Author's Note: So this should've been uploaded several days ago, but between having begun therapy in the last couple weeks, the release of MW3 Zombies (which I'm surprisingly enjoying considering I thought it looked awful in the build up to release), and especially Leagues IV starting on RuneScape, that last one I'm addicted to, honestly surprised that I'm able to finish this chapter all things considered. XD
That aside, now that the season is finally finished for the fic, we're now in the final countdown towards the end of the fic, I just wanted to thank every single one of you who've supported the fic over the last few months, it's been a pleasure writing this so far, and I hope the support continues as we get into the final few chapters…
Reviews
MatiasND: Look I can see why it looks like Ezekiel's brief outburst is over the top but tbf he's gone several years stuck alone on Boney Island believing that everyone had betrayed, mocked and belittled him before abandoning him on the island. And after finally having that veil lifted by Lauren he finally has something to look forward to again, only for that same person to (accidentally) obsess over one of the things that scarred him in the first place.
It's an overreaction yes, and looking back on it he would see that himself, but in the moment he'd be angry and betrayed, so in this case it'd be justified, and even then his relapse was very brief, since he shuts down mentally afterwards…
As for Izzy, most of the cast knows where she went, the decoy was there for a reason. And maybe Chris will notice but not before they've got what they needed, they just need to be quick about it…
I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter regardless!
RFtheGreat: Having Izzy's moments to separate different segments definitely helped with writing this XD, especially since I'll be honest, I'll have shot myself in the foot trying to go back and forth otherwise. And yeah that's the issue with them reacting to the finale from somewhere else, I had to retread in order to make their reactions make sense.
I knew the moment I started writing this fic that the "No one fell in the lava" comment from Lauren was going to be addressed, she probably just got too into the moment and in this case it backfired massively on her. The Priya and Millie situation did feel a little sudden however that's because I didn't want to add everything into the chapters, some parts of the episode are better off viewing after all. I liked the Priya ending, and I hope this comment from her voice actress about Bowie not having an ending is false, part of the fun with finale episodes are the alternate endings after all!
As for the footage, all will be revealed soon, however I will say that there are multiple flashbacks to explain what's on the footage. Some of it however I'll leave to interpretation, it does cover a whole season's worth of footage after all…
Chapter Twenty Four
"So this is it huh? One final night then we all get to go home again?" Cody asked the others, not expecting a reply as they all stood at the docks waiting for the new cast to get back from their brief revisit to Camp Wawanakwa.
The boat in question rapidly approaching from across the lake, all eleven of the older contestants watching them approach with varying levels of interest, having been informed of what had happened with Izzy's mission on the island only around one hour ago, and knowing that the worst was over concerning their brief reunion.
The crazy girl had vanished once more after informing them about having retrieved the footage, having joined Noah, Sierra and Emma in dissecting any information from the CD's that Izzy had retrieved that could be used for their lawsuit against Chris.
The other missing person on the other hand had disappeared into his room shortly after they'd watched Priya win the final challenge of the season, still mentally shot after what Lauren had been saying during the challenge involving the lava.
Only Dawn seemed to have any idea of what was going through his mind, and she was adamant on trying to solve the problem before it escalated further, the first step being to try and get a confession from the Scary Girl herself as to what exactly was going on with her during said challenge.
"Holy crap they're actually here!" Priya gasped happily as she leaned over the edge of the boat to look at the people standing at the dock, stars in her eyes as she took her first look at the resort. The boat carrying the sixteen contestants slowing to a stop just in front of where the older contestants were standing.
Priya, Bowie and Millie were the first to leave the boat, finally getting the chance to see the older contestants face to face now that they were finally out of Camp Wawanakwa. None of the eleven contestants who were standing at the docks moved to greet them immediately, not knowing anything about the newcomers who had been stuck on the island for the entire season.
Tyler however stepped forwards with a huge grin on his face as Wayne and Raj leapt off the boat next, greeting them with a fist bump and a hug.
"Sup guys!" Tyler greeted them.
"Sup coach! Hope it wasn't too boring while we were gone!" Wayne responded happily, Raj silently walking towards Bowie, quickly linking hands with him.
Tyler however winced slightly, "Trust me man, some bad things happened while we watched that finale." He then looked past Wayne towards the couple standing behind him. "So this is Bowie." He asked, stepping towards the pair.
