Author's Note: Apologies for the late upload, I've been busy over the last week or so and haven't found too much time to devote to writing this fic, and when I had I ended up distracting myself with learning to use my drawing tablet (and by that I mean attempting to use it XD). I do fully intend on finishing this however!

Reviews

RFtheGreat: Dawn has genuinely been so fun to write, I really tried to balance her kindness with her slight tendency to overstep as well. (since we know Dawn has no problems revealing people's darkest secrets *cough* Scott wasn't held enough as a child *cough*)

As for the others, honestly the small scene with Ripper and Harold had to be done, I'd seen people comment on Ripper being a mix of the bad traits of Duncan and Owen so I knew he'd probably take a dislike to Harold, and in this case Chase ended up being the Geoff to Ripper's Duncan. As for Cody's attempt at a lawsuit, that's going to be addressed sooner rather than later ;).

As always I really appreciate your continued support! =D

Chapter Nineteen

"Well, h-here we are eh…" Ezekiel said, staring from the trees at the cave where Dawn had found him the other night.

Dakota walked up next to him, her red eyes briefly scanning the area, checking for any dangerous animals or if any of the others had followed them.

"Yeah, this'll do…" She eventually smiled, turning towards her fellow 'ex-mutant' before pulling a small backpack off from her back, inside was a small notebook filled with notes that Dakota started to swiftly go through.

"W-What's that for?" Ezekiel asked, reaching up to take a look, seeing unfamiliar writing, although the sketches amongst said writing looked vaguely similar to his abilities that he'd gained from both his time on the plane and in the mines…

'Oh…' Ezekiel mentally facepalmed, quickly realising what the notes were about as Dakota began to respond.

"Since I'd always planned to make sure that we would cure you once we were able to find you." Dakota began, briefly looking away from the notes to look towards the Feral Homeschooler. "I made sure to note down whatever I could find from the clips of you on the show post elimination, as well as whatever the others would tell me…" She briefly explained, continuing to flick through the notes.

"Besides…" She continued, a brief flicker of pain flashing in her eyes as she smiled at him once more, "I needed the literacy exercise with these, not being able to speak very well was easily the worst part of being Dakotazoid…"

"Oh, I-I'm sorry you h-had to go through that a-as well…" Ezekiel responded slowly, looking at his fellow ex-mutant nervously.

Dakota however smiled and shrugged it off, "Don't be, it's not your fault, after all Chris was the one who sent me into those mines in the first place." She frowned slightly at the mention of the host, remembering what exactly had caused her to mutate in the first place.

Ezekiel's eyes however had widened in shock at this, "Wait… b-but I never saw you in the m-mines?" He questioned.

"I didn't see you, but I certainly saw those gophers you had scurrying around…" She replied, shuddering slightly at the memory of her being chased through the mines by the swarm of mutant gophers, never having noticed the statues that she had been sent down to place in the mines being taken away.

"Those mines aside…" Dakota continued, shaking her head to try and get rid of the memory that had resurfaced. "The doctors I'd sent over here have given me updates on your condition, as well as whatever I could find from rewatching the show and from people who had seen you… mostly Sierra and Izzy…" She continued to explain, pausing when she remembered how little certain cast members seemed to care about his condition following what happened in All Stars.

"A-And what did you f-find?" Ezekiel asked her once more.

"That apart from the mutation from the mines giving you the acidic spit, the only thing that it really did was keep your physical state as it was. I mean, most of your abilities came from your time on the plane, so unless you're about to tell me there was toxic waste in the cargo hold then honestly most of your strengths should be permanent even when your appearance is cured." She finished explaining, before looking over towards him with some concern. "There wasn't toxic waste in the cargo hold was there?" She asked, knowing that Ezekiel would know better than any viewing of World Tour could answer, since Ezekiel had lived in the hold for weeks if not months.

Ezekiel paused for a moment, thinking back to his time on the plane, trying to remember every part of the layout of the cargo hold. "W-Well there was a sled made of radioactive c-containers, but that disappeared quickly, o-other than that I don't r-remember any lying around, although some of the c-containers had w-warning labels on them, so m-maybe?" He eventually said, looking confused.

Dakota just sighed, jotting the information on a mostly blank page, the only other information on this one being about his recovered ability to speak that she'd discovered from the video of Axel and Lauren's fight.

