Author's Note: Welcome back to part two of the finale, this time showing the perspectives of the original cast that was left behind at the resort. There will be a lot of repeating sections given they're reacting to both the challenge and the comments from the peanut gallery, however I'll try my best to minimise those sections.
Reviews
MatiasND: I think with the lava situation she forgot in all of the 'excitement', and when she gets that crazy look in her eyes there's almost no stopping her, which was why it was only when she'd calmed down after her disappointment that she was reminded of Hawaii. The ship needed some bumps along the way after all so this was always gonna happen XD.
I mean on one hand I agree but then the whole of episode four contradicts her own statement given she was going to stab Priya and mutilate both MK and Damien with a jackhammer, so honestly who knows what Lauren wants to do…
Chris I think doesn't care about who gets in as long as he's not the target, he only seemed to care with Scarlett when he was targeted, he seemed pretty content to leave the others to die at first otherwise… Take the situation with Duncan, if that wasn't Chris's "cottage", he wouldn't have cared, plus I'd imagine Chris would've looked at Lauren's file and allowed her in for the 'ratings'.
Chapter Twenty Three
After the old cast had watched their new companions (plus Izzy) sail off back towards Camp Wawanakwa, they were directed to the lounge where the interns had spent the whole night rearranging the room in order to have the stream set up for them to view what was about to go down on the island.
The 'sixteen' former contestants found themselves in a large room, the furniture having been rearranged to resemble the bleachers that the others were using over on the island. At the other end of the room were several large TV's, each of them showcasing a different angle of the area where the challenge was taking place, from the bleachers, to the forest surrounding them, and even towards the…
"Hold on, is that a lava lake?" Kitty pointed out in shock, everyone's eyes immediately being drawn towards the screen where the lake could be seen.
Ezekiel shuddered in fright, remembering what had happened to him back in Hawaii, and began absentmindedly rubbing the small burns under his sleeves. Dawn noticed his discomfort and placed a hand on his shoulder, attempting to reassure him that everything was going to be fine.
"Alright, the challenge should be starting soon, if you guys will just take a seat, and we'll get out of your way in time for the main event…" The intern said from their position by the screens, gesturing with a bored look on their face towards the couches at the other end of the room.
The former contestants were all eventually able to sort themselves into a comfortable enough position within the various mismatch of chairs and couches that had been sorted into the makeshift bleacher. Five contestants had taken a row each, the fake Izzy being seated on the top row in between Owen and Sierra, with Cody, Harold and Brick sat to the right of Sierra. Noah, Emma, Kitty, Dakota and Sam all sat on the middle row, Kitty separating the two couples. Lastly Tyler, Geoff, Bridgette, Ezekiel and Dawn made up the bottom row, Tyler nursing a concussion as he was going to sit with Harold and Cody on the top row, only to trip and fall down the stairs, hitting his head in the process.
They sat there for what seemed like an eternity, having to wait for the others over at the island to show up, the intern had long since left, only briefly returning to leave a silver trolley by the door filled with various drinks and snacks for the cast to enjoy whilst watching their new companions suffer on the island.
Geoff and Bridgette had long since started to make out, Sierra attempting to follow suit with a visibly uncomfortable Cody, who pushed her away with a large blush on his face.
"S-Sierra… N-Not h-here…" He stuttered out, Noah attempting to hide his smirk at Cody's response.
Sam was sat playing on his handheld, waiting out the time it was taking for the other to arrive on-screen, Dakota leaning up against his shoulder with a small smile on her face watching him play. Emma and Kitty attempting to learn more about what happened with some of the prior seasons, having known about how brutal World Tour's finale was but under the impression that the volcano was a one off, Noah having the misfortune of explaining how the seasons after World Tour had gone down, and how Chris had only become more and more sadistic and twisted as the seasons went on.
Ezekiel meanwhile was still showing visible discomfort at the lava lake being shown on one of the screens, Dawn sat next to him attempting to distract him from the sight of something that had scarred him, instead opting to ask about his time on Boney Island, a place where, while a reminder of how much he had suffered, it had become his home for a few years. He initially started off with his time with the other mutant animals, reassuring Dawn that, despite the Fun Zone having initially been used for Chris's twisted games, the animals had been able to make the most out of the sanctuary had Dawn had helped to build. The subject however quickly turned to his last few days on the island, specifically after Lauren had first shown up on the island.
Eventually however someone caught movement on one of the screens, everyone's heads turning to see both Chris and Chef walking into view of the camera, the three finalists following soon after, finally giving the former contestants a first look at the three competitors from the new season that they hadn't been able to meet yet.
"Huh? So that's the girl who's been training for years to get on this show?" Sierra muttered in interest, looking at Priya specifically. "I wonder if she's as much of a superfan as I am or if it's just her parents…"
"So that's this Bowie guy that Raj has been talking about eh…" Tyler mused, looking at the lone male finalist on the screen. "Yeah, I can see why Raj likes him." He grinned, nodding his head in acceptance.
