Total Drama Act II: The Second Sonatine (Reupload)

by minjiuu

After the near failures of the previous season, Total Drama takes on the performances again. With Blaineley to join in the hosting crew, things would be much different than expected. Of course, chaos still lies around, but what will happen to our 30 future stars? [REUPLOAD, Original Publish Date: 2019-2020] 8/30 performers remaining.

17. EP17: No More Utopia

SERIOUS TRIGGER WARNING: THIS EPISODE HAS SCENES THAT WILL CONTAIN HIGH AMOUNTS OF VIOLENCE, HEAVY SWEARING, SCENES OF ATTEMPTED MURDER, POSSIBLE CHARACTER DEATH(S), MENTIONS OF ALCOHOL USAGE, AND SELF HARM. PLEASE READ AT YOUR OWN RISK AS CERTAIN SCENES IN THIS EPISODE MAY BE UNCOMFORTABLE TO SOME VIEWERS.

---

Day 18, 9:00 AM

---

Boys' House (Formerly Major Team's House)

Not too long ago, the merged boys have heard an announcement from Don saying that they needed to be in the auditorium in an hour. They were actually awake for a few minutes already, seen as they were getting dressed. It was… also obvious that they didn't really got that much sleep as they had just arrived back to the theater around a few hours ago.

Ryder looked at Colin from head to toe, only realizing just now that he had been wearing the exact same thing for more than two weeks straight. "Hey, don't you have any other clothes to wear besides… those?" He asked, gesturing to the ragged choice of clothing his friend was wearing.

"No." Colin denied quietly.

He watched him rummaged through his bag, bringing a spare blue tee shirt and sweatpants and handed. With this, Ryder handed them to him.

"Here. Wear these."

"No thank you."

"I insist."

Colin looked at him, then looked at himself. He sighed as he took the clothes off of Ryder's hands. "Well, okay then. Thanks." He said in a tired voice and head onto the bathroom.

Lyle, who apparently saw all of this from afar, turned to Ryder. "So I am assuming he still hasn't changed?"

Ryder shook his head. "No. Honestly, I don't know if he's trying to make us pity him on purpose unless he really is like that since birth."

"Maybe we could vote him off or something." Rival suggested. "I mean… shouldn't you aim for him if you're already getting suspicious of what he does? Because who knows, maybe Colin was just trying to rope you into a trap this whole time."

"I can't just vote him out, you know." Ryder opposed, countering what Rival had said. "What if… what if he was actually being genuine?"

Gordon thought about everything they had discussed for a moment, until an idea came to him. "Why don't you ask Vanessa? I mean, she knew him before we even got to this show anyway."

"Yes, that could work." Lyle nodded in agreement. "If I remembered correctly, they might have been schoolmates."

Ryder nodded at them. "Alright, I could try that. Thanks." He said, heading out.

Once they were all silent, Rival took the initiative to speak up. "I don't know about you guys, but I may as well vote for Colin. Out of everyone here… he seems to be the bigest threat."

"You think that this is all a facade?" Therion jutted his chin in thought. "Well… maybe you could be right… I mean, he should have at least learned a thing or two when it comes to the attitude."

"You know what else is fishy?" Pierre asked from behind as he fixed his things, startling the other boys. "He told off Robert after he pushed Gordon during the boat race part of the camping challenge. I'm pretty sure that should point out that he is not to be trusted."

"Well, I don't know." Gordon answered. "I'll give him a chance and wait until Vanessa confirms anything about him." He added, then looked at Carter, who was the only one in the bunch who had never spoken up about the matter they had right now. As he did so, the other boys looked at him as well. "Hey Carter, what do you think about him?"

Carter gave everyone a look of warning. "I do not know and I do not want to be a part of this. Now will you all do me a favor and exclude me from whatever is this you are discussing?"

"...Yeah, sure." Therion nodded hesitantly.

"Thank you." Carter said coldly and left the room.

---

Girls' House (Formerly Minor Team's House)

May groaned as she could hear the loud obnoxious sound of her phone alarm. She grabbed it, turned it off and nearly threw it on the floor. She thought she would hear it crash into the ground but she didn't

Opening up her eyes, she saw that Sami had caught her phone just in time with her usual chipper grin on her face.

