Welcome back, it's time for replies:

lordgemini- Glad you liked this one! I felt like this was one of the easier merge chapters to fix, since unlike the others where I was fixing problems with characters or challenge issues, this one was just adding more detail. I think the hardest part was just adding more character stuff for anyone who wasn't the main conflict, and this will continue that for sure today!

Final seven, let's see who loses today!

Episode 15: Owl City of Solitude

Chris and Chef were in the control room as Quaoar threw on his cloak and left for a day or tormenting. Chris got ready to open the episode recap. "Last time, on Total Drama Karon Island, we sent kids to our brand new dining bunker! Then, we fed them the most disgusting things imaginable!" The opening clips were of Luna holding her moldy bread and the meat dogs growling at Angie and Kayla. "After a tense night, Ethan and Jonathan stole the show by racing each other in very gross fashions." Clips played of Jonathan eating the junkyard trash, and Ethan gulping down the meat dog. "After five rounds, we sent them to the tiebreaker, where Jonathan got real venomous with his actions." Clips played of Ethan passing out and Jonathan poisoning his cup.

"After a brutal war, Ethan won out immunity keeping him safe, but that didn't extend to Norm, who bit the bullet for him thanks to Jonathan. Norm's mad, Luna's sad, and Jonathan's glad. Things are definitely insane today." Clips played of Norm being voted off, him breaking up with Luna, and his elimination. "And we said one final hello to Quaoar, my little pet I have to cause chaos on this island." He laughed as clips played of Jonathan striking a deal with Quaoar and then flipping back to the control room. Quaoar did not seem to appreciate being called a pet. "We're down to seven, well, let's be real, six and a poison victim. Anyway, see what happens today, on Total! Drama! Karon Island!"

Opening Sequence

[Various cameras and other director equipment come popping out of various points on the island. Firstly, it appears out of a large tree, then out of a hole at the entrance to the mines, and finally, shooting all the way from the top of The Chasm.]

Dear Mom and Dad, I'm doing fine,

[The camera zooms all the way up at the top of Mount Karon. Kara is at the top, observing something as Kayla jumps off of the cliff and starts flying downward, opening up a parachute at the very last second.]

You guys are on my mind,

[The camera moves to the beach, where Gretchen falls off of the rocky cliff and lands face first into the water, still splashing around happily anyway. Nearby, Juan is relaxing in the water as Hannah pops up next to him, evidently annoying him.]

You asked me what I wanted to be, and I think the answer is plain to see,

[Near the beach, the fourth boat is still wrecked and crashed into a rock. Helio lifts the boat out of the water to move it, all while Daniel is still on it, shocked at the boy's strength. Meanwhile, Madison emerges from the boat wreckage as well, and Jonathan offers his hand to help, which she takes begrudgingly.]

I wanna be famous!

[Further into the woods, Paul is narrowly racing against Sarah in a race. The pessimist trips over Sheldon and crashes to the ground, upset over his loss because of it. Flora rushes over to check on the safety of both the boys.]

I wanna live close to the sun,

[At the base of Mount Karon, Randall is decked out in climbing gear, excited to start moving up the mountain. Next to him, Alexa, looks significantly disinterested, sleeping on a log instead of watching.]

Go pack your bags cause I've already won,

[In the forest, Chad is screaming and jumping around to different trees, while Angie stands in the middle of all of it, covering her ears and getting increasingly more agitated.]

Everything to prove, nothing in my way, I'll get there one day,

[As Chad makes more noises, Ethan and Norm watch from a tree in the distance, before both of them exchange an understanding nod. Next to them lies an empty poison bottle.]

Cause I wanna be famous!

[In the dining tent, Chef and Luna are conversing rather calmly, before a strike of lightning crashes down on the tent. Chef runs out, but Luna appears unfazed by it, instead calmly glancing upward.]

Na na, na na na na, na na na na, na na na na na na!

[The camera moves to the dock, where Luna appears out of nowhere, spooking Paul and Kayla. The two glare at her, the former giving up on caring much faster than the latter.]

I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous! I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous!

[The camera drops down to the mines, where Kara is lurking, and she presses a button that launches out a ball of fire. The fire reveals some sort of odd structure inside the mine, bursting into a big glow that transitions to the fire.]

I wanna be famous *whistling*

[Everyone is circled up at the fire. In the middle of all of it, Jonathan leans in toward Madison, who jumps backward, accidentally landing in Ethan's lap, where she is even more freaked out. Above them is the sign that reads 'Total Drama Karon Island'.]

In the infirmary, Ethan was waking up in the morning. He still felt terrible and was having a lot of trouble moving. Chef caught sight of the anti-villain. "Look at that, you're awake," Chef said as he handed Ethan a pile of real food. "You might feel better if you eat something. I gotta actually cook you food according to the lawyers. You still look like garbage."

