called from nearby, as Wayne and Raj walked over to the others.

"Yeah, I think she just needs some time to get used to Zeke, given his current state." Raj agreed.

Damien looked down slightly, "Lauren did say it was because he looked like a zombie." He said slightly downcast.

"It's alright, dudes having his second dose of that cure thingy right now, says it should make him look a lot better soon." Wayne responded, trying to lift the mood slightly.

"We were going to keep an eye out on him, but Lauren has it covered." Raj continued.

"Wait a minute." Nichelle responded, eyes widening slightly in terror, "You guys left Ezekiel and Lauren alone in a room full of medical equipment when you know what she's like?"

Wayne and Raj shared a confused glance at each other before responding, "Uh, yeah…" They said at the same time.

Ripper and Damien shared a look of concern as Nichelle shuddered in fright. "Oh that poor, poor fool." She stated quietly.

Ripper dismissed that comment with a wave of his hand, "Whatever, better it's him rather than us."

"How could you say that?" Damien responded, glaring at Ripper.

"Think about it, from what you guys have told me the guy should be absolutely fine, it sounds like Scary Girl's crushing on him anyway." Ripper explained, before pointing at Damien, "Which is weird as I thought she had some weird thing for you?"

"ME!?" He screamed out in fright, "WHY WOULD YOU THINK SUCH A THING!"

"I thought she was one of those psychos who crush on the person they torture the most, and she did chase you around the island with a jackhammer." Ripper said.

"SHE DID THE SAME THING TO MK! ARE YOU GONNA SAY SHE LIKED HER NEXT!" Damien shouted in horror.

"I dunno, maybe?" Ripper responded looking slightly confused.

"ARE YOU GONNA SAY SHE LIKED HER NEXT!" Damien shouted in horror, being faintly heard through the windows leading into the resort.

"I don't even wanna know what they're talking about out there…" MK stated, rolling her eyes at Damien's shouting.

After her scheme from yesterday in uploading the video of Axel and Lauren fighting in the gym, MK decided to lay low for a while. Knowing that she was the only person to not be directly involved in trying to resolve the confrontation, she knew that she'd have to get into certain people's good graces if she wanted to make it out unscathed.

Not that she wanted to make any friends out of this, however she knew she'd need backup in case Lauren went after her next. Therefore she took action in trying to 'acquaint herself' with some of the others, leading to her current situation of being stuck in the gym with Caleb and Axel, timing their workouts as the pair competed against one another, Axel eventually coming out on top.

"Yes!" She cheered, pumping her fists up after dropping her weights on the floor. "I told you I would beat you Caleb, I don't have a 9.7 primitive survival rating for nothing." She bragged, smirking at him as he finished up.

"Aw man, I thought I had this in the bag…" Caleb said, sighing to himself before extending a hand to Axel. "Good race Axel, can't wait for a potential rematch."

Axel pondered that question silently for a moment, before shrugging and accepting his hand in a firm grip. "Why not? It's nice to have decent competition for a change."

"Yeah Yeah, we're all best friends now…" MK says dismissively, only to be glared at by Axel.

"I don't see you making an attempt 'Thief'." Axel says angrily.

"Yeah, because it's not my thing, my thing is to sit in the background and stay under the radar, not show off like you two." She snarked.

"And that worked so well for you now didn't it." Axel retorted.

"...Fair point." MK eventually conceded after a long silence, "But only because I got cocky, next time I won't do that again."

"You say that like we'll get another season…" Caleb responded, looking downcast at the thought, wanting to get another chance at the competition.

"Why not? Ezekiel's generation got four seasons and the second one got two, why not us?" MK said, only for Axel to seethe in anger at the mention of Ezekiel.

"Do NOT bring Zombie Boy into this!" She said angrily towards MK, who smirked back.

"What? Still bitter about being beaten in a fight by his creepy girlfriend." She snarked, only to be grabbed by Axel and lifted up several feet in the air. "Hey! Put me down!" She complained.

"I did NOT lose to 'Scary Girl', next time I'll pulverise them both!" She declared, pissed off about the situation.

"Axel! Calm Down!" Caleb shouted, pushing his way in between the pair, resulting in MK being dropped to the ground. "Oops, sorry MK." He says, smiling sheepishly as MK groans from impacting the floor.

"Ugh, look Axel, I know you and Caleb weren't on the island at the time, but you're talking about fighting the girl who could swing a bear around with one arm. Sorry to say this but she could probably kick your ass." MK explained to Axel, a grin sneaking onto her face at the last sentence.

Axel says nothing in response, instead she turns away and begins her next workout. Caleb glances at MK in confusion, who shrugs in response.

"Okay that's enough of that." Millie proclaimed, taking off her blindfold and throwing it to the ground, before clutching her head where Priya had hit her during their 'training'.