"Is it just me, or does that girl not look okay?" Emma said, pointing towards the dishevelled looking Millie, drawing the attention of a few of the others.
"I'm sensing negative energy from her and the other girl… something bad happened to tear their friendship apart…" Dawn said sadly, causing a few people to look at her in confusion.
"H-How can you s-sense that from the s-screen?" Ezekiel asked curiously, not noticing the other 'Revenge' contestants sighing at Dawn's words.
"I know she says she can see auras and all, but from such a distance away?" Bridgette responded, breaking her lip lock from Geoff after overhearing Dawn's words. None of them noticed as Chris began to explain the challenge to the three finalists on screen.
"I mean to be fair, that other girl looks pretty angry whenever she glances at the tired girl…" Harold pointed out, some of the others turning to the screen just in time to notice Priya glaring subtly towards Millie.
"Okay…" Chris grinned as he walked towards the pair, holding his hands up to indicate that he didn't mean any harm. "Firstly… Chef, write down those ideas as potential future challenges." He turned to point towards his co host, the latter promptly getting a notepad out to write down some of the things that Priya had been saying down.
"Asshole…" Noah muttered at Chris's words, getting more than a few laughs from the others in the room.
"Secondly, all three of you will need help!" Chris continued, "Sooo, we brought back some of your old friends!"
The contestants all watched as their new companions started to walk over the hill towards where the others were waiting for them, Ezekiel in particular flashing a small smile as he noticed Lauren amongst them, his toque nestled firmly on top of her skull.
His smile quickly vanishes as he overhears Chris's next words at the sight of his hat in Lauren's possession.
"Great, now I've got to try and edit that stupid thing out of post…" Chris muttered angrily to himself.
His eyes narrowed in response as he repeated the same comment Noah made moments ago, causing a couple more laughs from some of the others, Dawn however looked at him with a small amount of concern.
They watched as the eliminated contestants all sat in the bleachers that had been prepared for them, and as Chris began to explain why exactly the others were supposed to be there, he revealed that three of those contestants would be helping the finalists in the first part of the challenge, and that they'd be spinning a wheel in order to determine who'd be helping which contestant.
"What are the odds that Chris has rigged this to go against at least one of them?" Noah asked the others.
"Oh definitely!" Sierra shouted in response, glaring towards the host that she had at one point idolised.
"I mean according to some of the others he's been remarkably restrained compared to the last few seasons…" Brick countered, before thinking to himself for a moment, quickly realising the counter argument to this. "That being said… I wouldn't put it past him to do that for drama…"
Tyler opened his mouth in order to add his input into the conversation, however before he could a loud horn could be heard from the screen, causing everyone's attention to quickly go back to the new cast.
"Priya…" Chef called over to her, drawing an angry stare from the contestant as everyone else turned to watch her curiously. "You get first spin!" He finished, walking away to let her spin the wheel.
They watched in order to see if Noah's assumptions were correct, however at least for the first one it seemed to be the opposite, Priya seeming extremely happy to have Damien as a partner for the challenge from the look she was giving him, and from his celebrations the feeling was clearly mutual.
The same however could not be said for Millie, quickly landing on Ripper who proceeded to brag about his screen time for the camera, causing a number of them to roll their eyes in annoyance.
"Of all the people of course that IDIOT gets picked…" Harold grumbled.
"Told you it'd be rigged." Noah replied, shrugging his shoulders.
"Dude, it's only one bad pick, let's at least see who this Bowie dude gets first." Geoff pointed out.
They all watched as Bowie walked up confidently to the wheel, looking like it was going to go against Noah's words once more as it stopped towards Axel, only for the wheel to tick over to Julia instead, Noah in particular noting the horrified look on Bowie's face as the influencer stepped up to both him and Chris with a smug look on her face.
"Look at you two, together again!" Chris smirked as Bowie glared at Julia, the influencer smirking back at him. "I hope Bowie double-crossing you last episode doesn't hinder your desire to be the best partner possible…" He said to Julia, knowing exactly what she'd say in response.
"It totally does…" She smiled, barely glancing back at the host, clearly enjoying the possibility of ruining Bowie's chance at the million.
"See…" Noah smirked, enjoying the small glares he was receiving as they knew he was right. "Clearly those two don't get along just like how that Millie girl doesn't like Ripper, almost makes me think that Chris thought Damien would be a hindrance rather than a help for Priya…"
"Alright you made your point…" Tyler responded.
"I prefer to call it being 'interesting', the rest of you could learn to be more like me…" She grinned, Nichelle and Axel both raising an eyebrow as MK shuddered from below her.
"Good luck to Homeschool with surviving with you as a partner then…" MK muttered to herself.