"Yeah, I feel like it too," Ethan responded, taking the breakfast Chef had offered him. "Thanks for all this, I bet this isn't what you were expecting." He coughed and through a few grunts and groans, managed to sit up in the bed for the first time. "I can still barely move, whatever was in that spider paralyzed me a bit." He turned to Chef. "How...mandatory is the challenge today?"

"Mandatory?" Chef asked, "I mean, if you want immunity at all, it's mandatory." He sighed. "Chris has offered to you that if you want to sit out, you can, but you forfeit immunity. You're on your own for saving yourself after that." He watched Ethan try to get out of his bed, but the paralysis was still getting to him. "How about I just tell Chris that you're out today?" Ethan wanted to protest, but he was in no condition to move. He nodded slowly. "Alright, have fun being bored all day."

Ethan sighed as Chef left. "Whatever," he said with a defeated sigh. "I probably deserve this after all I did. I should have rejected Jonathan's blackmail from the start. I might have left before the merge, but it would have been worth it." He looked up to see two people enter the infirmary. "Paul? and Kara? What are you two doing here? Isn't a challenge about to start?"

"Something like that," Paul told him. "Look, we wanted to say, well I wanted to report that Jonathan's plan worked in a sense. You gave up on round five early so you could best Jonathan in the tiebreaker yesterday. He sort of did the same thing. By letting you be immune, he still was able to get rid of Norm." He sighed. "He's out of the game. Broke up with Luna too." The pessimist gestured over to Kara. "She's here because she's sorry."

"That is not what I was going to say!" Kara told Paul hostilely. "I wanted to tell you that I feel bad about this whole poison thing that happened to you. I want to speak to Kayla about it, but she's still dead set on you next." She sighed. "With Norm's harsh breakup with Luna, my former ally's fully allied herself with Kayla too, but she's definitely not okay...or all there. Paul might be on your side now, but I trust my family over you still."

Ethan chucked. "Don't worry about it. I'm out for the challenge today, so I don't think I'm lasting much longer without an immunity win. you two can go do whatever you need to." He looked at Paul. "Good luck with your...hunt." Paul nodded, and the two former Bunnies went back to the campsite to talk with some of the others about the plan for the day.

Kara: "Ethan and Paul may be buddy-buddy now after Jonathan's stunt, but I am not with either of them," she assured herself. "I care too much about Kayla, and if Luna and Angie are still with us, there's no reason to change sides just like that...probably."

Back up at the campsite, everyone was up and moving around already. Paul and Kara made it back, the pessimist noticing Jonathan happily humming to himself. "There's our little plague doctor," Paul taunted the brutal lover. "I hope you know your stunt yesterday is causing you to lose allies left and right," he reminded him. Jonathan shuddered to think about what Kara told him the night before.

"Look," Jonathan argued. "I went over to him last night. He was unconscious, sure, but he was alive, and it looks like he was awake for you two when you went down there. That means I didn't do anything wrong." He narrowed his eyes. "We have a chance to get rid of the largest threat in this game. Why you're not with me in an instant is absurd to me."

Paul scoffed. "I'm not with you because I know who is." He glared at Kayla. "I know for a fact that if Kayla is on your side, you're wrong. She divided the Bunnies and made enemies for petty reasons with people. You're very much the same." He walked off. "Good luck today. I hope you win immunity, because you're going to need it." Jonathan scowled back at the pessimist.

Meanwhile, Kara went over to check on Luna, who had a distant look on her face. Angie was sitting near the psychic as well. "She's still messed up about what Norm pulled last night," the hothead told Kara. "I'm...vehemently terrible at this stuff. It happened with Madison and I literally couldn't do a thing." She got up and gestured to where she was sitting right next to Luna. "After you."

Kara sat down next to Luna, hoping she could make a better difference than Angie. "Hey, are you doing okay?" She took another look at Luna. "I mean, obviously, you're not okay, but...how are you holding up? You don't look sad...more like angry."

Luna shook her head. "I'm actually more fine than I thought I would be," she admitted. "This is nothing. I'm supposed to be a mental wall, and I need to keep being that if I want to win. After all, I've made it this far." She turned to Kara. "I'm going to be a force of nature. Dangerous, even. Just you wait." She had a determined look on her face, but something in her eyes made Kara a bit concerned.

"Don't get too worked up about it," Angie reminded them both. "Look, end of the day, Norm leaving puts all of us one step closer to the million bucks. That's all I care about, that's all Kara cares about, and it's all you should care about, Luna." Her words seemed to be getting through. "He didn't need you obviously, so show him that you don't need him either."

As everything was calming down, an announcement was heard coming over the speakers. "Hello, final seven!" Chris called out. "I hope you all are ready to rumble! Well, almost all of you. Anyway, we need you in the forest clearing in ten minutes, be sure to bring your A-game!" Everyone glanced at each other silently before making their way to the forest.

Luna: "I can prove to them that I can be a great player!" she assured herself. "I'll show all of them! That'll prove Norm wrong, if I show everyone that I really can do it!" Her eyes were glowing bright green again.