"I am…" Bowie confirmed, his face briefly unreadable as the Jock approached.
"Cool, I'm Tyler, part of the Hockey Team these two lovable guys play for!" Tyler grinned as he extended his hand towards Bowie, the man in question eventually smiling as he took it. "Rajie here told me a lot about you."
Bowie just laughed in response. "Good things I hope."
"Trust me, the dude has nothing but praise for you." Tyler responded, the pair chuckling as Raj blushed from embarrassment.
As Wayne looked around he started to notice that a few of the others were missing, as more of the others started to depart from the boat he wasn't the only person to notice the absences.
"So…" Caleb began, noticing five absentees from the older cast. "Where are the others?"
"Noah and Emma have gone to help search through the footage that Izzy recovered from Wawanakwa in order to find this evidence to support the lawsuit against Chris." Cody explained. "Sierra has gone with those three as well."
"Wait…" MK paused as she overheard his explanation.
"That crazy girl was on the island with us the whole time!" Julia continued.
"How the hell did no one notice her!" Ripper finished, interrupting Julia in the process, the latter proceeding to shove Ripper into the lake, much to Axel's satisfaction.
"I mean…" Nichelle began, everyone's heads whipping around to face her as she spoke. "I thought you guys were in on it?"
"The hell do you mean by that?" Ripper asked as he climbed back onto the dock, glaring daggers at Julia as he did so.
"She means that several of us were there when Izzy said she was sneaking onto the island…" Axel announced. "Clearly the message had not spread to everyone before the challenge."
"Wait a minute, you said that four people were going through that footage?" Damien questioned, looking at Cody. "What about Ezekiel?"
There was no immediate response to that question, by this point almost everyone was off the boat, and none of the contestants had a clue about his whereabouts, the older cast however collectively winced in discomfort at the question, all but confirming to the others about what would have transpired.
"Lauren…" Damien muttered under his breath, already figuring out why Ezekiel was MIA. "Why does everything have to be so complicated with you…"
"Speaking of Lauren…" A voice called from behind everyone else, revealing herself to be Dawn as she walked up to Damien. "Where is she?"
"She was with us just a moment ago…" Damien began as he turned around, expecting Lauren to be standing behind him, the pair supposedly the last to exit the boat, only for the Scary Girl to not be anywhere. "The hell? Guys have you seen Lauren?" He asked the others.
Everyone went silent for a moment, the only sounds being the waves crashing against both the boats and the dock, before the sounds of someone struggling could be heard from inside of the boat, Lauren quickly being launched from the doorway and onto the docks, her skull being tossed out soon after by an angry Chef Hatchet, Damien catching the skull as Lauren got up slowly, a dark expression on her face.
"I don't care if you've effed up with your relationship drama, you CAN'T come back with us to Wawanakwa! You already went MIA once, you're NOT doing it again Scary Girl!" Chef shouted at her before slamming the door shut, the boat quickly setting off once more to head back towards Camp Wawanakwa, Lauren flipping off Chef as he left the resort once more.
"Uh… Lauren? Here you go…" Damien said in a hushed tone, a nervous expression on his face as he quickly handed her the skull, the Scary Girl replying with an emotionless "thanks…" before Damien ran behind Priya and Millie, not liking the unstable vibes that Lauren was currently giving off.
"So…" Lauren began, turning towards the others, seeing a variety of different reactions to her presence from the older cast specifically, ranging from pity to disgust. "Where do I go to begin fixing things?" She asked them, the pain in her eyes being masked by the dark grin that she gave the others.
*Total Drama World Tour, in between the Amazon and Paris*
Chris knew he hadn't seen things that night in the Hot Tub.
That faint figure through the steam, the murmurs from some of the contestants about having seen something watching them in the shadows of the Cargo Hold, Owen having mentioned nightmares about seeing something clinging onto the wing of the plane outside First Class…
He couldn't have, could he?
Chris had searched through all of the camera footage in his private quarters, attempting to find out if he had actually managed to sneak back onto the plane, it had only been a couple weeks since they'd left Egypt, and both Ezekiel and Duncan behind, and both had since been reported as missing after the interns he sent to retrieve them and bring them back to the Aftermath Studio had failed to find anything.