"Okay, that's slightly concerning, I suppose we'll find out sooner or later if most of your abilities from after your elimination stick or not, for now though it's probably best we move on to what we came out here for…" Dakota responded, looking slightly concerned about what exactly was in that cargo hold, she made a mental note to ask Sierra as soon as they got back to the resort, if anyone other than Ezekiel would know it was best to ask the superfan.

It was either that or risk Chris or Chef, although Dakota was still pretty mad at Chris in particular, since Chef at least has shown that he does care for the cast in his own way…

"The a-acid spit, right?" Ezekiel asked, already preparing himself.

Dakota nodded, scanning the area once more, this time looking for something suitable for Ezekiel to test his acid spit on to see if the cure had reversed it or not, she would have used the trees nearby, however she was good friends with Dawn after their season together on Revenge of the Island, and she didn't want to upset her, knowing that the wildlife in the area potentially getting hurt was part of the reason why she hadn't gone with them.

She also suspected that there were other reasons, but Dawn usually had a good reason for what she did, so she couldn't judge the moonchild for staying behind if it benefitted in the long run.

Eventually she noticed some rocks a bit further into the cave from where Ezekiel had sat the previous day, they were quite spaced apart from the walls and would likely not result in a possible cave-in in the event that Ezekiel completely destroyed them with his acid.

A little convenient for her liking but what wasn't convenient on these islands, between all of the new areas Chris seemed to spawn in at Camp Wawanakwa, and the various little additions on all three islands that almost didn't seem natural, but actually were like the woolly beavers back on Boney Island.

The pair walked over, Dakota quickly pointing over to the rocks when they arrived. "See those rocks there Zeke?" She asked him.

When he replied she continued, "I want you to try and dissolve them with your acid spit, we'll be able to tell that way if it's gotten weaker or not, if you even still have it…"

Ezekiel nodded slightly, turning towards the rocks, he removed his toque and wig, placing them on the ground next to Dakota, not wanting to risk damaging them, before he crouched down on his legs, growling animalistically towards the rocks, attempting to summon up any acid.

Unfortunately for him, he was unable to, what used to be natural to him since his time in the mines and throughout his stay on Boney Island had suddenly become almost impossible to do. After around a minute of trying he gave up, sighing in defeat as he rose back onto his feet, shaking his head at Dakota who'd begun taking notes of the failed attempt.

"I-I can't do it… I c-can feel something b-but I can't summon it a-anymore…" He stuttered out, breathing heavily from retching for that long.

Dakota hummed lightly in response, finishing her note taking before looking over to him once more. "I want to try something to see if it is still there, if I can have your permission?" She asked him, putting the notebook down next to Ezekiel's headgear before walking towards him.

"Sure…" Ezekiel responded, glancing up at her once more.

"Okay then, oh and… sorry about this in advance…" Dakota apologised as she stepped up next to him, pausing for a moment when she thought about what she was about to do.

"Huh? S-Sorry fo…" He began, quickly being cut off as Dakota punched him as hard as she could in the stomach, the Feral Homeschooler quickly falling to his knees once more, quickly vomiting all over the ground in front of him.

Dakota looked down at him with guilt in her eyes, not wanting to do that, but as she looked over towards where he'd vomited, she noticed it quickly dissolved after a few moments, small burn marks all that was left of the acid, with the surface otherwise completely unharmed.

Ezekiel groaned in pain, coughing after the unexpected gut punch from Dakota, glaring slightly at her even as she began to help him up, smiling apologetically.

"Sorry again Ezekiel, but it was the only thing I could think of that might have worked." She apologised once more, setting him down by the wall and letting him recover, passing him his toque and wig before she picked up her notepad, quickly beginning to write down what she'd seen.

"T-Tell m-me it d-did something a-at least…" Ezekiel spoke slowly, clutching his stomach in slight pain, his words more stuttery than usual after being punched so hard.

"Well your acid is there to an extent, it just seems to be a lot weaker and dissolves quickly, if it wasn't for the small scorch marks you'd probably not even notice it." She explained, Ezekiel looking up in slight surprise at this information.

"S-So I w-won't hurt a-anyone with i-it?" He asked Dakota, who shrugged slightly in response.

"I mean I don't want to risk anyone's safety, but I'd probably say it'd just be like a slight burn." She said, not being entirely sure, just making a guess based on what she saw from before.

"W-Well, e-either way I-I'd rather n-not be punched a-again eh…" Ezekiel replied as he started to get up, his wig and toque now on his head once more.