"Rise and shine, sleepyhead." She giggled, handing May back her phone. "Glad you're awake though, the hosts said that we have to meet them by eight sharp."

"Ah cool. Good morning anyway." May nodded, before yawning and stretching her arms out in order for her to get ready for another new day.

Beatrice sat right next to May, with the latter looking at her evey now and then.

"How are you feeling, Beatrice?"

"Been good so far, turns out that I shouldn't fully blame myself for what happened back in the other day. Well, shit happens I guess." Beatrice sighed, leaning her head towards the wall.

The conversation between the two was stopped as they heard the door open all of a sudden, revealing to be Vanessa who looked as if she was stressed out.

"Whoa, asshole! Ever heard of knocking the goddamn door before entering?!" Misha yelled, still getting dressed as she didn't have her shirt on.

"Sorry, sorry." Vanessa quickly apologized. "I just, have a really messy morning and now I can't think straight."

"For goodness sake, Vanessa. It's barely past seven so what in the world were you doing outside while the rest of us just woke up?" Antoinette asked as she crossed her arms, demanding for an answer.

Vanessa scoffed. "Huh, you think you would believe everything I will say, then? Well guess what! The boys are getting skeptical of Colin because of him going on the 'oh please help me' route and now they're asking me for confirmation when I barely know him!"

Sami hissed just by hearing the pressuring situation the pianist has been put into. "Well, maybe they would want to know but just tell them what you really know fully and they'll stop."

"Well, I would but Ryder might even end up becoming suspicious on me as well."

"Wait… Ryder?" May widened her eyes as soon as she heard her boyfriend's name. "That can't be. He can't just assume that you were going to be sketchy just because you don't know much stuff about Colin."

"Just vote him out. Easy like that." Antoinette rolled her eyes as she sat on her bed.

"Pfft, says the girl who was on the verge of having sex with my boyfriend the other night." May scoffed, to which Antoinette could obviously hear.

"Um, excuse you? I have no idea what on the freaking earth are you talking about."

May could only laugh. "Oh please, stop playing dumb with me. Even that sight of you just kissing him makes my blood boil and hell we weren't even a thing yet during that time!"

Misha held back May before she could smack some sense into the smaller girl. "YOU BITCH, LISTEN UP! THAT SHIT WAS TWO WEEKS AGO AND FOR GOD'S SAKE, SHE WAS POSSESSED THAT TIME! FUCKING. POSSESSED!"

Antoinette almost flinched as she heard her. "P-possessed? What… what the hell do you mean exactly!?"

Sami quickly dismissed the topic getting super unconfirtable with it. "Uhhh long story! Look, it's almost half past seven! We should get going now, right?"

Everyone looked at her weirdly, before turning back to fix their stuff as awkward tension rose up in the air.

---

Lobby - Musimental Theater

"Ugh, what a night." Blaineley groaned as she entered the lobby. Her eyes looked as if she never slept throughout the whole night.

"I second that." Brea yawned. The hostess was just sitting on the couch, looking like she was about to pass out any time soon.

Don looked chipper in contrast to the two females when he entered the room. He adjusted the collar of his shirt, turning to the two hostesses with a chuckle. "You two must be tired from the whole mess last night."

Topher laughed along with him. "They must be. Besides, they cleaned up almost the whole room last night."

Blaneley decided to oppose him. "You would've helped if you and Don never collapsed right aftee we filmed the outro."

Chef came in the room with the cameramen. "Alright, you sleepy maggots. We have to film the intro."

Brea suddenly shot her eyes up. "Oh wait, I have to go get something." She called out, hurrying out of the lobby. "Just start filming the intro without me."

"Okay then…" Chef cleared his throat.

As Brea was no longer on sight, the four other hosts gathered up.

"Last time on Total Drama," Topher began. "We had a rather crazy episode, which was immediately followed by the anniversary episode."

"Yeah." Don nodded. "I… almost can't believe that the staff lied to us and told us that we weren't going live-"

"Wait, we're on live?!" Blaineley widened her eyes in disbelief.

"Yup, we're one live." Chef nodded. "Now let's see what will happen to our merged contestants right now on…

"Total Drama Act II: Musical Power!"