Angie: "Woah, look at me!" she said with a grin. "Maybe Sarah would be proud of me for that one, I managed to cheer someone up with words instead of yelling." She gagged a bit. "Not that I liked it. I'd much rather be punching something than being all nicey-nice when the million is so close now."

The final seven, minus Ethan, arrived in the forest clearing, where Chris was waiting for them with seven jars of fireflies sitting to his side. Jonathan glanced around and noticed that someone was in fact missing. "Is Ethan not coming?" Jonathan asked Chris, "because he shouldn't be immune just because he's injured. That wouldn't be very fair."

"He's not injured," Kara clarified, "you poisoned him. He's poisoned." She glared at Jonathan. "You can't possibly think that someone is just going to wake up overnight from ingesting that amount of spider venom, right?"

Jonathan scoffed. "I'm failing to see the issue here," he admitted. "All of you were on my side yesterday morning, how is one action changing anything he's done? He's responsible for Sarah, for Chad, for Daniel, for Randall, and he's responsible for Flora." Paul silently stared at Jonathan, already knowing he was lying about that last part. "Are we going to keep letting that happen? Which one of us will be next?"

Kayla shrugged. "Not me," she said defiantly. "I'm still with Jonathan. He was a menace before, now he's just a menace with limited mobility. I think if the right conditions arose, I might do something similar." She looked at the way Kara stared disapprovingly. "C'mon, you know I have morals still. They're...in there." She scoffed. "Look, it might have been wrong, but he's still a threat."

Eventually, Chris cleared his throat, getting everyone's attention. "Hi, everyone, my name's Chris McLean," he introduced condescendingly, "I run a show that gives one of you a lot of money, and I'd like to keep it running." The mention of the money got everyone quiet real fast. "Ethan is out for today due to...an illness...influenza, we'll call it. But, rest assured, he is not immune from a vote tonight." Jonathan smiled at that statement.

Chris walked over to the firefly jars and stood behind them, picking up the first one. "You will each be given a jar of fireflies to take care of for the duration of the challenge. If it breaks, you're out, and if it is out of your hands for more than five minutes at any given time, you are also out. Make it to the end of the challenge, and you're immune, meaning any number of people can be safe tonight!"

Angie inspected the jars. The glass on them could not have been very thick, they were extremely fragile. "Just a question," the hothead said with an annoyed expression on her face. "How long is this lame challenge? I don't want to spend my entire day holding bugs that do nothing cool until the day is actually over."

"Six hours," Chris told Angie. "You have to keep the fireflies safely in the jar for six hours." He grinned maliciously. "But, if you think that's too easy-" Angie gasped, but it was too late. "You can also try for immunity by taking your jar to the top of Mount Karon, where if you can place it in the firepit, you will be immune instantly and not have to 'spend your entire day' on this."

That got the attention of everyone. Angie sighed in relief hearing that additional rule Chris put in. "Hold on a second," Paul interjected. "That...sounds like you're making it easier, which by no means am I complaining if you are, just...I tend to assume that you just haven't said everything about that." He had a look of skepticism on his face that transmitted to some others too.

Chris laughed. "So perceptive, you kids," Chris complimented. "Yes, there is one additional piece of danger with that second route. At the top of Mount Karon, Chef is waiting for you all with his meatball bazooka, and no puny jar of fireflies is is going to survive any sort of hit from that thing." Suddenly the new immunity condition made sense to everyone. "Any other questions?" No one else spoke up. "You have a twenty minute grace period to scatter before the challenge starts. Grab a jar and go!" he rang the air horn, signaling that the challenge had begun.

As soon as the challenge started, Luna rushed for a jar. With a smirk on her face, she teleported away, leaving the other five left in the dust. Jonathan grabbed his jar and stared up at the top of the mountain. "Obviously I go up," he decided. "Beat Chef, get immunity, and then take him out for good." The brutal lover started rushing up Mount Karon to try and get the immunity.

Jonathan: "Everyone needs to lay off me," he said with a sneer. "Ethan's alive, I really don't see the issue with what I did. He stole Madison from me, I stole his ability to move for a day and a half."

Jonathan booked it up the mountain as fast as he could, clutching the jar tightly in his hands, but someone else was on their way up too. Paul had taken the sightly harder path up, climbing up a set of rocks rather than going up the path, which was quicker but also more dangerous. The pessimist noticed Jonathan running past him behind. "There's the lover boy!" Paul sneered. "See you at the top!"

That statement provoked Jonathan, who stopped in his tracks and turned back to face Paul. "I'd prefer it if you didn't call me that!" Jonathan shot back, his temper flaring up more and more. He then noticed that Paul was going for a large boulder above him, his jar balancing very carefully nearby. "You seem to have a good idea though," the brutal lover added with a smirk.

Jonathan threw a rock at the boulder above Paul, dislodging it and sending Paul and his jar down with it. Paul rushed for his jar, but as he saw the boulder falling, he opted to get out of the way instead. "Are you kidding me?" Paul shot back angrily as he watched the jar shatter in front of him. "You could have killed me! You'll pay for that!" He had a very flared up expression, but realized Jonathan was already running off.