"Hey!" Ezekiel shouted to the screen, not realising that MK wouldn't be able to hear him.
"Dude, she's not gonna hear you…" Geoff responded, Ezekiel blushing from embarrassment once he realised.
"Ok, so if I've got this right, they're building a raft to cross that lava lake?" Emma said, looking slightly confused. "But how the hell is a wooden raft going to survive in a lake of lava?"
"Emma, sometimes you've just got to ignore common sense when it comes to this show…" Noah responded, wrapping an arm around Emma's waist.
"Look!" Kitty shouted, quickly gaining their attention back as they noticed her pointing to the screen. "They're starting!"
"Ready! Set!" He shouted over to the contestants, the word "Go!" being overshadowed by the sound of the airhorn.
"So, any idea of who you guys are going to root for?" Noah asked the others as they watched all three teams set off with their saws in hand.
"I mean, D-Damien's my friend, and Lauren s-said they were both f-friends with Priya, so I-I guess her?" Ezekiel responded.
"COME ON BOWIE!" Tyler shouted, showing his support at the same time as Raj did on the screen.
"Well that's two of them sorted, anyone else?" Noah asked once again, only to see the others shaking their heads. "Yeah thought so, no point when we don't even know them…"
"Is she serious?" Bridgette asked as she saw Julia attempting to force Bowie into a 50/50 split in return for her help. "She's acting worse than Heather would!"
"And Chris isn't exactly helping things." Geoff pointed out, seeing the Host on screen just smile and shrug off Bowie's complaints.
"She's definitely not gonna keep her word is she?" Nichelle asked Axel, who just nodded in response.
"Yeah, probably not…" Cody replied, several people voicing their agreement with him.
Several of those agreements quickly turned into winces as they saw the camera quickly switch over to Priya and Damien, watching the latter get unintentionally used as a ragdoll by the force of Priya's movement of the saw. Ezekiel chuckling slightly at Lauren's casual response to the event.
They watched as the screen switched over to Millie and Ripper, detailing the plan that Ripper had given to Millie in order to try and win Priya's friendship back. Whilst it sounded like an 'okay' plan at first, people quickly began to panic as they remembered one screen in particular.
"Ripper you idiot! You're going to get someone killed!" Harold screamed at the screens.
"Don't do it Millie! It's a lake made of lava!" Tyler added.
"At least he's trying to help her, look at what Julia's just done to Bowie…" Emma pointed out.
"What!" Tyler exclaimed, switching his attention back to the pair just in time to see Julia walking away. "Oh come on!"
"And of course our 'favourite' host just has to make things worse…" Noah muttered sarcastically, watching as Chris mocked Bowie despite his saw breaking, Julia taking the vast majority of it back to the bleachers.
"Speaking of making things worse…" Emma replied, watching as Millie started to sabotage Priya's raft, much to Lauren's delight.
"Ooo this is gonna be fun to watch." She replied happily.
"For once I agree with you, Scary Girl!" Chris responded as he walked past her, "Now if you'll excuse me I need to head over to where our contestants will be taking their raft." He finished as he walked away.
"Oh I hope there's snakes involved, or spiders or something that'll make them scream…" Lauren giggled.
"Again… What does he see in you Scary Girl?" MK muttered to herself, a disturbed look on her face.
"I mean, MK's right Homeschool, what exactly do you see in Scary Girl?" Noah asked him, noticing his glare being aimed towards the thief currently on the screen.
Ezekiel turned to face Noah, ready to respond before he noticed a lot of the others looking with curiosity as well, not expecting someone to be serious about that question, he eventually answered nervously. "I-I got to see b-behind her mask, s-she's not so s-scary after all w-when you g-get to know her eh. She's f-funny, smart, she's h-helped me out w-with so much since s-she found me, and she's just a-an i-incredible person eh." He explained, eventually hiding his blush under his hood since Lauren still had his toque.
Because of this he didn't notice the smiles that a lot of the others were giving him, Dawn, Bridgette and Harold in particular, even some of the less emotional contestants in the room like Noah seemed happy for him.
Unfortunately for them the happy mood didn't last for long, Dawn felt the mood begin to drop, and she turned to see that two of the three pairs had left with a completed raft, with Bowie still chopping away after Julia left with the rest of the saw.
The rest of them started to pay attention as Priya and Damien arrived at the lava lake, their expressions being happy at being the first ones there, only for the host to ruin the mood almost immediately.
"Priya! As the first one here, you're the first to hear the exciting news!" He started as Priya and Damien's happy expressions quickly morphed into horror at what was behind Chris. "The lake is made of lava! Surprise!" Chris announced gleefully as everyone watching the screen gasped in shock.
Well… almost everyone…
"Okay this just got so good!" Lauren grinned happily, leaning forward with her head resting in her palms, not noticing the concerned glances from Nichelle and Wayne.