---

*Opening Theme #1*

Dear mom and dad, I'm doing fine

The camera zooms into the dance practice room where Lyle was practicing his ballet. May and Sami were watching him and applauded as he landed on his plié successfully, while Arabelle on the other hand, watched with disgust.

You're always on my mind

The camera leaves the room and heads to the auditorium where we can see Beatrice masterfully playing the piano until Antoinette sits on the keys smirking, causing several off-key notes being played. Ryder sees this and pushes Antoinette off the piano, causing her to land face first to the floor and Ryder and Beatrice high-fived.

You asked me what I wanted to be

The camera zooms under the high-five and next thing we see is that we are in the bedroom of one of the teams' houses, where Janice was writing in her diary. Toxa was standing right behind her, rubbing her hands as if she had a plan. Toxa then turns back, only to find Misha crossing her arms. On the window however, we can see Pierre trying to get a peek of the girls.

And now I think the answer is plain to see

The camera warps to the other house's living room, where we can see Rival and Therion doing their handshake. Mara is then seen in the window waving at them causing Therion to blush but then scowls when he sees Mara taken away by Ulysses. Both boys however, ignored Alec, who served them a plate of cookies, with a shocked expression on his face.

I wanna be famous

The camera zooms into the cookies and warps to the backstage where we can see Carter and Mag arguing, with Nash trying to break them up, by throwing his lasso at them. Lee on the other hand, freaks out as he sees this, and runs away from them instead of telling them something important.

I wanna live close to the sun

We then get a view of the storage room, where Gordon and Vanessa were looking for something. Colin opens the door, scaring the two, but leaves after that with a downed expression.

Go pack your bags, I've already gone far

The camera then warps again to the dressing room, where we see Adala and Zack comforting Sybil, who looked as if she were crying. It then pans onto ELV on the other side of the room, who happens to pass by and (unintentionally) begins to eavesdrop.

Everything to prove, what can you say?

We now go to the cafeteria where we can see Holly, Evan, and Leticia chatting. Arreis and Kimmie have plates of food in their hand but Kimmie accidentally drops the food on Holly, making her mad. Mairead was on the other table, laughing, while Gabe didn't look too pleased.

I'll be there one day

The camera quickly zooms into a small library where Dustin, Oli, and Robert were playing cards. However Maya comes in and slams the table, causing all cards to fall off, getting glares from the three boys.

'Cause I wanna be famous

The scene then swaps to a camera room, where we can see Brea, Blaineley, Chris, and Chef arguing. Don then arrives and stops everyone but is stopped when Enrique starts scolding them.

Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na!

The scene switches to the office room where we can see Chris holding a bunch of papers, then leaves his office with a note that says "NO TRESPASSING" in big red letters.

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

The first "I wanna be" shows the Sopranos (Janice, Sami, Toxa, Beatrice, Kimmie) against the Tenors (Alec, Colin, Zack, Lyle, Oli). The second "I wanna be" shows the Mezzo-Sopranos (Vanessa, Misha, Adala, May, Mairead) and the Mezzo-Tenors (Gordon, Pierre, Therion, Nash, Robert) shaking hands. The "I wanna be famous" shows the Altos (Arabelle, Antoinette, Mag, Sybil, Arreis) and Basses (Rival, Ryder, Carter, ELV, Gabe) sharing a group hug.

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

The fourth "I wanna be" shows the four interns standing there with mixed expressions. The fifth "I wanna be" shows the five judges with different reactions from different performances. In the second "I wanna be famous" shows the five hosts crossing their arms with smirks on their faces.

*whistling in tune*

The whole cast can now be seen on the stage, bowing as the audience applauds them loudly. Flowers were being thrown to the stage as the curtain closed, revealing the season's title, "Total Drama Act II: Musical Power" in gold letters. The episode title, "Episode 14: No More Utopia" can be seen written below, in silver letters.

*End opening theme*

---

Episode 17: No More Utopia

"Why must life be so hard?"

---

Day 18, 10:00 AM

---

The next hour came by in the lobby as the teens started making their way to the room.

"Why is it so quiet in here?" Sami asked everyone as she took a seat right by the staircase.

Topher shrugged in the response of the fandom girl's question as he had no idea either. "Well, was this place always quiet?"