"Not today!" Jonathan taunted back. "You're out and I'm on a path to the top now!" The pessimist fumed as he walked back to the cabins, defeated. Jonathan smirked. "That's one down, one to go." He set out to the top of the mountain, hoping he could find his last target on the way up.

Down near the starting point, Kayla watched the whole interaction go down. "Did...everyone else leave?" she asked with a laugh. "No one decided to just stick to the starting point?" She looked around. Paul was walking back, Luna hadn't shown herself since the start, and Kara had run off somewhere else. "Ha, fine, guess I'll take a break then." She curled up to take a nap down by the starting point.

Just as she was about to drift off, something whizzed past her. She opened a single eye to see Quaoar now approaching her in his cloak. "Oh, great," she complained, "everyone's favorite edgy mystery." She gripped her jar tightly. "You're going to be sorry you messed with me." She set her jar down on a soft spot of grass in the forest. "Five minutes, here we go then."

Quaoar laughed as he drew a sword. "You really intend to fight me?" he asked with a laugh. "My typical restrictions have been lifted today due to...circumstances. I can be as chaotic as I want!" Quaoar rushed at Kayla, who jumped out of the way instantly. The chaotic swordsman laughed. "That was a mistake." He rushed for Kayla's jar once she was out of the way, aiming for a nearby tree branch.

"No!" Kayla shouted, realizing what Quaoar was going for now. She rushed to try and save her jar, which was now the target of a quick assault. Quaoar sliced a tree branch above her, sending it down right over top of where her jar was. "No, no, no!" Kayla rushed into the grassy patch, diving and rolling to save herself from being out of the challenge. "Ha! Nice try!"

"You're right, it was," Quaoar said with a smirk. He vanished from his current position, and appeared right behind Kayla. Quaoar thrusted the sword forward, poking it right through Kayla's jar. The brat let out a scream as she realized she was out of the challenge. "Thanks for the fight," Quaoar said gratefully. "It wasn't that long, but you were less disappointing than your sister." From there, Quaoar vanished.

Chris's voice came over the speakers. "Kayla and Paul are out of the challenge!" he announced. "Surprisingly, they did not take out each other, it was two separate events." Kayla gasped. If Chris saw that event, that meant he had let it happen out of malice. "Hurry up, there's only a few of you left to earn immunity, currently only four left, who else is going to lose it?"

Kayla: "That was so not fair!" she complained. "No one else had to deal with a psycho demon thing!" She grunted. "That's fine, I'm not a target today anyway from anyone but Paul, and he's out too." She sighed. "I should have asked Luna to teleport me wherever she went."

Down at the very bottom of the mine, Luna took the path on foot. She entered to see the dirty water all over the place, as well as the two sinkholes from before, the one that she fell through, and the one that Norm fell through. "Many bad memories here..." she said with a shiver. "But, bad memories are sort of my thing. I can handle my own without any problem."

The psychic sat in silence, her jar clenched tightly in her hands as she began meditating. Her silence was disturbed soon after as someone feel through one of the sinkholes, screaming. "No!" Kara screamed as she descended all the way down, the curious girl eventually slamming into the water below. "Crap, where is it?" Kara cried out as she frantically began searching for her jar.

Luna watched for a second as Kara struggled, before eventually sighing, breaking her already disturbed meditation. "I got it," Luna offered, reaching into the dirty water and pulling out Kara's jar on the first try. The curious girl looked extremely grateful for Luna's help. "What are you doing down here?" the psychic questioned. "This is one of the most dangerous spots on this island."

Kara gave Luna a warm smile. "You've been straining yourself since two nights ago, and especially since last night," Kara reminded her. "I don't want to see you stressed or lose yourself here." She laughed. "I mean, we are technically still in an alliance...if you want to keep going with that."

The psychic nodded. "Of course, I remember that," she told Kara, "I never forget anything. I have a perfect memory." She sighed. "Which is why it is so impossible to not think about recent events." She turned to Kara, her eyes glowing slightly less green. "Do...you think I made mistakes? I mean obviously, I did, but do you think it was wrong of me to vote Norm last night?"

"No," Kara said calmly. "He was a threat. Remember, only one of you could have won, and if the events of that night are to be believed, then Norm purposefully took out Madison to ensure that his alliance was secure. He was a schemer. I think you dodged a bullet." She laughed. "Speaking of dodging, how do you think everyone else is doing? I heard some commotion up top on my way in, but I don't really know."

Luna nodded. "Of course I know," she said with a sneer. "Jonathan and Angie remain in the challenge, I think Paul and Kayla have lost their jars already." She hesitated. "No. Something is going on with Jonathan and Angie...they're...fighting, they must be trying to get their immunity out of the way." She shrugged. "I'm okay waiting here until the challenge is over."

Kara looked upward at all the chaos that was unfolding above them. "Yeah, that's probably for the best. I don't want anyone else to give us trouble, I'd rather they undo themselves up there." The two had their jars in their hands, and silently listened to the cave water fall down the sinkholes for the rest of the six hours.