"No! You can't just stop training and give up on challenges whenever you want!" Priya replied, growing annoyed with Millie's lack of ambition in trying to improve in the game. "I'm trying to transform you into an invincible goddess that can never be hit, a force of na-" she continued, gesturing towards Millie before suddenly being cut off.

"Hey!" A cheerful voice called from the entrance to the cabin, revealing herself to be Julia.

Priya whipped around in fright, accidentally smacking Millie once more with the broom.

"Ow!" Millie cried out, causing Priya to whip around once again, smacking her once more with the broom, a concerned "Sorry" coming from Priya.

"It's okay, I'm getting used to it…" Millie said, clutching her face in slight pain from the smacks.

"And back to me." Julia started, grinning confidently, "So, a three person alliance is stronger than a two person alliance" She continued, pointing at them before shrugging, "And since I will NOT work with Bowie, I'm here to team up with you two." She finished, sounding slightly more condescending towards the end.

"Do you really think we would let YOU join OUR alliance?" Millie said angrily towards Julia, pointing at her, only to look on in shock when Priya jumped in front of her happily shouting "You're in!"

"What?" Millie exclaimed, "Can you excuse us for just a minute?" She asked Julia, quickly grabbing Priya and darting over to the over end of the cabin to discuss the alliance.

Julia quirked an eyebrow in annoyance, pulling out her phone and beginning to browse her social media accounts whilst waiting for the two to finish.

"Why am I teaming up with these buttknuckles again?" She muttered to herself quietly, before sighing, "Oh well, better them than Bowie…"

She continued browsing her phone, before noticing one video in particular of two familiar faces beginning to fight inside a gym. Curious, Julia started the video and watched in surprise and fascination as the clip continued to the end of the fight when one person in particular caught her eye.

"Is that who I think it is?" She muttered in disbelief, just as Priya and Millie turned around, having resolved their brief argument.

"Okay, you're in…" Millie muttered reluctantly, as Priya looked on curiously at Julia, wondering what had her looking so shocked.

Priya opened her mouth to ask her when Julia looked up and smiled at her in particular, "Hey buttknuckle, you might be interested in watching this!" She said, flipping the phone around and showing the pair the video of Lauren and Axel's fight.

Millie shuddered immediately seeing Scary Girl in the video, turning away. "No thanks, I've seen enough of her for one lifetime, right Priya." She exclaimed, expecting Priya to agree with her, only to turn to her in confusion when Priya didn't respond.

Priya watched intently throughout the whole video, as Damien and Caleb tried to separate the pair, just about succeeding when the others showed up to intervene. She watched in pure awe as Ezekiel ran over to Lauren and began comforting her.

Millie glanced once more at the phone, only to join Priya in shock when they saw the pair hugging, the rest of them in disbelief. Axel had taken one glare at them and stormed out of view, Nichelle quickly following after her, the clip ending soon after.

"Who was that?" Millie asked, confused.

"I-I don't believe it." Priya said in shock, "What is he doing here? Why is he here? What the hell was that?" She began to ramble, completely stunned by what she had just seen.

"What that was buttknuckle, was a former contestant getting quite close with our resident Scary Girl." Julia responded, smirking deviously at the pair. "Bet it's quite the shock for you Priya, potentially getting the chance to meet someone who actually competed in one of these shows." She snarked.

"I-I remember watching All Stars when it came out a few years ago, he disappeared, was he really here the whole time?" Priya questioned to herself, still in complete disbelief.

"SNAP OUT OF IT!" Millie shouted, smacking some sense back into Priya, which Julia smirked at.

"Look, we can talk about this all day, or we can get going, there is a challenge soon after all, one I intend to win!" Julia said, motioning to the pair to leave the cabin.

Millie and Priya glanced at each other, "She's right Priya, let's get this challenge over with then we'll talk about this, ok." Millie said to her in concern.

"Y-Yeah…" Priya agreed, taking a moment to recollect herself. "Are you still in with the plan?" She asked Millie quietly.

"Definitely." She responded, smiling at her friend once more, before they both left the cabin after Julia.

Around the same time as Julia's discovery of the video, Chris McLean was busy preparing himself for the next challenge, busying himself by applying an ungodly amount of hair gel to his hair, as he always does.

After the events of the last challenge, he was looking forward to putting the contestants through more torture in this one, however his mood had been dampened significantly by one discovery.

That stupid video that someone put up of Axel and Scary Girl's brawl at the resort.

He was already seething about it upon discovering it shortly after Ripper's elimination, and knew how damaging a leak like that would prove to the ratings for the new season, given that almost half of the contestants from the whole season were involved in it, and given MK was the only one who didn't show up, he could hazard a guess as to who recorded it.

But that wasn't the worst part for him…

To Chris, the worst part of the clip was seeing Ezekiel show up as well, looking somewhat better compared to the last time he'd seen the Feral Homeschooler, which to be fair was all the way back in All Stars when Ezekiel attempted to murder him.