"I won't, just… Please don't tell Lauren, okay?" Dakota grinned nervously at her fellow ex-mutant, Ezekiel smiling and shaking his head in response.

"N-Nah it's m-my fault for a-agreeing to it, a-at least w-we know now." He grinned, still clutching his stomach slightly as they began to walk back towards the resort, having gotten all of the information that they currently needed.

"Noah!" A voice called over from the doors, the bookworm glancing over to see Cody running through the doors towards the pool looking extremely pissed off about something, Sierra quickly following suit.

Noah just raised an eyebrow, not knowing what he had done for Cody to be mad at him, but he decided to humour his old friend. "Oh no, you got me…" He joked slightly as the pair stopped by the bar where he and Emma were sitting, only for his small smile to drop when he saw both Cody and Sierra looking concerned and angry. "Cody what's happened?" He asked, quickly dropping the sarcasm as he realised that something had happened.

"Can you two help us?" Cody responded, briefly glancing at Noah before turning his attention to Emma, who looked back at him confused.

"Uh… Sure? With what exactly?" Emma hesitantly replied, wanting to know more first before she potentially got dragged into something stupid.

"You're a lawyer right? Can you help us make a case against Chris for his neglect over everything with Ezekiel?" Cody asked her, not noticing Lauren's head snapping over towards the pool bar at the mention of both Chris and Ezekiel in the same sentence.

He did however notice the redhead that suddenly appeared from the water, her face stretched out into a huge grin. "Oh, let me help! I know exactly where to hit McLean where it hurts!" Izzy cackled as Owen surfaced from beside her, gasping for air as Cody jumped back in fright from Izzy's jumpscare, accidentally stumbling into Sierra and almost knocking the pair over.

"Can we chop him into little pieces and scatter them around the island?" Lauren responded eerily as she appeared from behind the pair, causing them to shudder in fright from both her appearance and her chilling words as Damien and Kitty slowly started shuffling away from the Scary Girl. "We can put a piece in the confessional, in the woods, on a lifeguard chair, in Chef's kitchen, oh… and his head under a bed in the cabins!" Lauren continued as if she were in a trance, her creepy smile stretching out as wide as Izzy's as she rambled on, her eyes wide in pure insanity as she described what she wanted to do to the host as revenge for what he did to Ezekiel.

Her brief spiral quickly stopped when Damien of all people splashed her with a cup of water provided by MK, who was still sitting next to Noah and Emma at the pool bar. Lauren blinked for a moment, regaining her bearings, her makeup somehow unaffected by the water as she looked around at all of the shocked and disturbed faces around her.

"What?" She asked innocently, smiling once more.

"What do you mean 'what?', did you even hear yourself just now!" Damien screamed in disbelief, backing away slowly now that Lauren had regained her bearings.

"I was just gonna say shave his head and pour his hair gel in the septic tank, but wow…" Izzy muttered, the normally crazy girl looking as shocked as the rest of them.

"Well… Scary Girl's various issues aside…" MK interrupted sarcastically, causing everyone's heads to whip around to her, MK choosing to ignore the glare from Lauren. "I believe you wanted a lawsuit on Chris, right Geek?" She glanced at Cody who nodded, choosing to ignore the nickname even as Sierra frowned at the thief.

"Yeah, uh…" Cody began nervously, feeling everyone's gaze on him once more. "We heard some things from Zee about Chris lying to Ezekiel about the London Challenge. I thought it would be helpful if you were constructing some sort of plan to sue him…" Cody explained nervously, his earlier determination having dissipated.

Lauren's eyes narrowed as she turned to look at Damien once more, the pair having been there for Chris's brief appearance at the resort when he admitted that. She could see his eyes locked in a similar expression of disgust aimed entirely towards the host that had ruined Ezekiel's life for higher ratings on his show.

"Yeah, we know about that…" Damien began, Lauren nodding alongside him. "Chris claimed he was gonna let him back on the show if he won a specific challenge, however because some guy called Duncan showed up he would have gone back on his word regardless."

Owen, Noah, Cody and Sierra all gasped in shock, the four of them having all been present for the London Challenge. Izzy narrowed her eyes towards Lauren, the two of them making a silent agreement to get back at Chris when they had the chance, even if Izzy didn't quite agree with Lauren's more disturbing methods like with what she had said earlier.