"Only sometimes." Blaineley answered as she grabbed a piece of paper from the lobby countertop. "So remaining contestants, we're heading to the auditorium for your next challenge."

Silence ensued the group as they walked to the biggest room of the theater. Everything was getting eerily silent. There was no one cooking in the cafeteria, no one from the staff cleaning the halls; just emptiness. Not even the interns were present either.

Don checked his watch. "Brea should be back by now. She's been gone for more than ten minutes already."

"Maybe she told the staff to take a day off?" Topher theorized. "I mean, they almost never had a day or two off for more than two weeks straight."

"Yeah, but she said that she was only gonna go get something then come right back after the intro." Chef pointed out and reminded the hosts specifically.

Blaineley could only shrug. "She'll be back before the challenge starts, don't even worry too much about it." She said, leading the group to the auditorium.

The auditorium was, unsurprisingly enough, eerily quiet as well compared to the hallways and the lobby, which could only startle some of the contestants even more.

"So…" Beatrice began, sitting in one of the front row seats, attempting to break the eerie silence that the atmosphere succumbed into. "What is the challenge, exactly?"

"Well…" Blaineley looked at the piece of paper she had gotten from the countertop. "Ah, okay. Contestants, your challenge for today is to perform a solo monologue. The judges will be here in about an hour so if I were you, I should start looking for a monologue, memorize it, and practice until it makes perfect."

The contestants all nodded, surprised that the challenge was quite simpler than they thought. Then again, even the simplest of challenges could cause a whole lot of mayhem like the one back from the other day…

Either way, the contestants have taken up the time to split up to practice in silence. Some have decided to leave the auditorium while others decided to stay, just in different parts of the said room. The hosts all gathered up just nearby the control room to discuss the odd atmosphere of the theater.

---

Theater Basement

"Ugh, where is it?" Brea's voice rang around the basement. Sounds of papers falling and drawers opening filled the air, only to have her groan in frustration.

"This is stupid."

She kept on looking, here and there. Over and under. Top and bottom. Until she widened her eyes in delight, finding what she was looking for.

Brea had her hands on several papers, presumably the applications that carried the info from the contestants, hosts, and staff members. Even the darkest secrets were somehow placed in this.

She reached for a white folder that seated on the other side of the table. Grasping the folder with her fingers, she could easily identify what were the contents inside: the judges' profiles.

She thought about those contestants that she chose to return to the competition. Were they simply worth it? Would she get sued after the season? Was this season going to flop and end there? It would be the end of Total Drama Act, and it would also potentially be the end of her career.

She sighed as she opened up the folder. The contacts and applications of Leticia, Lee, Enrique, Evan, and Holly were there; there was one side of her that wished she had never accepted them in the first place.

Her dark eyes widened as she could hear footsteps approaching the theater's basement.

Could that be…?

"Yes." A familiar voice echoed, which made the hostess shoot a glare even though she wasn't facing them.

Turning back, she already knew who to expect.

"What do you want now, Hah?"

"Hmm… you know… the usual…" Hah smirked.

"This is not a coffee shop, you know."

What caught Brea's attention was the suitcase he was holding.

"Ah, so you're trying to steal the prize money now, huh?" Brea let out a chuckle. "You know what, you can go ahead and steal it all you want, I can get a new suitcase filled with the prize money for the winner."

"Oh, that's not it." Hah said as he laughed in a sinister way. "What's in there is even better."

Brea stepped forward cautiously as Hah slid to her the suitcase.

"What's in here?"

"Open it."

The eighteen year old hostess eyed him for a few seconds, before kicking the latch of the suitcase open with her shoe. She raised an eyebrow as the suitcase was filled with styrofoam.

"What is this-"

"I said open it!"

Brea could feel her blood boiling at that point. She had enough of the intern, yet it looked as if he was still not giving up.

As she rummaged through the styrofoam filled suitcase, her eyes finally widened in pure horror at what was hidden beneath.

There was some sort of timer in it, filled with different plugs and fuses which could only mean one thing as soon as she put two and two together.

He was planning to bomb the theater.

"Shit." She swore under her breath as she watched the timer go.

10:20…

10:19…

10:18…

10:17…

10:16…

"What the fuck you think you're trying to do, huh hotshot?!" She yelled at him like what she usually does, but this time, pure anger was written all over her face.