Surely Ezekiel hadn't done it again, sure maybe when the plane hadn't taken off he could somehow catch up to a moving plane and climb up the landing gear, but to do so mid flight, when he'd been booted out of the plane by Chef?
He couldn't believe it, but the murmuring, and that figure, he had to make sure…
He checked every possible camera throughout the plane, First Class? Nope, just the ever dwindling Team Victory, having managed a surprising victory in the last challenge and had finally found themselves in first class, Tyler for some reason was there as well...
Economy Class? Nope, Team Chris and Team Amazon were the only occupants, Alejandro being the only other contestant missing from the two teams due to getting his black eye checked once more by the interns.
He was slowly starting to regret the three team structure as he looked at the three teams, he hadn't realised that one of the teams would take as bad a hit as this…
He kept checking the other camera, the two confessionals held nothing, Chef being the only one in the cockpit, obviously no one in his quarters apart from himself, the common area held nothing, neither did the elimination ceremony…
That just left the Cargo Hold…
At first the footage held no results like the others, but one of the cameras caught his eye in particular, faint movement in the background. Chris swapped between cameras, trying to catch who it was, until he found him…
Ezekiel, paler than usual, shivering in the corner of the Hold, snuggled up in between several crates. His clothes with small marks on them and strands of hair looking out of place.
He looked like a mess…
Chris stared at the screen for a while, his shock slowly turning into annoyance, how the hell has he managed to stay on the plane…
"What on earth is he doing here?" He muttered to himself.
A small part of him that still cared about the health of the competitors thought that maybe he should tell Chef or the interns to go and find him, then get him off of the plane for good.
However, as he continued to watch, he overheard Ezekiel muttering in the Cargo Hold, he couldn't quite make out what was being said, however he could see him talking to the rats, a strange look on his face, for a moment his eyes narrowed as he hissed at them before his expression morphed into a look of fear.
It was like he'd suddenly transformed, his shaking was still there, however he could now hear Ezekiel more clearly, the Prairie Boy frantically apologising to the rats as if they were capable of holding conversation with him.
Something wasn't quite right with him…
He looked closer, seeing that Ezekiel's eyes were beginning to look bloodshot, his ear had bite marks that, if gone untreated, would become infected or worse. A couple of tears on his hoodie were noticeable, and even underneath his baggy clothes he could tell that the Homeschooler had lost weight.
Chris's anger had dissipated quickly, but instead a cruel grin began to emerge…
He needed someone crazy for a challenge he wanted to implement in London, and he was originally considering bringing Eva back with the promise that she could return to the game.
But this…
This looked promising…
"Well well well Ezekiel, let's see how much of an animal you become as we get further and further into the game…" Chris grinned evilly, making a mental note when they eventually got to London to get Chef to drag him out of the hold.
If he wanted to get back into the game so badly, then he'd have to suffer for it…
*Present*
The footage ended there, with everyone present in the room staring at the now static screen in shock and horror. Izzy in particular was glaring venomously, realising just how much Chris had done to torment her old friend.
To have been aware of him being on the plane so early and yet preventing both Chef and the interns from helping Ezekiel before his health started to deteriorate, he knew all along, and they wouldn't have been surprised if he had known that something was off as early as either the Japan or the Yukon episode.
"Have I ever mentioned how much I despise our 'beloved' host before?" Izzy asked innocently, the dark look in her eyes betraying her tone.
"Yes… You have… Many, many times." Noah responded.
"So… Do you think this might be enough?" Sierra turned to ask Emma, the latter hunched over writing various notes about the footage onto a notepad. She looked up at Sierra, thinking it through, then shrugged nervously.
"I don't know, if I'm honest. While this proves that Chris had a hand in his descent, even he was surprised with his condition when he found him." She responded, placing the notepad down and pressed a button on the remote control next to the screen that was showing the footage, rewinding it back to the point where Chris had first spotted Ezekiel on the cameras, the screen showing both Chris's quarters and the camera feed from that part of the cargo hold.
"However, yes while he was as surprised as everyone else with the state of Ezekiel when he first found him, it does ask the question of 'Why didn't he help him sooner?', even if said help would have just been throwing him off the plane." Emma continued to explain.
"I mean we all saw first hand that Ezekiel wouldn't leave the plane, somehow he just kept finding his way back on until I blew it up…" Sierra responded, a guilty smile on her face as she remembered accidentally blowing up the plane in Drumheller.