MK had also raised an eyebrow in slight interest, not having been near the others who had witnessed Chris's brief visit to the Playa. While the two former Ridonculous Race contestants glanced at each other in confusion, Emma began to write things down as she began to try and gather up some information about what exactly happened in order to make a case for a lawsuit.

Cody sighed in annoyance whilst the others who'd been there from London looked at him curiously, apart from Sierra who already knew about his frustrations from that particular day. "Seriously, you mean to tell me that we could have had Zeke back but we got Duncan instead…" He complained loudly, before muttering quietly to himself, "Of course Chris did that, he knew what was coming between him and Gwen…" He muttered sadly to himself, remembering all of the drama that had happened soon after Duncan's return to the plane during World Tour.

Emma's eyes narrowed slightly in sudden realisation, turning quickly towards Noah, "Hang on a second Noah, I'd hate to ruin the possibility of you guys getting some form of revenge on that Chris, but can we even fully blame him for Ezekiel turning feral in the first place?" She asked him, quickly drawing the attention of the others.

"What do you mean, of course we can?" Izzy shouted over from the edge of the pool where she was now sitting, having since climbed up after her jumpscare on Cody earlier on.

"But from what I've heard about everything since this whole situation with this Ezekiel started…" Emma began, pausing for a moment to quickly rethink her statement as everyone waited silently in anticipation. "Ezekiel stowed away on the plane in the first place after being eliminated, and while yes Chris by all means did make things worse throughout that season, and he's definitely at fault for what happened at Camp Wawanakwa until Ezekiel's disappearance on Boney Island, Ezekiel was already going feral during this London challenge correct?" She asked the others, quickly getting hesitant nods from several of the others who had begun to connect the dots.

"And this was the first time anyone had seen him since his original elimination, correct?" She asked the World Tour cast specifically, getting another concerned nod from Cody and Owen. "Then unfortunately whilst Ezekiel's condition was worsened by Chris's neglect after being discovered in London, the issue is he spent several weeks in that cargo hold by his own volition, if I'm remembering the episodes correctly that means not counting those aftermath episodes he spent around eight or nine episodes of that season as a stowaway with no one knowing he was there." Emma finished explaining.

"So what, you're saying there's nothing we can do?" Lauren asked, her eyes lowered in concern even as she smiled widely towards Emma.

"N-No… That's not what I meant…" Emma responded, shuddering slightly at the Scary Girl's creepy smile. "We can still make a case for Chris neglecting Ezekiel, the problem is that because Ezekiel initially did this to himself, it's going to be a lot harder to convince any judges as there's TV evidence to prove that Chris didn't cause Ezekiel's spiral into insanity."

"What she means is that unless Chris himself confesses to having known about this earlier yet allowing him to continue to deteriorate then it's going to be an uphill battle, I mean it's entirely possible given all of the extra footage that never makes it onto the final product." Noah added, drawing a confused look from Damien.

"Wait, how do you know about that?" He asked the bookworm.

"Because genius, A it's basic reality TV knowledge that most of the footage never makes it to the final episode, and B, I know it's the case especially for Total Drama because I had to sit through several hours of cut footage from the first two seasons during my time as Chris's assistant…" Noah responded, rolling his eyes in disgust at the memory of serving under Chris.

"Wait really, um, can you show me some of it?" Sierra asked Noah, an excited look in her eyes.

Noah just rolled his eyes again at Sierra's comment, "Even if I still had access to the footage, do you seriously think I'd let a nutjob like you see it, and yes Izzy that goes for you too…" He replied sarcastically, glancing at Izzy for his last comment.

"Aww…" Izzy groaned slightly, glaring down disappointedly into the water.

"Eh, I could just download the confessionals, it's what I did this season after all…" MK smirked, causing both Sierra and Izzy's faces to brighten up slightly, only for the thief to laugh at them, "Just because I said I could doesn't mean I'm actually gonna do it, besides I'd need access to the confessional and that's not here…" She snarked, grinning at the glares she received from the two girls.

"Plus didn't you say that the others threw your phone into the water after Julia exposed you?" Damien asked her, causing MK to groan slightly in response.

"Well it was actually a phone I stole from Julia, but yeah…" She grumbled slightly, "Point is I can't do it so good luck getting any info…"

"Well MK's little ego trip aside…" Noah began, a small smirk being the only thing to indicate that he heard MK shout an angry "HEY!" in response. "It's possible some of the footage from the old seasons could be stored somewhere else." He continued.