Up at the top of the mountain, Jonathan had finally arrived. The firepit was just in his sight, but so was Chef, who was armed with his signature weaponry. "Hey, Chef..." Jonathan said nervously. "I really need to do well in this challenge today, so is it fine if I just go over there and put my jar in the firepit? I can do that, and then I'll be on my way..."

Chef shook his head and cocked the bazooka. "Not without a fight," he said with a grin. He began firing shots at Jonathan who started running for the firepit. Three shots missed, but the fourth one nailed Jonathan in the side and threw him up against the wall. "Ha!" the cook taunted, "Dinner is served." Meanwhile, Jonathan was screaming in pain on the side of the rocky surface, but was not letting go of his jar.

Just as Chef was engaging with Jonathan in their fight, someone else showed up. Angie emerged from behind both of them, her jar still intact. "Chef, how are you?" she asked condescendingly. "Look, we don't want any problems, right? Why don't you let me put that thing in the firepit, and we can go about our day without hurting each other." Chef fired two shots at the hothead, which she dodged effortlessly. "Okay. Hard way then!"

The hothead rushed straight for the firepit. Chef caught her movement pattern and fired a bit in front of Angie, but she ended up changing directions and running toward Jonathan instead. Chef growled at his missed shots, but kept trying. Angie got herself right in front of Jonathan, which Chef took the shot for again. Jonathan got hit in the face this time, forcing him to drop his jar. "No!" he shouted.

"Gotcha!" Angie said with a cheer. "Sorry, poisoned love, but I like keeping my options open." Jonathan growled at the nickname and the fact that he was out of the challenge now. "Time to end this..." Angie said with a poised look. She ran right for Chef, turning the jar to just one of her arms. Chef took a shot at her as she dodged more, picking up a rock. She was getting too close to Chef for him to be able to fire accurately. "See ya!"

Angie shoved the rock into the bazooka and rushed for the firepit again. Chef tried to fire, but the weapon was now jammed, and nothing came out at all. Without any more obstruction, Angie calmly placed her jar of fireflies into the firepit. "Angie gets herself immunity!" Chris announced. "And everyone else is either out or..." the host checked a monitor. "Sitting around. Chef, we have two...un-hostiles sitting at the bottom of the cave. Get down there, and alert him too."

Chef nodded as he rushed down toward the cave. Meanwhile, watching everything, Quaoar emerged from the shadows, cloak still on. "Sorry," he said with a laugh. "I wanted to see how that fight would end. I'll stop them." Quaoar rushed down Mount Karon, passing even Chef with his high speed, and drew his swords, finally ready for some action in the cave.

Angie: "I didn't really need immunity," she admitted. "I have three people who want my vote right now, but just in case they decide against a common enemy with the power of friendship or something else gross, I need a backup plan."

Down at the bottom of the cave, Luna was pacing around. "Admittedly," she said with a sheepish grin, "I suppose it would have gotten boring with no one else down here." She sighed. "We still have like, an hour left in this challenge, can we really afford to just stay here?" She paused as something twitched in her. "Kara..." she said slowly, looking around. "We need to go, something is coming."

Just after Luna finished saying that, Quaoar burst through the top sinkholes, descending upon them both and landing firmly on the ground. "There you two are," he said with a dark laugh. "There is no such thing as safety in numbers. I will dispose of the both of you with swiftness." Quaoar rushed for Kara first, who was already on her way to the exit path.

Luna tried to get in Quaoar's way to stop the assault. She focused on Kara and rushed toward her, but she realized it wasn't going to be fast enough. "Come on, do it..." Quaoar muttered to himself. In a moment of desperation, Luna teleported to Kara's aid, but she was cut off about halfway from completing the movement. Quaoar had found her and stopped the teleportation midway through.

Everyone looked shocked as Quaoar sheathed his sword. Due to her interference, Luna's jar shattered on the ground. "How did he..." Luna muttered, her eyes growing bright green again. "Go, Kara!" Luna insisted again, the curious girl finally being able to run. She turned to Quaoar. "You...how did you do that?" She had a mix of fear and suspicion around the sword demon.

Quaoar laughed. "Girl, you know I'm chaos incarnate, right? You predicted my presence on the first day. The dark cloud over Karon? That was me." He sighed. "Even you were still a disappointment, though. Clean up when you're done down here." Luna gasped as he walked off, leaving Luna now only angry instead of anything else. "Challenge is over, by the way, Chef's bazooka got jammed so nothing can stop Kara now."

Luna: "I was...completely dismantled...found out," she said slowly, her eyes still the bright neon green color. "I suppose there is no way around it. I have to win, no matter what. Obviously protecting Kara was the wrong choice after all."

Back in the forest, everyone had finally made it back. Chef was still unjamming the bazooka that Angie broke, and Quaoar was nowhere to be seen again. "Well, you all certainly delivered today, even down a person, this was quite the exciting challenge!" He laughed as he remembered some fun moments from earlier. "Anyway, Kara and Angie both managed to get their jars in the firepit, so they are immune tonight! That means everyone else is available to be booted."