"That aside…" Emma continued, glaring slightly at Sierra after being interrupted by the super fan. "That last part really sums it up for us, he knew weeks in advance before that London challenge, and yet he allowed him to suffer on that assumption that it 'might' have made good tv…"
"And the evidence should turn the tide back in our favour…" Izzy and Noah both grinned, the latter at the prospect of getting one over his former boss, and the former at the possibility of revenge for her friend's treatment.
"Izzy?" Sierra called over to the crazy girl. "It's gonna take a while to get what we need onto file, but would you be up to sneak these back into Chris's quarters when we're done with them?" She asked her, getting a nod of excitement in return.
"Uh huh, but why not just keep the CD's instead of copying the files over?" Izzy questioned.
"Because there's no way that we'd be able to keep this a secret for long enough for this gambit to work." Noah responded, crossing his arms as he leaned back into his chair, watching as Emma and Sierra began to work on copying what was needed for their case onto a portable drive.
"He's right, we're probably lucky that they haven't already noticed, I mean… I'd be honestly surprised if he didn't keep close surveillance on the contents of that safe." Emma mused.
"You dare doubt E-Scope, spy extraordinaire!" Izzy cackled, much to Emma's confusion as Noah sighed, remembering Izzy's 'alter ego's' from past seasons.
"No Izzy, we don't…" Noah responded sarcastically, rolling his eyes as Izzy smirked playfully.
"Okay! The file's transferred over, on to the next one…" Emma interrupted, two files being shown on the monitor of the original copy of the clip, and the one that had been uploaded for them to use as evidence. Sierra took control once more, navigating over to a list of files from the original CD, showing a list of clips contained on the 'unused footage' CD, simply listed by the date, followed by either the location the clip was cut from, or had different sections for the plane for the clips from mid flight.
They'd made an immediate decision to focus on the plane footage and the couple of episodes where they knew Ezekiel had a major presence in, saving anything else for scouring the second CD that Izzy had recovered, the one simply titled 'Ezekiel sightings'.
As the next clip was clicked on, with the screen switching to the beginning of that footage, the four sat in the room quietened immediately to begin watching the new clip, Emma readying her notepad once more in order to write down anything that she could use as evidence.
*Total Drama World Tour, shortly before 'I See London'*
Chris grinned evilly to himself once more as he stood over the monitors scouting through the cameras of the cargo hold once more. Their next destination was coming up soon and it was finally time to see if his gamble in keeping Ezekiel in the hold had paid off.
He had told Chef a short while ago once they had finally lifted off from Jamaica after their fuel shortage had been solved via the aftermath show about what he had seen on the cameras, hiding the fact that he'd known about Ezekiel's continued presence on the plane for a couple weeks at this point, and sent the cook into the cargo hold in order to retrieve Ezekiel.
There was currently no sign of the homeschooled stowaway as he searched through the cameras, noticing both Chef and some of the interns patrolling the hold, the latter likely on Chef's orders. What he had noticed however was various scratch marks found across some of the crates, dried bloodstains on the floor in corners that the contestants wouldn't have had access to…
Chris's eyes glistened as he leaned back in his chair, content to watch the show as Chef continued to look for Ezekiel. Any concern had long since passed, the host ultimately not caring for the current condition of his least favourite contestant, and he couldn't wait to see how his experiment with allowing him to be stuck in isolation unfolded.
He glanced over to the door for a moment upon hearing voices nearby, he knew he couldn't allow anyone to see what was about to happen before the next challenge started, so he knew that Team Amazon would need to be kicked out of first class before Chef returned with Ezekiel.
Chris idly continued flicking through the cameras, his smirk widening in glee as he saw an intern unconscious beside one of the crates, the sounds of a scuffle barely being heard through the screen. Chris switched through attempting to find out exactly who or what was going on, eventually finding Chef having pinned Ezekiel down near a nest in the corner, rats peeking out from a nearby hole in order to see what was going on as Ezekiel growled maliciously at Chef, his claws trying to dig into the larger mans arms.
Ezekiel looked like a total mess. His skin was no longer pale, having begun to turn into a light green colour. His eyes were bloodshot, heavy bags having begun to appear underneath them. His ear that Chris had previously noted as having bite marks had gotten worse, said mark clearly having gotten deeper and had resulted in part of his ear being completely chewed off.