Ezekiel had removed his head from under the hood as Chris explained the twist with the Lake just in time to see Lauren's happy expression as she saw the lava for the first time, his face went pale at hearing her words and he started to shiver in horror, his speech only moments ago already seemingly contradicted as he stared in shock at what was just said.
Both Bridgette and Dawn turned to him, having been seated either side of him with a lot of concern, Dawn in particular looking between the shivering Ezekiel and Lauren on the screen, sensing that Lauren wasn't thinking straight and that she's unaware of what she's doing.
"At least Damien understands how dangerous this is…" Emma facepalmed, trying to ignore what was going on underneath her, knowing that the duo currently comforting Ezekiel should be able to calm him down before things got worse.
"And Millie's realising that she's screwed up massively with the raft, something I hope Scary Girl realises before Homeschool snaps…" Noah added, looking down at Ezekiel with slight pity.
"At least Bowie's starting to catch up now…" Tyler said, attempting to divert the conversation away from Lauren, only for his words to immediately backfire, as Priya's raft started to slowly unravel, causing everyone apart from Ezekiel to gasp in horror.
The reason being that Ezekiel stared in silence at the screen with the eliminated contestants, watching them all look worriedly at Lauren as she continuously chanted "Lava! Lava! Lava!" with a manic look on her face.
Dawn looked over worriedly between him and Lauren as both her and Bridgette attempted to calm Ezekiel down, the pair noticing Ezekiel beginning to subtly twitch, his eyes beginning to cloud slightly and his hands shaking, unbeknownst to any of them, Ezekiel's toque slipped off of Lauren's skull and dropped limply to the ground.
It was around this time that Sierra began to notice the buzzing of her phone going off in her pocket, she checked it, noticing that it was Izzy. She quickly made an excuse to leave for the moment, slipping out of the lounge to find somewhere private to get an update on the situation at Camp Wawanakwa.
The rest of them watched the results of Millie's sabotage go down, her attempts of apologising being quickly shut down as Priya began to angrily shout at her, her shouting eventually turning into threats towards her former friend, all of this happening whilst Bowie was quickly catching up to the pair.
"It doesn't matter if you hate her jump!" Cody shouted, noticing Priya's raft sinking more and more into the lava.
Thankfully for everyone watching, Bowie made it in time for Priya to make a leap of faith jump onto Bowie's log, unfortunately for them the pair also chose to start fighting each other, neither of them seemingly caring that the other would most likely perish in the lava.
Tyler laughed as he noticed Wayne stealing Raj's popcorn, the latter being unable to watch Bowie fighting with Priya over the lava lake. "Of course he'd do something like that…"
Eventually however they watched as Priya and Bowie had a truce, teaming up to eliminate Millie, wanting the worthier foe as their final opponent for the million dollars. They quickly caught up to Millie, before using their poles to vault over the lava and to the finish line where Chris was waiting for them, eliminating Millie in the process.
Ezekiel wasn't paying attention to this however, still watching the screen with Lauren on as she had finally stopped chanting "Lava!" over and over again. Instead he watched on with a growing mixture of dread and anger as her expression morphed into disappointment, Dawn looking on with extreme worry as things continued to escalate.
She knew that something wasn't right, and that Lauren looked off as she stated it, Dawn was certain that she wasn't meaning to say something that would hurt Ezekiel intentionally, however before the moonchild could say anything to Ezekiel in order to calm him down, Lauren chose that moment to say probably the worst thing she possibly could, not knowing that her traumatised boyfriend was listening in.
"Awww no one fell in the lava!" Lauren cried disappointedly, crossing her arms with a huge frown on her face, not noticing the looks of fear and concern coming from Nichelle and Axel.
Before anyone could see or hear the response from Damien, or Lauren's realisation that she'd messed up and her subsequent breakdown. A guttural roar of anger came out from Ezekiel, the Feral Homeschooler finally snapping after hearing Lauren's disappointment over something that they both knew still haunted him to this day.
For a brief moment, all of the time spent helping him recover, all of the injections of the cure that Dakota had supplied were forgotten as Ezekiel pushed both Bridgette and Dawn to the ground, before leaping towards the screens with a roar of rage, pure grief in his eyes as he swiped at the wires connecting everything together, severing the connection to most of the cameras on the island as he pulled several of them out, leaving nothing but static on the screens, the camera by the lava lake being the only one to remain, as if to taunt Ezekiel further.
Geoff and Tyler quickly got up to restrain him, pulling him back towards the others so they could calm him down. Millie's apology to Priya was faintly heard in the background as everyone attempted to either restrain or calm him down.
It was only when Ezekiel was finally tied up, Dakota making sure that he couldn't escape without her untying him that they saw the tears flowing from his eyes, the Feral Homeschooler feeling hurt and betrayed from what Lauren was saying.