Angie and Kara seemed pretty happy with their performances for the day. Meanwhile, Jonathan sat quietly, considering his options. "That's fine," he eventually decided, turning to the other five. "So, he'll probably be better in a few hours, so let's take care of this now. I need all of you to vote with me and take out Ethan once and for all. This is our chance."

"Hold on," Kara spoke up. "I'm starting to think that I don't want to tie myself up in this." Jonathan looked angered and surprised by that, Kayla was confused, and Luna had a bitter glare on her face. "Just...maybe we shouldn't? He's recently been poisoned, and if he's not feeling well, then isn't this overkill? Whatever he's dealing with must make up for something, right?"

Kayla sighed. "Sis..." She turned to Jonathan. "I'm still voting with you, even if Kara isn't. I'm not going to sit around and just wait until he gets better. We need to take care of this tonight. I'm with you, Jonathan." The brutal lover grinned darkly. "Plus, anyone who Paul is siding with, has to be wrong." The pessimist glared at Kayla's response to Jonathan. Meanwhile, Kara stepped away from Kayla, watching everything happen.

Paul sneered. "Fine, don't side with me," he told all of them. "But leaving both Jonathan and Kayla unchecked is going to cause problems. She divided us as a team, and now she's doing it in the merge, because she loves to make enemies and turn them against each other." He sighed. "Do what you all want, I'm sticking with the right vote for the night." He walked away with an angry look on his face. Kara looked at her sister and at Paul. She sighed. She had a big decision to make.

ELIMINATION XIV, MERGE

Six of the final seven were already at the top of Mount Karon. They all took their seat by the fire, where the two jars of the immune contestants sat next to now, instead of inside. In the back row was Paul and Kara, while the front row had Luna, Angie, Kayla, and Jonathan. Chris approached them all with six marshmallows. "Good to see you all," he said with a light tone. He paused. "Well...almost all, have we heard from our seventh?"

Suddenly, Chef appeared, dragging Ethan with him. "Come on, it's not that big of a deal, seriously! I'm sure it was going to happen anyway!" Everyone seemed confused at the anti-villain's conversation with Chef. The cook shrugged, throwing Ethan in the seat next to Paul. "That hurt..." he muttered. Everyone was now looking at him. "Hi, everyone...good to see, well, some of you."

"Ethan, welcome back," Chris said, happy that everyone was now ready for the elimination. "While there were seven of you, six of you competed today, and we're just going to put it down to six total for tomorrow, that seemed like a solid number." He laughed at the joke, but everyone was way too tense to really respond. "First, up, we have two safe campers from immunity. Angie and Kara, you two are safe."

The hothead and the curious girl looked really happy to be in the final six. "Paul, you're safe too." The pessimist looked unsurprised by his safety in the game still. "Luna, you're safe." The psychic caught her marshmallow, made it float around in the air for a bit, then she squashed it angrily. This caught the attention of a few people. Only two marshmallows were left on the plate now.

"Kayla." Kayla shot Paul a glare as she caught her marshmallow. Paul seemed to know it was a fruitless effort, but still was disappointed to see Kayla still in the game anyway. It was down to two people now. "Ethan, Jonathan, you two have been at each other's throats since day one, throwing the truth around like a poorly wrapped ball of yarn. But, one of you gets to leave today." The two boys glared at each other, not breaking eye contact. "Tonight's loser is...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...Ethan!" Jonathan pumped his fist as he caught the final marshmallow. Ethan looked unsurprised by that result as well. "You're outta here, dude. Should have competed today." Chris pointed to the Launch of Shame. "Your exit ticket awaits."

"I sort of expected that," he admitted, standing up. He turned to them all. "I'm...sorry, to all of you. I let the early stages of the game get to my head, and I made some mistakes that I regret. I shouldn't have set up Chad for failure like I did. I shouldn't have sent Norm to convince Luna to change her vote to Daniel. And when the weight of my actions came back at me in the form of blackmail, I shouldn't have let Jonathan do that either. I should have faced my problems the night we lost Madison instead of letting Jonathan run the game through me."

Kara looked shocked the most at the apology, realizing what was true and what wasn't. Ethan continued. "I was so caught up in trying to play hero, trying to take down what I perceived as evil, that I became the villain I swore to destroy." He shrugged. "But, that ends today. I don't plan on being in control of the game. I want to start fresh, and that means helping others get what they want instead of myself."

Jonathan groaned. "Yeah, whatever, that's real nice." He was starting to see the likes of Angie now against him, an angry look on her face too. "What?" He asked the hothead hostilely. "Whatever he admitted doesn't matter, he's out of here!" He glared at the anti-villain one final time. "Or at least, he should have been by now." He turned to Chris. "Get him out of here!"