Ezekiel's clothes were shredded, his hair was clumped up and looked in danger of falling out in places, and the look in Ezekiel's eyes suggested that the complete isolation was beginning to take its toll on the homeschooler.
He saw Chef reach into his pocket for his radio, Chris already knowing what he was about to say, he acknowledged him quickly before getting up to leave his private quarters, ready to kick the others out of first class in order to prepare Ezekiel for the challenge.
He opened the door, seeing Heather and Courtney sitting by the bar arguing about something, Gwen was sleeping on one of the chairs, sunburn mysteriously on one of her hands, and judging by the guilty look on Cody's face as he glanced over to her he probably had something to do with it. Not that Cody could do anything when Sierra was restraining his movement, having him in a tight hug.
"Alright you five, I'm gonna need you to all vacate the premises until our next challenge." Chris announced to the members of Team Amazon, knowing he wouldn't have much time before Chef returned with Ezekiel.
"For what!" Heather replied angrily. "You can't just kick us out like this!"
"I can and I will." Chris grinned smugly, watching as Heather turned away with a pissed off look on her face, Courtney looking like she wanted to argue as well, before turning away and walking towards Gwen to wake her up.
Sierra meanwhile stood up gleefully and ran towards the host, letting go of Cody in the process, the geek wasting no time and sprinting out of first class to get away from his stalker.
"OMG Chris, what's the occasion?" She asked her 'idol' happily.
"Oh nothing… We just have a special guest for the next challenge and I need to use first class to welcome them, and you know, let them know what their role is without giving anything away." He explained, hearing Heather scoff as she looked over again.
"Please tell me it's not another one of your weird cousins…" She complained.
"Come on Heather he couldn't have been any worse than Chris?" Courtney questioned, shaking Gwen's shoulder in order to wake her up.
"Shut it Courtney! Last time I checked you weren't even there, you and the weird goth girl were too busy leading a wild goose chase to find your stupid delinquent boy toy!" Heather snapped back at the CIT.
"And look how fawning over DJ had gotten you…" Courtney replied, rolling her eyes as Gwen got up, glaring in both Heather and Chris's direction. "So much for your little 'alliance', we're just lucky that Izzy managed to get herself booted off so that we kept our advantage over the boys."
"I was not fawning over DJ, I was just…" Heather started before being cut off.
"Yeah, you're right, it was over Alejandro wasn't it." Gwen grinned, standing up and beginning to walk out of first class.
"I… You… S-Shut up!" Heather responded, a small blush spreading across her face as both her and Courtney followed the goth out of the room, Courtney laughing at Heather's expense, their argument quickly becoming more distant as the three made their way over to economy class.
Sierra ran over quickly to grab her 'laptop', seeing Chris glare impatiently at her to hurry up, before following after the others, hoping to catch up to Cody specifically.
Once he was sure that the team wasn't going to return, he pulled out his radio once more.
"Chef, we're all clear here, bring him in…"
Moments later, Chris saw the door open widely, the large figure of Chef Hatchet stepping through, carrying the dishevelled mess that was currently Ezekiel. Up close to him for the first time since his elimination back in Egypt, Chris could tell a few more things that were wrong with the homeschooler.
For one, the dude stank of something foul, Ezekiel never seemed to be the best at hygiene before, but since his isolation he just got worse and worse. His eyes however seemed even worse, a panicked look could be seen in them, constantly darting around as if everything was a target. His speech was heavily garbled, mostly coming out as growls and grunts rather than actual words.
"Wow, he really does look like a mess…" Chris muttered to himself, noticing the blood stains on Ezekiel's fingers. "It's perfect!" He grinned before turning to look at Chef, the latter looking slightly concerned at Ezekiel's deteriorating health. "Chef? Is the Ripper costume ready?"
"Huh!" Chef looked up, not registering the host's words for a moment before nodding slowly. "Uh, yeah…"
"Great!" Chris smirked evilly. "Have him ready before we begin descending into London, we'll have the contestants parachute down and Ezekiel can be dropped off once we explain the challenge to him. I'm sure he'll love the chance of coming back into the game if he wins…" He finished, his smirk widening as he saw Ezekiel's ears perk up, his eyes darting over to the host in excitement.