"You deserve it after sending me to jail. You deserve it after terminating and suspending several contracts of potential workers in the theater. You deserve it for putting your cast in danger!" He retorted harshly.

"Well what did you do?" Brea got near him, grabbing a pocket knife she somehow kept in her pocket, aiming it threateningly at the former intern. "You caused the injuries of three contestans last season. You could've possibly caused the ship to sink last season too. You stole all the Act I apps. And now, you got of jail and try to kill us with what? Robots? God you suck-"

"SAY THAT AGAIN OR I'LL BLOW THIS PLACE UP QUICKER THAN YOU EXPECTED!" Hah yelled, his right hand fumbling something in his pocket which revealed to be a red button. His left hand had a gun threateningly pointing towards her.

Brea only let out a chuckle after hearing his threat. "God, you're such a psycho." She muttered as she stopped aiming her knife at him and aimed it… right by her neck.

"HA! You know what? You're the psycho! Look at you, trying to kill yourself-"

"Listen, you fucking bitch! I don't know how the hell you even managed to walk fine, considering the fact that I shot your goddamn leg! And you know what," she added, her knife going dangerously closer to her neck. "I could even kill myself with this and make you look like you did it, but listen to me! Never will I let you get your filthy hands on my contestants, you understand!?"

"Pathetic." Hah spat, not taking his aim off of her. "You may be a psychotic motormouth, but you're weak as fuck. You don't even know what you're doing, you're just trying to act brave in front of me when in reality, you're just a fucking coward in the disguise of an asshole."

A smirk was crawling up her lips as she slowly slit the left side of her throat for a bit, causing a few blood to gush out. She didn't even flinch one bit and kept her deadly gaze towards Hah.

"No. I'm stronger than you think."

"Hmph. Well whatever." Hah let out an obnoxious laugh. "Have fun with that bomb because I hope for you to explode in fun."

He turned to leave, but as soon as his hand touched the doorknob, Brea threw the knife she was holding, aiming for him. It missed narrowly, the knife stabbing the door dangerously close to him.

The former let out a laugh, feeling pain in his ear, but he decided to ignore it. His left hand touched his ear lightly, only to find blood.

"Hahaha… HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Hah laughed ominously, startling the hostess a bit. "OH, YOU WANT TO PLAY!?"

"WELL, IF YOU WANT TO PLAY, THEN IT'S OBVIOUSLY GAME OVER FOR YOU!" Brea roared back at him. At this point, she charged over him and tackled him to the ground, beating up his face with every single punch she blew. His face was starting to bruise, but she didn't stop, letting the feeling of revenge consume her. "HOW COULD YOU NOT DIE FROM THAT BULLET!?"

"THAT'S BECAUSE YOU SHOT ME IN MY GODDAMN LEG, YOU BUFFOON!" Hah yelled back at her and pushed her off of him as he got ready to do a jab on her face but was knocked back into the ground as Brea delivered a swift kick to his legs instead. "Ugh, you piece of shit!"

"No, you're the piece of shit for all I care!" She retorted back at him as she began to kick him like some kind of ball, punching him like a punching bag, and even spitting on his face. "You deserve all this, you asshole!"

Hah wiped off his face and let out another sinister laugh, with the girl remaining unfazed by his gestures. "So you're just gonna fight me until this place blows up? HA! PATHETIC!"

"SHUT UP!"

"Well, I hope you shut up as well because I have a huge army of robots coming your way, anyway!" Hah revealed, causing Brea to widen her eyes in surprise.

"Robots? Again? You've got to be kidding me… why here, why now, and why them!?"

"They're the only allies I got." Hah responded, wiping off the blood that escaped from his mouth due to all the hard punches and kicks he received. "They may not be human, but at least they have faith in me unlike you! So if you really wanna torture your cast to death, then I suggest you die in here with them!"

She stopped. She stood up, approached the suitcase and looked at the time remaining on the bomb.

Less than nine minutes.

She looked back.

He was gone.

"SHIIIIIIIT!" Brea shouted out in frustration. How could he escaped that quick? She walked through the door.

Locked shut.

"AUGH, CURSE YOU, YOU FUCKING BASTAAAAAAAAARD!" the hostess shouted again, repeatedly hitting the door several times, even though she knew she wouldn't break it anyway. She was stuck. In a room. With a bomb.