"He's right, Chris always had various places like this where he stored all of the footage, the film lot, the private room in the spa hotel, his private suite on the plane…" Sierra smiled, listing off some of the locations that Chris had kept to himself.

"What are you getting at exactly?" Emma asked the pair.

"There might be a location somewhere on one of the islands where we can look for what we need in order to support our case against Chris!" Sierra explained happily, with Noah nodding in agreement.

"Obviously since he didn't know about Ezekiel until Scary Girl over there found him…" Noah began, Lauren grinning at the mention of her time on Boney Island. "We can rule Boney Island out, which leaves either the resort here or Camp Wawanakwa itself."

"And Chris will likely have somewhere away from the campgrounds that he'll use for himself!" Sierra continued.

"So someone needs to head back to Wawanakwa and find this footage if it's not already here." Izzy summarised, beginning to understand where Sierra and Noah were going with this.

"Exactly." Noah smirked at the crazy girl, before looking towards Damien and MK who were still sitting nearby. "If this finale is anything like the other seasons, then your cast will probably be made to actively spectate the whole thing, however…" He trailed off, knowing that one of them would figure it out.

"Chris doesn't know that any of you are here…" Damien responded, voice growing in confidence as his eyes widened slightly. "He only knows about Ezekiel, but any of you would be able to sneak onto the island and look for this footage!"

"Ooh… I can do it!" Izzy shouted happily, her legs kicking into the water. "I've done worse jobs in the past, and I can deal with the big bad cook in case he tries to stop me!" She explained giddily, already thinking about how she was going to deal with Chef if he got in the way.

"Fine Izzy you can go…" Noah rolled his eyes, a small smile on his face. He looked around at everyone present by the pool, his face quickly becoming serious once more. "Alright, so here's what we're gonna do…"

As talks for how they were going to find this footage started to intensify, Lauren gazed off towards the forest once more, a wide smirk appearing on her face when she saw two familiar figures approaching the entrance to the resort.

She looked over and noticed everyone else was too busy in conversation about what to do, and as much as she would have loved to have contributed some of her ideas, she now had more important things to look forward to.

Lauren smiled once more, taking one last look at the others before diving into the nearby bushes, beginning to make her way over to the front of the resort in order to meet up with Ezekiel once more…

Unaware of the Scary Girl that was rapidly approaching their location, Dakota and Ezekiel approached the entrance to the resort, opening the doors to the lobby to find no one there.

"Huh… Could have sworn that there were a bunch of them here when we left?" Dakota said quietly to herself, before shaking her head slightly, quickly realising that she could just call Sam to find him.

As she phoned up Sam, wanting to see him as soon as possible now that she was back at the resort, Ezekiel quietly sat down on one of the couches, politely waiting for his companion to finish what she needed to do whilst he gently nursed the area where she'd punched him earlier during their test, the pain from earlier having since dulled into a small ache.

After a few moments Dakota ended her brief call to Sam, smiling over towards Ezekiel as she started to walk past him and towards the stairs leading up to the residential wing. "Sorry Ezekiel, I have to go now, I'll talk to you later okay!" She called over, waving goodbye to the Feral Homeschooler who just nodded silently in response.

After Dakota left, Ezekiel sat there for a moment in silence, not quite sure about what to do next, he had no idea about where Lauren and Izzy had gone, and Dawn had disappeared to go and do other things without much explanation.

As he sat there quietly to himself, a figure gradually appeared from the window behind him, a huge grin on their face as they quickly scanned the room to see if anyone else was nearby. When they were satisfied, they gradually opened the door as quietly as they could, Ezekiel being none the wiser to what was about to happen to him.

Lauren stepped into the lobby, her mischievous grin not leaving her face as she walked up to the unsuspecting Ezekiel, her feet somehow making no noise despite taking no measures to try and be quiet.

Eventually she finds herself standing behind the couch that Ezekiel is sitting on, the latter still completely unaware of her presence in the room with him. She gently leant over the couch, her grin stretching even further as she placed her head next to his, waiting for him to turn around.

Ezekiel knew something was slightly off, it had been too quiet, and yet he felt like he was being watched. He was just about to get up when he felt small breathing touch the back of his neck, and a few strands of long hair caressed the side of his neck. He turned around nervously, jumping slightly at the maniacally grinning Lauren standing nearby.

"Hey Zekey!" She giggled, his terrified expression quickly shifting into a relieved one when he saw who exactly it was.