Oh… This episode was going to be fun for him…
If only he knew what was going to come from London itself…
*Present*
Ezekiel sighed quietly to himself as he slumped against the wall in his room, having decided to move back into his original room following what he had seen during the livestream of the finale only hours before.
After his initial reaction to what Lauren had said, having briefly snapped and striking out against the equipment in an animalistic rage. He was eventually able to calm down slightly, ashamed of having briefly relapsed back into his feral side, he'd hidden himself away from everyone else as soon as the finale had finished, with a winner having been confirmed for the season.
Dawn had attempted to comfort him at some point during the evening, and while he knew that she meant well, and that she was currently trying to find out from Lauren about what exactly was going on, but at this point Ezekiel didn't really care about anything, just wanting to go home and be alone once more, whether it was with his family or back to Boney Island once more…
Unbeknownst to the Feral Homeschooler, Lauren was walking towards the door to his room, an unfamiliar anxious look on her face, with Damien, Dawn, Priya and Millie all following closely behind her.
She had been confronted almost immediately by the majority of the older cast once she had returned to the resort, most of them demanding answers about what she had been saying during the finale. She'd attempted to scare them off, as she usually did with most people, only for them to double down on her, their patience beginning to waiver with her.
Lauren had stared them down with the creepiest look she could muster, the pain in her eyes betraying what she was intending to do, only wanting to find Ezekiel so that she could apologise. Eventually however she had relented, beginning to explain everything that had been going through her mind as she began to break down mentally over everything that had happened that day.
Dawn had helped her up, gently coercing the Scary Girl to confess as she glanced over towards the rest of the new cast, most of them looking extremely awkwardly at the situation, some looking on in disbelief at the scene unfolding in front of them. Damien however stepped forward nervously, joining Dawn in gently guiding Lauren along as they headed into the resort, hoping to calm her down before confronting Ezekiel in order to resolve.
He had convinced his two friends from the island to join them in trying to help resolve the issue, Millie having been nervous to accept despite having helped to cheer Lauren up in between challenges earlier in the day, and Priya had happily accepted, partially to stay with her two closest friends (and Lauren) and partially to get to interact more with some of the older contestants in some form.
"Scary Girl?" Priya called over to her gently as they stood outside the door to Ezekiel's room. "Are you sure you're ready for this?" She asked her.
Lauren glanced over to her, nodding silently, the Scary Girl not even bothering to fake a smile before looking away, focusing once more on the task at hand. She pulled Ezekiel's toque out from her pocket once more, her heart twisting in pain once more as Dawn stepped up to her, concern in her eyes.
"Would you prefer us to go first Lauren?" Dawn asked her, gesturing to both herself and the three others who had joined them, the rest of the contestants having split off to do their own things for their last night in the resort.
Lauren stayed silent for a moment, torn between allowing them and just saying 'screw it' and busting the door down, before reluctantly nodding. "Please…" She whispered gently to the moonchild, stepping away from the door.
"Everything will be fine Lauren… like I said on the island, you didn't mean it, he'll forgive you for this." Damien smiled, placing a hand onto Lauren's shoulder, the Scary Girl smiling softly in return.
"Look, I know nothing about this situation, and everything I've heard about Ezekiel was from the older seasons and what little information Chef had given us, but I trust Damien when he says that he'd forgive you, just tell him what you told us." Priya added.
Lauren nodded over to them, thankful that she was getting any support considering how much she freaked them out back on the island, watching as Dawn gently opened the door and stepped into the room, the others following suit, Lauren listening in from the entrance, ready to wait for an opportunity to show herself when she knew that Ezekiel was okay.
Ezekiel was still sat on the floor, slumped against the wall brooding quietly to himself when the door to his room opened, the small figure of Dawn quietly making her way over to him. "Hello Zeke." She greeted softly, gesturing behind her to the three figures standing by the entrance. "I've brought some people here to see you…" She said to him quietly.
Ezekiel looked up for a moment, opening his mouth to tell her to leave him alone for the night, only pausing when he saw two unfamiliar faces behind her, alongside the more familiar face of Damien. "O-Oh… H-Hey…" Ezekiel greeted his friend, happy to see him back at the resort, even if he knew what that meant in regards to Lauren being back.