He shut down completely, similarly to how Lauren was currently feeling over at Camp Wawanakwa, having done his best to curl up and go unnoticed by everyone else. Several of the others attempted to comfort him but to no avail, whilst the more tech savvy amongst them got to work trying to fix some of the damage that Ezekiel had done to the screens and the wires.
No one noticed Dawn deep in thought as this was going on, trying to decipher what was going on with Lauren, and how on earth she was going to try and mend the rift between the pair.
She could feel it over on the other island, Lauren wasn't one to show much emotion, however she could feel the anguish and horror in the Scary Girl's aura, Ezekiel won't believe her at first but Dawn knew that at the very least Lauren had realised her mistake and was internally suffering over it.
Hopefully she'll be able to mend this soon before it gets worse…
They deserve some happiness at least…
Izzy was starting to get tired…
She'd been searching for a while for any clues that would lead to unlocking the safe in Chris's private quarters, and so far she had been completely unsuccessful. Most of the items that he owned wouldn't have fitted with the four digit code that was required for the keypad, and those few that had shown promise turned out to be wide off the mark.
She had texted Sierra in order to try and find out about any clues that could lead to opening the safe, however so far there was no reply, whether it was because she was stuck reacting to the finale going on at the moment or if the interns at the Playa Des Losers had caught on to her being on the island she didn't know.
*Bzzt* *Bzzt*
She looked over to where she left her phone on the desk nearby where the cabinet was, seeing the phone repeatedly buzzing, Sierra's face lighting up on the screen. She skipped over to the phone, answering it immediately.
"Hello there?" Izzy chirped, relieved that her friend was finally picking up.
"General E-Scope…" Sierra responded, giggling at her own response as Izzy put the phone onto the speaker, leaving the phone back on the desk as she got to work once more on trying to figure out the code. "Sorry, I hadn't got the chance until now to talk, how's the progress going with that safe?" She asked the Crazy Girl, getting a tired sigh from her in response.
"It's going…" She replied tiredly.
"I can give you some codes if it helps to try and speed things up? I know enough about Chris to have a good guess at what he'd use." Sierra offered.
"Please!" Izzy perked up, getting another small laugh out of Sierra.
"Okay, try his year of birth, 1978." She instructed, Izzy immediately punching in the numbers only to see the red flashing light once again.
"Nah, wrong again…" Izzy pouted impatiently.
"Okay… how about his birthday, November 18th?" Sierra said, Izzy proceeding to try that code only for the light next to the keypad to once again flash red.
"Nope…" Izzy muttered, annoyance really starting to creep into her tone.
"Darn…" Sierra responded, before going silent for a moment, thinking to herself for something that Chris would use, whether it was something about him or something that he might have been proud of. "How about the release date of his Badminton Movie that he spoke about from Action? September 24th?" She eventually responded with.
Izzy typed that in, the red light showing once again. "Nope"
"Hmm…" Sierra pondered once more, before gasping, Izzy faintly hearing the Uber Fan slapping herself in the face. "Of course, why not the date that Total Drama first aired on? July 8th, 2017!" Sierra said happily.
Once again Izzy typed the numbers into the keypad, first trying the day and then the year separately, both resulting in the same red flashes as with the prior attempts. When she attempted to merge them together, typing in 7817, this time the light next to the keypad flashed green, the safe beginning to unlock itself.
"Oh my god finally…" Izzy sighed in relief whilst Sierra cheered over the phone. "Thank you so much Sierra, I would've been here all day at this rate."
"No problem!" Sierra responded happily. "I'll need to head back to the others now, please tell us what you find when you get back to the resort!" She said before the pair said their goodbyes, the phone call promptly disconnecting.
Izzy put her phone away once more before turning back to the now opened safe, inside were several CD's, each one marked with different pieces of footage from all six of the seasons that came before the current one, each CD marked with a different name to represent the content on them, from unaired confessionals to some behind the scenes footage that never made it on air.
Izzy looked at each one, trying to find something that was around the time of Total Drama World Tour to see if it could be useful for finding the information they needed to take down Chris. After shifting through quite a few CD's she eventually found one simply titled 'Ezekiel sightings', the Crazy Girl quickly pocketing this one, as well as the CD containing the unaired footage for the third season.
After not finding any more information that could link to their cause, she gently put all of the other CD's back into the safe, before closing it, leaving everything else as it was so that Chris wouldn't get suspicious.
"Alright, now time to find a way off of this island!" Izzy muttered to herself, a feral grin spreading across her face as she made her way back to the door leading out of the trailer, pushing the door out slightly to peek out of it, when she saw that the coast was clear, she snuck out, leaving no trace of her ever being there.
She left the clearing the same way she came in, manoeuvring her way to the bushes close to the trailer, before running out into the forest to head back towards the campgrounds where she hoped her exit from the island would be.