Looking around, she found a window by the ceiling that leads outside. She grabbed a hammer just nearby the desk and threw it right at the window, shattering it. Now she just needs to find a way how to get up there...

---

Auditorium - Control Room

Blaineley, Don, Chef, and Topher were anxiously waiting in the control room of the theater, looking towards the huge glass window that gave them the entire view of the auditorium.

"You know what, I'd never thought I'd say this but I'm honestly getting worried about Brea now." Blaineley stood up, getting ready to find her. "I'll go look for her. Anyone want to come?"

"...I'm good." Topher quickly answered, followed by a nod from Chef.

"Yes, same." Don added. "Well, where could she be anyway?"

"Maybe in the library. Okay, that does it." She walked out of the control room.

Walking towards the exit, she looked back towards the other three hosts who were looking around the room with caution from the control room. She sighed and kept walking.

"Ugh, why are they so scared over nothing?" Blaineley muttered to herself as she opened the door.

She gasped. Fright instantly overcame her as her eyes widened.

It was Hah. He limped towards her, and was pointing a gun towards the hostess.

"I should be scared if I were you." Hah said, the former intern giving off a cocky grin as he limped forward towards her.

Blaineley could only step backwards with her hands up defensively. She could feel her whole body trembling as she walked backwards.

Don, Chef, and Topher looked at the scene with horrid looks, having no idea of what to do as their fellow co-host was still being held at gunpoint.

"I'll go get her." Topher said, swallowing all of his reservations as he sauntered out of the control room.

"Wait Topher, no!" Don yelled, running up to stop him.

"Blaineley!" Topher shouted, running up to her.

BANG!

"OH MY GOD!" Blaineley wailed as she covered her ears.

"OH SHIT, TOPHER!" Chef shouted and ran up to him with Don following behind him.

Topher collapsed on to the ground, clutching his leg in intense pain. He leaned himself up on the seats as he looked at his right leg, where he had been shot. Blood started oozing out from it as he continued to wail in pain.

"I'm gonna go get help." Don quickly volunteered and stood up.

"NONSENSE! YOU STAY RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE, BECAUSE NO ONE CAN HELP YOU NOW! BESIDES, THERE IS A HUGE ARMY WAITING FOR YOU ALL OUTSIDE SO THAT THIS PLACE COULD EXPLODE INTO BITS!" Hah shouted, his gun pointing toward Chef now.

"Okay, okay!" Don gave up and retreated back to the other hosts. "We were just wondering where is Brea anyway!

Hah formed a smirk on his face. "Let's just say that I locked her up in a room with something goes, booooooooooom!"

Blaineley became furious in almost an instant. "You… you locked her up… YOU LOCKED HER UP WITH A FREAKING BOMB!?"

"Yes! Now be quiet while we wait for my army or else I'll leave you all in here until your guts blow up into bits!" Hah threatened.

The hosts could only cower in fear as the sounds of several heavy footsteps filled the air. They were worried about themselves, the staff, and if the judges are coming to the theater. But most especially, the contestants.

---

Library

Sami, Beatrice, and May were in the library, seated on the round table. They were currently going through different books filled with monologues, trying to search for one that they could each use.

"Found one?" Sami asked the other two girls.

May shooked her head. "No."

"Me neither." Beatrice sighed. "This… this is actually so hard."

Sami tried to reassure both the girls with her usual cheery smile. "Come on guys, cheer up. We're halfway to winning the whole thing."

"...Yeah, you could say that." May shrugged. "Sure there are just some people who should just go away, but oh what would I do?"

Beatrice groaned. "Are you talking about her again?"

"Who?"

"Antoinette."

"Of course I am. Who else did you even saw that night?" May questioned her.

Beatrice had her hands on her head in frustration. "You know May, I've been sensing something really bad that is about to happen in a few minutes and you're just not helping. Even I don't know why do you have this huge grudge on Antoinette all of a sudden even though she just came back!"

Both May and Beatrice gave each other a glare, almost completely forgetting that Sami was there witnessing the tension between the two.

"Umm… okay, I'll just go get something and… maybe leave you two alone for a moment to sort things out." the fandom girl stood up and turned to face the door when suddenly…

BANG!