He didn't know how to feel about the Scary Girl at the moment, preferring to hide himself away until the time came for everyone to leave the resort, whether or not he would have spoken to her before that happened he wasn't sure of, and what the consequences would be, especially considering they are still together even with what she had said on the island feeling like a betrayal...
The thoughts quickly left his mind as he glanced over to the two unfamiliar girls standing near the door, noticing the shorter girl studying him closely. He then looked back towards Damien, noticing him crouching down to his level, a look of concern on his face, Dawn having sat next to him in a meditative position.
"I heard about what happened earlier…" He began, placing a hand on Ezekiel's shoulder softly. "I'm sorry about all that…"
"H-Huh?" Ezekiel blinked, before quickly realising what he was referring to. "O-Oh… It's n-not your f-fault eh…"
"I know, but I still feel guilty you know, for not realising sooner…" Damien smiled sheepishly.
"O-Oh… O-Okay…" Ezekiel paused for a moment, looking over at the two unfamiliar girls once more, finally recognising them as the two girls who were fighting during the finale, the Feral Homeschooler having forgotten about the events of the challenge after his brief 'episode'. "S-So are those t-two your friends f-from the show?"
"Yeah!" Damien smiled, turning towards the pair, gesturing for them to sit with them. "Those two are Millie and Priya." He announced, his smile widening just a fraction as he said Priya's name.
Millie simply responded with a smile and wave, Priya on the other hand looked at him again once more as she sat down, Ezekiel getting more anxious before she smiled and spoke. "Huh? So you really are getting better, I guess Scary Girl was right after all."
"Eh?" Ezekiel paused, confused.
"Sorry sorry, it's just, despite what everyone had said about you over the last few days, I guess I was expecting the fully feral Ezekiel that I'd seen on TV, let me tell you training for the possibility of having to fight you was not pleasant…" Priya laughed nervously whilst the others in the room blinked, even Lauren risked looking into the room with confusion as to what Priya had just inferred.
"Please tell me you're not implying that your parents prepared you for something like this…" Damien and Millie both asked, both having thought the same thing as Ezekiel looked on dumbfounded, Dawn also having opened her eyes from her meditation wanting answers for herself.
"Huh? Oh…" Priya's eyes widened as it finally sunk in for her. "Yeah… they may have gone a little too far with the combat…" She smiled sheepishly.
'Just a little?' The words went unsaid amongst every other person in the room, however all five of them thought the same thing about what Priya had said. Most of them were horrified at the implications, however Lauren allowed herself a small smirk, suddenly finding herself wanting to meet Priya's parents, before slapping herself back into concentration.
Priya quickly began to realise that not only was she making things more awkward in the room, but she was also beginning to stray the conversation away from what they were actually here for, she cleared her throat awkwardly, beginning to speak once more. "So… Ezekiel… I know you probably have questions about what was said during the challenge." She said to him.
"I-I dont wanna t-talk about it eh…" Ezekiel responded weakly, looking away from the others.
"Come on man, look I know that the cameras were knocked out on your end but we can explain things." Damien told him, only for the Feral Homeschooler to glare venomously at him.
"Explain what… I-I heard w-what s-she was saying." Ezekiel growled.
"Zeke, you know deep down that she wasn't intending to hurt you." Dawn spoke out, only for Ezekiel to laugh sarcastically, the laughing partially coming out as growling.
"R-Really…" He spat out, looking back up towards the others, tears forming on the edges of his bloodshot eyes. "T-Then what w-was the reason if i-it wasn't that…"
"Because I wasn't thinking properly!" Lauren's voice called out from the hallway, everyone's heads turning to the door to see the Scary Girl standing by the entrance, tears running down her cheeks as she looked at Ezekiel.
"I-I let myself get too into the moment, I was so happy to see what was unfolding during that challenge that nothing else had mattered at the time. I wasn't thinking clearly when the lava was brought up, and by the time I'd realised what I was saying I'd already gone too far…" Lauren explained, sniffling in between sentences as she spoke.
Ezekiel stayed silent whilst everyone else looked at Lauren with some pity, his expression softening slightly as he began to process what she was saying.
"I wasn't thinking properly and I hurt you because of it, the one person here who saw more than just some creepy girl. I thought I'd be content being alone scaring people but now that I've experienced having someone around who cared as much as you did, I don't want to lose it because of my messed up thoughts…" Lauren continued.