"Lauren…" He smiled back, watching as she leapt over the couch, quickly sitting next to him, her head resting on his shoulder as she proceeded to kiss him on the cheek.

"So…" Lauren began. "How did the test go? Can you still do the thing with the acid?" She asked, her creepy smile coming back at the mention of the acid spit.

Said smile quickly dropping when Ezekiel slowly shook his head. "N-No, we tried but I-I couldn't do it anymore… and e-even when I did it w-was weaker, it just d-dissolved…" He explained, noticing Lauren's eyes dropping slightly in disappointment.

After a moment however she looked back up at him, the disappointment quickly giving way to a soft smile, "At least it means that you're getting better." She responded, the prairie boy smiling back softly at her reassurance.

Ezekiel looked around briefly once more, noticing the lack of a certain redhead that he knew Lauren had left with earlier in the day. "So… w-where did Izzy go eh?" He asked the Scary Girl, who just groaned softly, still slightly irritated about Izzy abandoning their plan to scare Damien.

"Well, we went to the pool where the others were, but Izzy decided to ruin our plan to get Damien…" She muttered sadly to him, burying her face slightly in his sleeve so he didn't see how annoyed she was at the reminder.

"A-Are you mad at her?" He asked Lauren.

Lauren stayed silent for a moment, before answering slowly, wanting to believe her own answer for herself. "I don't know… I guess… I just thought she'd be fully on board but she abandoned it at the smallest interruption." She pouted.

Ezekiel just chuckled nervously in response, not wanting to side against his girlfriend but knowing full well what Izzy was like from his time on the show before his dehumanisation.

"Izzy's just l-like that eh… I-It's not like s-she was trying to be m-mean or anything, she's j-just… a wildcard like t-that." He explained softly, hoping Lauren would accept this small explanation. "She just… d-does things at her own pace. I'm sure s-she'll help you next time." He smiled at her, noticing Lauren looking up at him once more, her signature smile once again on her face.

"Yeah, I guess so…" Lauren responded softly as Ezekiel put an arm around her in comfort, the two sharing a small kiss as they sat there in silence for a few moments.

Suddenly Ezekiel's ears perked up slightly, hearing the sounds of footsteps approaching from the residential wing upstairs, he looked over, expecting to see Dakota and Sam returning from her brief trip, only to instead narrow his eyes slightly as he saw Axel moving directly towards them, Dawn following with an apologetic smile.

Lauren quickly noticed the survivalist approaching and growled, jumping to her feet and standing in front of Ezekiel protectively.

"Relax Scary Girl, I'm not here to hurt your boyfriend…" Axel said, rolling her eyes in annoyance as both her and Dawn stopped in front of the pair.

"Then what do you want?..." Lauren responded eerily, her eyes narrowing in annoyance towards Axel.

"Lauren?" Dawn's voice cut in, the moonchild flinching slightly as the Scary Girl's head whipped around to face her, an audible crack being heard as she moved. "Axel would like to speak with Ezekiel alone. Can we leave them alone for a moment?" She said softly, trying to not anger the Scary Girl standing in front of her.

"Whatever she wants to say to him she can say to me as well…" She responded simply, turning her head back towards the glaring Axel.

"Ugh… I don't have time for this…" Axel groaned in annoyance, turning to leave the lobby when Dawn stepped in front of her. "What the… Get out of my way Dawn!" She shouted at the moonchild, who shook her head as she stood her ground, even as the survivalist towered over her.

"Axel, we talked about this… we knew this could happen…" Dawn responded, her gaze unflinching even as Axel glared at her.

"…" Axel stayed silent, knowing that the moonchild wouldn't let her leave now that they had already begun. She sat down reluctantly on the couch opposite where Ezekiel was sitting, Lauren proceeding to sit back down herself, still ready to protect Ezekiel if Axel tried anything.

"Thank you." Dawn smiled at Axel, glad that she was co-operating. She sat down herself next to Axel, silently willing Axel to say what she needed to.

"Fine, since Dawn won't let me leave until we've sorted things out… I'm sorry…" She reluctantly stated, causing both Ezekiel and Lauren to do a double take.

"Wait… W-What?" Ezekiel responded in disbelief.

"I said I'm sorry… for what I said the other day… when I threatened you…" She continued, Ezekiel shuddering slightly as he remembered what happened, Lauren squeezing his hand in comfort as she continued to glare at Axel.