Sami froze in shock. Both Beatrice and May also shared the same surprised expression. The gunshot they heard was pretty loud, so that could only mean that the its location must be nearby. The fandom girl, who was still standing just by the door, immediately ran back to the two.

"D-d-d-did… g-g-guys just… y-you…"

"Y-yeah… we did." May gulped.

"See… this is what I was talking about." Beatrice mouthed to herself.

May stood up, quickly and quietly gesturing the other two girls to hide under one of the tables with a table cloth on it in case someone goes in and looks for them.

The three all crouched down and hid under the table, hoping that they wouldn't be seen by whoever that was.

---

Beatrice: She was seen hugging her legs in fear on the seat she was sitting in. "I think… I think this was the bad thing I was sensing…"

---

Boys' House

Therion, Ryder, Colin, and Rival have decided to stay and practice in their own room for the day, as for them the place definitely feels more peaceful than the unsettling atmosphere in the theater.

Ryder was sitting by his own bed. Instead of memorizing his chosen monologue, he was keeping an eye on Colin, who was reading his own monologue just in his seat by the window. Ever since some of the boys started to grow suspicion against him, he couldn't help but feel torn about who to stick with.

---

Ryder: "Vanessa told me that he used to be the complete opposite when she first met him, then all of a sudden, she was absent for one single day and he changed into what he is now. She never told me any details with why and how did that happen, but I'm not really sure if I should be near him anymore because he can probably use this pitiful act of him to take us all down or something. That, or maybe I am just overthinking a bit too much."

---

"So…" Rival cleared his throat, looking towards all three boys who seemed to be heavily quiet whilst pondering on their scripts. "Have you guys found anything for your performance?"

"Yeah." Therion quickly nodded, thoughe just preferred the atmosphere to be at peace and quiet while practicing, so he never said anything after that.

"Sweet, how about you, Colin?" Rival asked him… which was… an odd move for him to pull off… at least in Ryder's perspective.

"Of course I chose the one that will make me look like a fool the most." He retorted, and also decided to not say anything further.

Nodding slowly, he turned towards Ryder. "I'm guessing you've found one as well?"

"Yup. What about you?"

"Yeah, I did. I just have no idea if I can do this though-"

"Wait." Colin's voice rose, causing the other three boys to turn their attention towards him. "What are they doing here?"

"Who's they?" Therion asked, wapling towards the window where Colin was looking at and gasped. "Oh no, not again…"

"What?" Rival rushed towards the window and groaned. "Aw, shit…"

"...Ugh, what do these robots want? I thought we already trapped them back in the village." Ryder tugged his hair frustratingly as he watched the scene from the window, not wanting to run into them again.

"Shouldn't we go warn the others?" Colin asked.

BANG!

The boys all flinched and covered their ears as they crouched down.

"Oh shit, what was that?!" Rival shrieked.

"I don't know, but something's telling me that we have to get out of here!" Ryder panicked and almost stood up but Colin grabbed his arm.

"No! We're staying here until everything goes clear!"

"Yeah, Colin has a point. Let's just… try and stay calm for the time being…" Therion sighed as he crawled near to them.

---

Auditorium - Backstage

Both Antoinette and Misha were the only contestants behind the stage. It was also quite weird as no one would have ever expected these two to pair up out of everyone remaining.

"Ugh…" Misha groaned. "Why does memorizing have to be so fucking hard sometimes?"

Antoinette rolled her eyes at Misha's constant whining. The diva sauntered up to the punk, to either help her out or tell her to shut her yap up.

"What, do you need any help or something?"

"Help? From you? Bitch, please. You're not even a good person to begin with." Misha spat, walking towards the curtains. She managed to steal a sneak peek at the four hosts just doing their things in the control room for the time being.

"What in the world are you doing? It's not like looking at them will help you memorize your monologue." Antoinette scoffed.

"Says your well fed up ass."

"Okay. Listen up, you pink headed weirdo. Why do you suddenly hate me? Because I'm given a chance to compete again? Because I saved you and your team's sorry asses during that escape the university challenge crap? Why? I dare you to tell me." Antoinette asked angrily, crossing her arms in the process.