It had taken some time to fix the damage that Ezekiel had done in his brief outburst, but eventually most of the cameras were able to be restored, Sierra had since returned to the lounge, having been informed of what had happened when she looked confused at the sight of Ezekiel being tied up, staring emotionlessly at the screens with tear marks down his face.
When the cameras finally switched on for them, they showed Chris explaining the final challenge to the two remaining finalists, the screen with the eliminated contestants had also been switched back on, with Dawn immediately noticing the toque on Lauren's head, as well as the small marks on her face indicating that she had been crying herself over what had happened.
She turned away from the others for a moment to let out a small smile, slightly more confident that things could be fixed between the pair.
They watched as Chris explained what the challenge was, it seemed simple enough at first, race up the mountain to two plastic spheres at the top, then race back down inside to the finish line just in front of where the spectators were watching, that was before Chef added an additional obstacle to the challenge and gave them both a pair of goats, telling them to bring them along up the mountain.
"Hey Tyler, your best friend from Egypt is back…" Noah snarked, smirking down at the jock.
"Really?" Tyler responded, looking closely at the screen. "Oh yeah…"
"Well at least this challenge doesn't look as dangerous as the last one…" Emma sighed in relief as Chris started the challenge, the two finalists beginning to race up the mountain with their goats in hand.
"Doesn't mean that it'll be easy, look!" Kitty said, pointing at the screen as the goats began to misbehave in different ways, Bowie's goats refusing to budge whilst Priya's goats ran back down the mountain and into some nearby bushes.
"Dude, what is it with Total Drama and the animals…" Geoff asked, Bridgette and Tyler both shrugging in response.
They all continued to watch the pair struggle to climb the mountain with their goats, however eventually Bowie was able to make it to the top of the mountain first, panting with exhaustion after having to push his goats all the way up.
"Thank you Bowie! And you're the first to arrive!" Chris grinned as Bowie took a moment to recover, before the host checked his watch impatiently. "Took you long enough…"
"And once again, Chris McLean shows just how much of an ass he really is…" Noah snarked, getting a few more laughs from some of the others.
They watched as Bowie was about to dive into the orb sitting nearby, ready to head back down the mountain and towards the finish line before Chef added the plot twist of having to milk a goat and drink a bucket of said goat milk. Something that had people laughing when they saw Zee's reaction to it.
"Why… is… he screaming!" Owen gasped in between chuckles, Kitty and Cody both laughing along in agreement.
"Next time we host a party, remind me to invite this guy…" Geoff told Bridgette, the pair also chuckling at Zee's response to milk.
They all continued to watch as Priya caught up to Bowie, the pair only finishing the second part of the challenge only a few moments behind each other, the pair sped down the mountain as fast as they could, with the bumpiness of it eventually causing them to both puke up all of the goat milk that they had to drink at the top of the mountain.
The sight of this caused most of the girls in the group to gag as they looked away from the sight, whilst Owen stood up and celebrated in a similar manner to how Ripper did.
Eventually the orbs both bounced towards the finish line, Chef using porcupines in order to pop the orbs so they'd stop at the finish line and not collide with the spectators. One of them rolled slightly in front of the finish line as the other rolled slightly past it.
The former contestants watched the screen as the orbs stopped, Chris walking up to the orb just past the finish line and announcing the winner as he opened the door to the orb. Priya eventually crawled her way out of the orb, to the vast majority of the cast's celebrations, Chase, Wayne and Raj being the exceptions.
Despite none of the contestants in the lounge personally knowing Priya, with only a couple of them having heard about her during their brief time at the resort, every single one of the former contestants cheered at the screen as Priya was announced as the latest winner of Total Drama.
Izzy had eventually found her way back to the main campgrounds of the island, taking care once more to avoid detection from any of the cameras littered around the campsite. She knew she had taken a while with getting the footage that would hopefully help in their lawsuit against Chris, and so while she was still careful with sneaking around, she was starting to get a little concerned since she knew that the challenge had to be finishing up soon.
She did not get this far to mess up now…
Searching the main parts of camp wouldn't do her much good in finding an escape route, and she couldn't wait for the others to come back, she didn't even know if they'd take the same boat back, or if Chris would even take them back to the resort.
Instead she first made a beeline for the boathouse, unfortunately for her when she got there there was no sign of anything that she could use to sail across the lake towards the Playa Des Losers, although it definitely looked like something was supposed to be housed inside.
With that having been a failure, Izzy had slowly made her way over towards the Crafts and Services tent, hoping that there'd be something like a canoe stored inside that she could use to try and slowly make her way over, even if it was slow it'd be better than her just trying to swim for it.
Eventually she made it over to the tent, peeking inside to see a cluttered mess of object scattered all over the inside, fortunately for the Crazy Girl, she could see towards the back of the cluttered room the shape of a canoe leaning against a pile of other junk, the paddles for it leaning against it.