Dawn continued to watch as Lauren explained to Ezekiel everything that was going through her head, idly noticing as Priya began sobbing herself, clinging onto a flustered Damien for support, and as Millie wiped her own tears with a tissue.
"I'm so, so sorry for what happened…" Lauren said to Ezekiel, the Scary Girl dropping to her knees as she sobbed quietly to herself, Ezekiel's toque dropping to the floor as she put her head in her hands.
Everyone watched as Lauren continued to break down in front of them, unsure of what to do, Ezekiel especially, on the one hand he didn't know if he was ready to forgive her for what had happened. However seeing her like this was heartbreaking, and at the very least it confirmed to him that she was being sincere with her apology.
Eventually he was able to make up his mind, standing up and walking over to her, gently pulling her into a soft hug, allowing her to cry softly into the fabric of his hoodie, only moving to pick up his toque and placing it snugly onto his head.
They sat there for what felt like an eternity, words failing to come out of Ezekiel's mouth, instead glancing at the others and nodding reassurances to the quartet, letting them know that they'd be fine from here.
Moving as quietly as they could in order to not disturb Lauren, the others gently got up and began to leave the room, each of them waving Ezekiel goodbye for the night as they left to do their own separate things for the rest of the evening. Dawn lingering at the door for a moment before closing it after her, content that things would be handled from there.
After a couple more minutes of silence where the pair sat there embracing, Ezekiel gently picked Lauren up as best he could, carrying her over to the bed nearby, settling her down in the centre of it. He let go, seeing that Lauren had cried herself to sleep, the emotional breakdown having worn her down, and sighed to himself.
"I-I forgive you, just p-please don't s-say stuff l-like that a-again eh…" Ezekiel muttered softly, leaning towards the now sleeping Scary Girl and kissing her softly on the forehead, before he sat back down against the wall, eventually finding himself drifting off to sleep.
It was late into the night and all of the security around the area where the trailers were located had long since been switched off, the interns, Chris and Chef sleeping off what was an eventual finale to the first season back.
It was because of this that no one noticed the figure exiting the forest and making a beeline for Chris's trailer once more, using the same tactics in order to pick the lock to get inside.
Izzy grinned as she snuck in quietly, having decided to use the short time she had in order to remove any possibility of Chris finding out what had happened earlier in the day, by returning the original copies of the CD's that she had taken back to the safe.
She knew it was extremely risky, as any noise could potentially wake the host up, which would compromise them all. They'd already pissed Chris off enough over the course of the last few days ever since Ezekiel had first been found, and being caught like this would likely result in Izzy joining Duncan in prison, or worse…
She managed to sneak her way back into the room where the cabinet was located, making sure to be as quiet as possible as she picked the lock to the cabinet, following up with the code to the safe, the process this time being much smoother.
She grabbed the CD's and placed them back into the safe with the others, hoping that Chris didn't quite remember the order that they were originally in, before doing her best to close everything up without alerting the host to her presence.
Once that was finished, reattached the lock before sneaking back out the way she came in, content with herself that things had gone according to plan, leaving the site once more and towards the shore where the canoe she had stolen lay waiting.
Phase Four had finally been completed, they had what they needed and hopefully Chris wouldn't realise what was going to happen until it was too late. Izzy was optimistic about their chances of finally taking the cruel host down for good, but she knew that there was always the chance that Chris got away with only minor setbacks, his year long prison sentence from dumping toxic waste, and the rehabilitation that he went through after Pahkitew Island should've been enough…
The network couldn't save him forever, eventually even they would realise that protecting Chris forever would eventually backfire on them… Right?
End Chapter
Author's Note: There's more than just the flashback shown on the footage that Izzy had recovered from Camp Wawanakwa, however the most important would be when Chris first discovers that Ezekiel was stowing away, and of course in typical Chris fashion, just lets it get worse and worse for his own benefit. Anything else on the footage can be left to your interpretation.
I know parts of the conversation seemed awkward, but we've seen Priya canonically ramble on when she's nervous (her interactions with Lauren), and let's face it, her parents definitely prepared her for the possibility of encountering someone like Ezekiel, she just wasn't prepared for someone like Lauren.