But it wasn't just that, he didn't like what he saw between Ezekiel and Scary Girl, he already knew that they'd spent several days alone with each other on Boney Island, and Chef had told him about his latest visit to the Playa, so he knew that they were friends.

But what the hell had he witnessed in that clip…

Chris briefly thought of the pros and cons of this, on one hand the drama he could milk from this next season, 'and given the current ratings from this season I'll absolutely consider bringing this new batch back' he thought to himself.

On the other hand this drama looked like it involved Ezekiel in some form, given the interaction he saw them have in the clip. He wanted to entertain the possibility of older contestants coming back for another season, even after the disaster that was 'Total Drama All Stars', but he was extremely reluctant to bring Ezekiel back simply because of how much he disliked him.

Chris sighed to himself in annoyance. "Maybe I'll have to head to the resort myself, see for myself what Scary Girl has caused…" He muttered to himself, finishing up with applying his hair gel, before walking out of his luxurious trailer, ready to start filming on the next episode.

The forest that Dawn frequented was quite quiet today, with no animals to speak of, which in light of recent events she was quite okay with.

Earlier in the day when she'd first woken up, she'd seen the clip involving the brawl between members of the new cast, she didn't pay much attention at first, not really knowing the context behind it nor any of them personally. 'Although that purple haired girl looked familiar,' she thought to herself at the time.

When she eventually saw Ezekiel make his appearance in the clip Dawn's heart plummeted. She immediately contacted Sierra once she finished watching, wanting to know what had happened to him after that last season where he disappeared.

Upon finding out that he'd been stuck on Boney Island, in the mutant sanctuary that she'd helped to create for the poor mutant animals that suffered by Chris's hands, she'd fled to her small treehouse in the nearby forest where she'd once filmed her own audition tape for the show, desperately trying to hide from the others just how saddened she was at this realisation.

At first Dawn tried to meditate, believing that she'd be able to calm down this way and think rationally about the situation, only for her discomfort to become too unbearable.

So the moonchild broke down in tears, her soul crushed by the realisation that she could have helped him much sooner, although a small part of her was relieved that at least Ezekiel looked like she was on the road to recovery.

After a while, her phone began to ring nearby, she picked it up, seeing Cody's number flash up, before answering.

"Hello?" She greeted shakily, still hurt.

"Dawn, is that you? Are you okay?" Cody responded.

"I-I'm fine… Is this about that video?" She asked him.

"Yeah, look first off, I'm sorry about earlier, Sierra wasn't trying to upset you…" He said to her, sounding concerned about the moonchild.

"I-It's okay Cody, I understand that, It's just… I could have done more to help him…" Dawn replied, tearing up once more.

"Well you still can Dawn, it's okay." Cody said softly.

"How?" Dawn questioned.

"Look, nothing's guaranteed yet, but Sierra's looking at convincing Chef to let us see him at the Playa, we didn't want to say anything just yet in case it doesn't end up happening, but I don't like hearing you sound so sad, and I doubt Sierra would either." Cody explained.

"W-What if it doesn't work?" Dawn asked him.

"I suppose we could always go to the farm where he grew up, I mean Sierra knows where that is." He responded.

"But isn't that invasive?" She questioned.

"It is, but this is Sierra we're talking about, besides his family would understand, we're his friends after all…" Cody reassured her.

"O-Okay." Dawn smiled slightly, feeling slightly better.

"Look, don't worry too much about it Dawn, none of this is your fault, if it is then every single one of us on the show is to blame as well, we all could've tried to look for him after All Stars, and I doubt you'd want any of our auras to be so gloomy." Cody responded, joking with his last sentence.

Dawn giggled slightly, accepting that last comment as fact. "True, thank you Cody." She said, feeling much better.

"No problem." She could practically hear the grin growing on his face, "And don't worry, he'll be just fine, I'll talk to you soon when we have an update."

"Goodbye." Dawn responded, before the call disconnected. She wiped her face clean with her sleeve, feeling slightly reassured, before attempting to resume her meditation, succeeding this time now that her spirits had been lifted.

End Chapter

Author's Note: Like I said before, a bit of a different chapter, moving the story along slightly whilst gaining different perspectives on the ongoing situation from both old and new faces. In regards to Dawn's section, it hurt to have her be in pain for this chapter, along with Ezekiel (and now Lauren) Dawn is my favourite character in the series, and on top of this I heavily ship Ezekiel and Dawn together (not happening in this fic however, maybe in a future one if I ever get around to it, I'd like to finish this one first.). There will definitely be a scene between the three of them, that's for sure.

On a side note the section with Julia, Priya and Millie wasn't originally planned, however given that Julia did still have a phone by this point, it's possible that she would have seen it so I included this section, not sure yet how to move it going forward in regards to them being late game contestants, thus not getting much chance to interact with the main duo, but think of this as a way of having these characters get some time in the spotlight pre-finale.