Ethan laughed. "Still trying to take me down for 'stealing' Madison from you," he said. "I protected her, and through that I realized her strength. You never saw that, she was an object to you." He pulled out a statue with the Total Drama logo on it. "If you want me gone so bad, you'll have to try again." Ethan handed the sole-vote idol to Chris, who took it from his hands.

Chris inspected the idol. "That is...the real sole-vote idol!" he announced, earning gasps from everyone. Paul looked the most surprised at that reveal. "To remind you all, that means Ethan is now safe. All the votes are reset, but immunities stay. That means Ethan cannot vote out Kara or Angie." Ethan nodded, understanding how that went now.

"You...actually found it..." Jonathan said in disbelief. "That's not right! That means you stole the idol riddle paper!" Everyone turned to Jonathan, curious as to what that meant. "I mean...you..." He grumbled. "There's no way that's real. I searched everywhere as soon as the game started!"

"You did," Ethan told him. "But I'll give everyone the whole story. Paul found a paper with riddles for each idol on the first night. One was in a damp location, the other one in a cold one. Kayla confronted him, and Paul hid it quickly under the dining tent." Paul nodded, signaling that was accurate. "Day two, Chad found the paper, but put it back since his persona can't read. Jonathan went back out that day at breakfast and stole whatever that paper was. Using that, he found the first idol, in a damp location, leaving only the cold one left. The first idol backfired on him and Madison was eliminated instead."

Jonathan sighed, remembering his first failed plan. "After that, Jonathan blackmailed me, forcing me to get votes for him on both teams. One night, I helped out Paul for a vote on Randall. I stole the idol riddles and gave the paper back to Paul, the proper owner." Paul then produced the piece of paper. "Naturally, since I had it all day, I now knew that the sole-vote idol was somewhere cold. I asked Paul how his search was going yesterday, and he said that it was going poorly. He and Jonathan both scoured the island early on...but what if the idol was put there after? Somewhere that has changed since the first days, like where we've been eating."

Jonathan looked more and more angry as Ethan revealed everything. "The freezer of the two upgrades of the dining tent was way colder than the first, and so I ventured over there right before elimination, where Chef caught me and dragged me up an hour too late." He turned to Jonathan. "And, none of this would have been doable without you poisoning me and giving me so much time to think of an escape route."

Chris watched in silence as everything unfolded. "Okay, okay, you've had your fun yet?" Chris asked. Ethan shrugged. "We've got a show to finish here, so you need to eliminate someone. Not Angie, not Kara, but anyone else is fair game."

"What's the point?" Jonathan shot back. "Are you people serious? Building up suspense and all that for nothing! You know he's picking me! You know that this is how it all ends!" There was so much venom in his voice, even some of his remaining allies were hesitating.

Ethan nodded. "I meant it, you know?" The attention was back on him. "I meant when I said I want to help others instead of myself. None of this would have been possible if someone didn't come find me and Norm yesterday, asking for the truth. I want to finally repay all our debts we owe to each other." He sighed. "Chris, I've made my decision. I am eliminating...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...Kayla." A ton of gasps filled the space. Jonathan blinked a few times, shocked that he was still safe. He pinched himself to make sure it was real. "Paul, I think we're finally even on favors. Sorry you didn't get to do it yourself."

Paul smiled. "To be fair, I don't think Flora would have appreciated it if I sought out vengeance like I was planning on doing." He laughed. "Sure, let's call it even then." He smiled again as he saw Kayla's face contort with anger.

The brat shot up out of her seat. "Are you serious?" She asked in heated anger. "You're seriously picking me over someone who poisoned you? You have to be insane! You'll regret this!" Her words were mindless insults at some point, just angry for the sake of being angry. Even Angie looked impressed.

Paul spoke up one final time as she was dragged by Chef to the Launch of Shame. "Hold on, Kayla," Paul said with a smirk. "Do you remember what Pencil said to you before he was eliminated?" Kayla gasped. "That's right! Seventh, no higher." He laughed again. "That little dude was so spot on!" Kayla let out what could only be an angry shriek as she was launched into the sky, putting her out of the game.

Jonathan rushed forward like he wanted to say something, but she was already gone, leaving him to just stare into the sky in a forlorn manner. Everyone began heading back, Ethan stopped one person in particular. "Kara," he said to the curious girl, causing her to turn around. "I have a proposal for you. Your secret alliance has an opening, and I want to fill it."

Kara gasped for a second, but quickly regained her calmness and shook her head. "Sorry, you've been gone all day, but I actually voted for Jonathan tonight...I'm not allied with him and the girls anymore, and I'd hardly call Luna and me a secret, we've been pretty open. But, she's been weird since the challenge, I don't know what's up with her at all."

Ethan put up a hand to stop the curious girl's ramblings before they got even worse. "Not those, I'm talking about the exclusive one between you and your sister." Kara sighed, giving it away. "Like I said, being poisoned gave me tons of thinking time. Anyway, you two voted identically the entire time so far without much communication. That's no coincidence."