Izzy grinned, having found her way out, now it was just about getting it out from the mess that was the Crafts and Services Tent and into the water…
She began climbing over the piles of junk scattered across the tent, helmets, paintball guns and piles of nets being just a few of the things Izzy found herself throwing out of the way in order to get to what she needed to escape from the island.
When she finally reached it, Izzy first grabbed the paddles for the canoe and proceeded to throw them outside of the tent, using all of her strength in order to launch them outside, she then grabbed one end of the canoe and began to pull as hard as she could, slowly dragging the canoe up the pile of junk until it was at an angle where she could crawl behind it and push it out of the tent.
It took several minutes, but eventually Izzy was able to push the canoe out, the canoe receiving several scratches in the process. Izzy grabbed the paddles and threw them into the inside of the canoe, before beginning to push the canoe towards the nearby waters.
When she finally got the canoe into the waters of Lake Wawanakwa, Izzy leapt into the canoe, sighing in relief as she began to paddle herself across the waters, first towards the Dock of Shame was, then turning herself in the direction of where the boat had come from, hoping that it would be a straight line towards the resort where her friends were waiting for her.
Phase Three of the plan was officially complete, now she just needed to see if all her hard work paid off once she got back to the resort…
Izzy found herself humming quietly to herself to pass the time as she slowly sailed across the lake, eventually passing by the shores of Boney Island where her close friend had been stuck for so long until Lauren had eventually found him.
The Crazy Girl glanced over towards the island as she rode past it slowly, she knew about that happening but she found herself wondering what exactly went down between the pair on the island to make them so close, not that she minded, she'd be eternally grateful to the Scary Girl for finding her friend and essentially bringing him back into society, it was a bonus that she was so interesting as well.
The minutes flew by as Izzy continued to make her way across the lake, and eventually she could see the resort in the distance, she smirked once more, stopping her paddling for a moment to text Sierra, asking her to meet her at the Dock.
Eventually she'd made it to the dock, seeing Sierra, Emma and Noah all standing there waiting for her to arrive.
"Sup guys!" She greeted happily, leaping out from the canoe onto the dock, before hugging her friends.
"Easy Crazy Girl…" Noah responded, taking a nervous step back.
"Did you get this footage then?" Emma asked, looking curiously at Izzy.
Izzy grinned, reaching into her top once more and pulling out both CD's that she'd taken from the safe in Chris's trailer. "You mean these?" She asked rhetorically, a huge smirk on her face. "I took both to be safe, we still need to actually look through them and see if they're useful, but I'd imagine if it doesn't then the proof we want doesn't exist…" She explained to the trio, her expression slightly falling as she talks but the smirk is still there.
"Well let's hope what we need is on here then…" Emma sighed, taking the CD's from Izzy.
"We'll probably have to analyse these later, I'd imagine that Chris will be here soon with our new friends so we'll probably be busy dealing with him…" Noah added.
"That's fine!" Izzy chirped as she skipped past them and towards the resort. "As long as it works in the end."
"I hope you all had fun because you're all invited back for a rematch NEXT SEASON!" Chris announced gleefully to the sixteen contestants currently sat around the campfire, each of them showing various degrees of shock and excitement at the prospect of returning to the island.
Chef had organised a brief party for the contestants to distract them whilst the pair left for the Dock of Shame, both to film the outro to the season and to prepare the boat to take all of the contestants back to the Playa Des Losers.
The chest that had been shown off had turned out to be nothing but a prop chest filled with the same coins that had been used for the previous challenge, something that caused Julia to seethe at the sight of, but once the camera's had stopped rolling Chef walked over to Priya, presenting her with the familiar million dollar briefcase that they had used in the older seasons, something that the winner had accepted gleefully.
"We'll be back for you guys soon, you can spend the night at the resort before heading home, we'll pick you guys up in two weeks to come back here for the second season…" Chef explained, Chris having already left to film the outro, Chef leaving soon after to join him.
"So? What are you gonna do with the money Priya?" Damien had asked her once the two hosts had left for the Dock, extremely happy that his friend had won the season.
"This is going straight to funding med school!" Priya responded, her smile having yet to leave her face the whole evening since she'd won the challenge. "That is if my parents will allow it now, I mean, I achieved their dream after all…" She continued, her smile shrinking slightly at the mention of her parents, however the excitement ultimately won out.
"Of course they will!" Millie proclaimed, sitting next to Priya and pumping her fist in happiness, the earlier restlessness that plagued her throughout the challenge having completely vanished. "If achieving this doesn't convince them to let you go after your own dream then I don't know what will…"
"If not then you always have us to help you out, I mean, we are going to see each other next season after all…" Damien said, laughing nervously, the nerves only getting worse when Lauren sat in between him and Priya, her creepy grin plastered across her face, skull still in her hands.
"I can't wait to get to share more memories with you guys…" Lauren grinned eerily, the others shifting away from her slightly.