Ezekiel turned a corner, almost at the medical room when he ended up colliding with someone, Ezekiel being knocked down whilst the other person stumbled backwards in surprise. Ezekiel started to stammer an apology when he heard the other voice grumble angrily, "Great… It's Zombie Boy."

He looked up to see Axel glaring down at him, looking really annoyed at his mere presence, the survivalist looked around briefly, scanning the hallways to see if Lauren was nearby, assuming that she would be sticking with Ezekiel like she had been since their arrival.

Realising that they were in fact alone, Axel glared at the Feral Homeschooler once more, her words sounding restrained, like she was repulsed to even have to deal with him. "'Scary Girl' or whatever her real name is may have tricked the rest of them into believing that you are capable of healing, but I can see right through you Zombie." She stated angrily.

She took a menacing step forward, towering over Ezekiel, who glared straight back at her "I've trained to deal with the likes of you my whole life! If you even think of stepping out of line I will personally end you Zombie!" She threatened him, Ezekiel responding with a growl.

Axel narrowed her eyes at him, pushing him back down to the ground before storming off down the hallway. Ezekiel slowly got up, glaring in the direction that she left.

"Oh… t-that…" Ezekiel muttered softly, causing Dawn to look at him in concern.

"Look… I still don't like you, either of you…" Axel continued, glaring at Lauren in particular. "Especially you Scary Girl, but I'll admit… I was wrong to hate on you for your condition…"

Ezekiel looked up at her once more in confusion as Lauren tilted her head slightly.

"I'm not asking to be friends… hell I don't want to be friends with anyone here, training Nichelle is bad enough…" Axel kept going, not noticing Dawn smirk slightly at her mention of training Nichelle, nor did she notice the small blush that appeared on her own face when she mentioned the Action Star. "But I'm willing to forget about this whole thing if you do, start over…" She finished, looking expectantly at the pair, waiting to hear what they had to say.

Ezekiel and Lauren glanced at each other, not knowing how to respond. Lauren already knew her opinion on the matter, she didn't like Axel, but she was willing to respect whatever Ezekiel wanted to do on the matter, she nodded slowly at him, letting him know that she'd follow whatever he said on the matter.

Ezekiel smiled softly at Lauren before turning back around to Axel. "L-Look, I don't know if I c-can fully trust you to l-leave this behind…" He began.

Axel just sighed slightly, "Fair enough…" She muttered, only to be cut off by the Feral Homeschooler.

"But I-I'll give you the b-benefit of the doubt eh. I f-forgive you…" Ezekiel smiled, holding out his hand to the survivalist.

Axel looked at his green, scarred hand for a moment, wondering to herself for a brief moment about if she had made the right choice or not, before smirking, taking Ezekiel's hand and shaking it firmly. Dawn clapping happily in response now that the tension between the pair was lifting.

"Just so we're clear…" Lauren interrupted, causing Axel to turn her head to him. "I'll respect this as long as you do Axel… If you go back on your apology, if you hurt him… I know where you live…" She said eerily, glaring at the survivalist for a moment even as her smile remained.

Axel just nodded silently in response, not willing to get into another argument with the Scary Girl, as much as she'd never admit it she still felt sore in some areas from her fight with Lauren days prior. "Whatever…" She simply responded, letting go of Ezekiel's hand, preparing to head back to the gym.

The others stood up themselves, the trio about to head off to look for the others when the doors to the lobby slammed open from one of the hallways.

"Hey Dawn? Dudette? Are you in here? My friends wanted to ask you som…" Geoff's voice trailed off as he entered the lobby, Bridgette and Harold following suit as all three stopped in shock as the others already in the lobby turned to face them

For Ezekiel, Harold and Bridgette, time seemed to stop completely as the Feral Homeschooler properly stared down his old Team Victory teammates for the first time in years. The pair immediately noticed him themselves, the tension quickly building up in the lobby as the trio stood there in silence. The others in the room not quite knowing what to say…

End Chapter

Author's Note: You may have noticed a small reference to a certain something that has been circulating around recently, especially if you're reading this on AO3. I'd have a feeling that Lauren would've enjoyed the horror aspect of it, even if it does go against what she said about not wanting people to die since she enjoys their screams more.

I think we all already know where this is going with their plan as well! Let's just say that I got inspiration from the Celebrity Manhunt Special when the plan gets executed over the coming chapters…