Kara groaned. "Yeah, sure, we were, but we were family! Of course I was going to look out for my baby sister...by, you know, six minutes, but still!" She was silent for a second. "I'm still trying to process everything you just pulled. You were all high and mighty, acting like you were coming back as a war hero, and then you eliminated my sister! What was that about?"

"Kayla was dividing your team, and she was sewing chaos in the merge too. It was even getting to you. You voted against her alliance tonight." Kara sighed again. "Look, this is a deal you won't want to refuse, and I'm making up the fact that I just got rid of Kayla by reaching out to you first about this. It's a full honesty alliance, just like you saw that I had with Norm."

"How long did you want to do that for?" Kara asked. "I mean, you don't really have any friends left, but eventually we have to break off and do our own thing. What's your plan for when that happens?"

Ethan shrugged. "Does that time have to come?" he countered. Kara looked confused. "I was thinking this goes to the finale. Obviously, you'd win any academic challenge over me, and I have an edge on psychical challenges. It'd come down to the finale challenge. It's the same deal I offered to Norm on the first day, with full honesty." He held out his hand. "Do we have a deal?"

Kara thought about what this would do to her for the rest of the game. Was she willing to put that much trust into someone like this? After everything, he sounded like he was going to be a better person. "Fine," Kara eventually agreed, shaking the anti-villain's hand. "I don't really think Luna's working out anyway, I'm worried she's starting to go off of the deep end."

Kara: "I've had worse decisions before," she admitted, "and with the Disaster Dome being broken, and that being my fault, maybe it couldn't hurt to have an ally with such high ability...and a large target."

Ethan: "It's the least I can do to help her out," he said with a smile. "I mean it. If she's loyal to this team-up, we could be in the finale with ease." He sighed. "It is a shame that Jonathan's still in the game, but I'm going to ignore that. I want to play for what's right instead."

"A change of heart comes at the slight price of poison," Chris said as he watched the exchange happen in the control room. "We have six to go, and no more idols left in the game. Everything will come down to this last stretch. Find out what will happen next time, on Total! Drama! Karon Island!"

Vote Confessionals:

Angie: "Jonathan's sort of losing it...which is fine, but I still made a promise. I'm voting Ethan."

Ethan: "I'll vote Jonathan, as fruitless as it is. But, At least it won't be me who goes if I fail today."

Jonathan: "Ethan's finally gone. Being bedridden means he can't talk his way out of it."

Kara: "I...I'm sorry, Kayla. I have to stand against you, I'm voting Jonathan."

Kayla: "Ethan's leaving today, which is unfortunate, but only because that means I have to wait a whole extra day for Paul."

Luna: "Things have changed. I'm with Jonathan. Ethan goes."

Paul: "Kayla has continued to be a thorn in our side, and I see exactly what she's doing with this alliance. I need her gone."

Total: Ethan (4), Jonathan (2), Kayla (1)

Eliminated: Kayla (Sole-vote Idol)

Remaining Campers:

Merge: Angie, Ethan, Jonathan, Kara, Luna, Paul

Eliminated: Gretchen, Chad, Sheldon, Daniel, Hannah, Madison, Alexa, Sarah, Randall, Juan, Flora, Helio, Norm, Kayla

Wow, what an eventful chapter, and some things from very different spots to talk about. I love Kayla, and her sudden drop on her aggressive strategy next season makes not a ton of sense, so I spent this season making her a bit more antagonistic and strategic. My reason for using the sole-vote idol against Kayla in the first version was because she would have won otherwise. Here, it is because she was actually a giant threat and sewing chaos in the merge. Changes time!

- Ethan doesn't get to watch re-runs this time. I decided the silent isolation was much better (and from a reader perspective too, since we didn't see him until elimination this time.) I also had him properly apologize and choose his elimination person off of amends rather than strategy to be consistent with what he said and what he promised. He's becoming a real character this time and not a god.

- Kara is worried about flipping back and forth, going against her sister. This hints at her secret alliance with her that Paul actually called out in the merge chapter. This is all to set up with the final scene here.

- To assist with challenge length, I added an extra scene at the end where Quaoar hunts down the two girls. In the original, they both manage to get immunity. I took it away from Luna this time. Speaking of Luna...

- Wow, Luna is shaping up to be real different character nowadays. Knowing what I know now, this makes so much more sense to do, and you'll see a lot more dealt with Luna next chapter too to assist with her later season transitions. And, her fight with Quaoar reveals something interesting. If you've read Fiery Passion, this is Quaoar calling her out on her big secret.

-Finally, the sole-vote idol. The location and obtaining method is completely different, and this is something I settled on around the time Ethan and Paul worked on Randall together. The whole thing has been a mystery up to now, so having a Scooby Doo-like explanation at the end really seals that plotline shut nicely I think.

- Lots and lots of really small things that change. Quaoar wasn't even originally in this chapter at first. Now, he served as a proper challenge obstacle, and definitely some setup for next week.

I think this one ended up a lot better, and now I have some hard work for next week to wrap all this stuff up properly. But, I think this will still go well! Anyway, please leave a review letting me know what you thought! I'll see you next week!