Priya however noticed the toque still sitting on top of Lauren's head, her nerves quickly turning into curiosity at the familiar hat being here, but not the contestant associated with it. "Wait, is that Ezekiel's hat on your head?" Priya asked, Lauren's eyes quickly darting up to it in slight surprise, having forgotten that Millie had given it back to her in between challenges.
"Uh… yeah…" She stuttered out slightly, Damien and Millie daring to give out small grins at Lauren's sudden 180 in personality.
"So… I've heard a lot about this whole 'Ezekiel Incident' you caused on Boney Island? What exactly is going on with that, I thought he would've been here with you?" Priya asked, looking over towards Lauren and Damien with interest.
Millie also looked over, having been informed during the challenge of their closeness but in the chaos of the finale had completely overlooked the absence of the Feral Homeschooler from the rest of the peanut gallery. Did they leave him behind at that resort all by himself?
"I'd like to know this as well?" A voice called from across the campfire, the group of four turned to see Bowie walking up to them, hand in hand with Raj. "Last I heard he was at that resort with the rest of you guys?"
Lauren smiled nervously, still slightly shaken from her mishap during the challenge with the lava, something that she wanted to rectify with him as soon as she got back to the resort, knowing that he'd likely seen the whole challenge, and thus had likely seen her go crazy over the lava.
Fortunately for the Scary Girl, Damien noticed her silence and answered the question for her. "Yeah a lot has happened with those two, for one they're in a relationship now…" He trailed off, seeing both Priya and Bowie widen their eyes in shock, Millie having already found out during the challenge.
"Oh my god…" Priya gasped.
"It gets better…" Damien continued, looking at Millie and Bowie before addressing Priya once more, "He isn't alone at the resort…"
"Wait, what do you mean by that? Do you mean the interns or…" Bowie asked, trailing off when he realised what it meant.
"No way…" Priya added, her eyes widening once more, this time in excitement as she began to connect the dots.
"Yeah, several of the older contestants are with him at the resort, I'm guessing you three will get to meet them before we go back home…" Damien guessed, rubbing his head sheepishly.
"Huh…" Bowie blinked, not expecting the older contestants to be there, not that he was mad.
"Yeah, they're awesome…" Raj responded as he turned to his boyfriend, "One of our coaches for the Hockey Team is there, and he'd like to meet you, Bowie!" Raj continued, smiling happily as Wayne walked up to the couple, throwing an arm around both of their shoulders.
"Yah bro, there's a few of them that you'd really like eh." Wayne grinned.
"I'll hold you boys to that…" Bowie responded, chuckling at the pair's enthusiasm, before turning to Priya and Millie. "Hey girls, about that whole book thing, I just wanted to let you know it wasn't personal, it was just for the competition…" He said to the pair, Millie in particular glaring back at him.
"And why should we believe you?" Millie replied.
"Look, I'm just overly competitive and will resort to anything in order to win…" Bowie shrugged, stepping away from the Hockey Bros as he dug into his pocket, pulling out a torn sheet of paper.
"Here…" He said as he passed it to Priya, her eyes immediately being drawn to the writing on the sheet, Millie's handwriting… "I wasn't going to let you guys stay separated forever, just until the competition had ended when I won." Bowie explained, the pair turning to him once more.
"But… What about the next season?" Priya asked, confused.
Bowie just laughed. "Darling, that note is useless to me anyway now… besides I still plan to take that crown away from you. Like I said, it's nothing personal…" Bowie finished, winking at the pair before walking away, the Hockey Bros waving them goodbye as they followed him.
"Sooo…" Lauren began once they were alone again, "That was interesting." She grinned.
"Don't you start…" Millie groaned, having had enough of the drama for one day, Priya and Damien laughing slightly at the small exchange.
They spoke for a little longer before Chris returned to the campsite, the boat ready to take everyone back to the resort for the final time this season, as Lauren stood up and began to walk towards the Dock of Shame along with the rest of her cast, only one thing was on her mind as she headed towards her inevitable confrontation…
'Please let this end well… I can't go back to being alone…'
End Chapter
Author's Note: As I had said at the start of the fic, the timeline differences was that the reboot takes place five years after the original Total Drama Island, in canon the original is implied to be in the summer of 2007 while the reboot is likely 2022. In this fic Total Drama started in 2017 while the reboot stays where it is.
And for those who don't know Chris's birthday was confirmed to be November 18th 1978 on the (now defunct) website called Total Drama Online. As for the badminton movie reference, we never find out when that film would have been released, so I just went with the Canadian release date for the episode where the movie was first brought up (Episode 15 of Total Drama Action for those who didn't know).
I feel awful for putting Ezekiel and Lauren through this, but this angst shouldn't last very long, unfortunately I had to include the scene (although like I said last chapter, it is iconic) but they will be able to talk things out…