Misha decided to roll her eyes. "Because despite every good and bad thing you've done, you're just gonna end up like Toxa so might as well get your ass away from this damn competition!"

As soon as she said that. They could suddenly hear voices yelling just by the auditorium.

"Wait Topher, no!"

"Blaineley!"

BANG!

Antoinette almost screamed in shock by how loud it was but she was luckily stopped as Misha held her hand over the other girl's mouth just in time. The two quickly sat down and lay low, with Misha opening up the curtains a bit for them to see what was going on.

"OH MY GOD!"

"OH SHIT, TOPHER!"

Misha and Antoinette both gasped in fear as they saw that Topher had been shot in the leg. They watched the hosts all huddling up together with frightened looks written in their faces, listening to what each side had to say.

"I'm gonna go get help."

"NONSENSE! YOU STAY RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE, BECAUSE NO ONE CAN HELP YOU NOW! BESIDES, THERE IS A HUGE ARMY WAITING FOR YOU ALL OUTSIDE SO THAT THIS PLACE COULD EXPLODE INTO BITS!"

"Okay, okay! We were just wondering where is Brea anyway!"

"Let's just say that I locked her up in a room with something goes, booooooooooom!"

"You… you locked her up… YOU LOCKED HER UP WITH A FREAKING BOMB!?"

"Yes! Now be quiet while we wait for my army or else I'll leave you all in here until your guts blow up into bits!"

"There's… there's a freaking what!?" Misha almost yelled out loud but was quickly able to control herself. She looked at Antoinette, who was still in shock. Waving a hand right in front of her face, Misha sighed as she just stood there with her fearful expression.

"Fucking shit." She swore.

---

Music Room

Pierre, Carter, and Lyle were currently in the music room. Instead of practicing, Pierre was playing softly on the piano to keep his mind away from his current problems. Lyle was practicing his own lines just in front of a mirror while Carter couldn't help but look at the door every now and then.

As Pierre stopped playing, silence rose in the room.

"Why'd you stop?" Lyle asked curiously. "Not gonna lie, the background music is kind of helping with my monologue."

"Why should I continue then?" Pierre shot up at the returnee. "Don't you know that no one here would appreciate me and that they would just see what I'm bad at? I'm sure you will too."

Lyle flinched at Pierre's change of demeanor ever since he got eliminated and came back. He turned to Carter for an answer.

"Don't mind him. He's been like that ever since we all found that he got Sybil pregnant and broke up with her." Carter nonchalantly answered.

"He… you… found out… what!?" Lyle almost shouted in surprise, even he couldn't think of which words to use.

"See? Of course you'd just be like everyone else here!" Pierre spat. He stood up and made his way at the door, giving Carter a cold shoulder in the process.

---

Lyle: "Is it just me or is he trying to pull off an aggressive version of Colin?"

---

Minutes passed since Pierre left the room. Both boys have been silent ever since, neither of them dared to speak a word to the other.

Later on, Carter peeked outside, looking if Pierre was actually going to come back. He look left, then right, then someone caught his eye. He retreated himself back in the room with wide eyes, causing Lyle to worry.

"...What is it?"

Carter gulped. "Some guy limping with a gun is heading this way."

"What!?"

The door barged open as Pierre went back inside the room.

"NOW WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO GO BACK TO US NOW, HUH!?" Carter grabbed him by the collar aggressively.

"LISTEN! I SAW THAT WEIRD GUY WITH THE ROBOTS BACK IN THE OTHER DAY AND I GOT SCARED AS HELL, OKAY?! I MEAN, WHAT WOULD YOU DO, JUST LEAVE ME OUT THERE!?"

"IF YOU WANTED TO BE SUCH A MOTHERFUCKING JACKASS, THEN I WOULD!"

"STOP IT!" Lyle quickly broke the two up before things got any worse. "Now I suggest you two stay quiet or else he will hear us and shoot us down!"

Carter let him go, and the two went on different ways to distance themselves. Lyle could only sigh in frustration.

Minutes had passed, and still no interaction happened between the three.

BANG!

"Ugh, I knew he would shoot someone eventually." Carter hissed and ran behind a nearby shelf. "You two, get over here and hide!"

---

Cafeteria

BANG!

Vanessa squinted her eyes shut and covered her ears as soon as she heard the gunshot coming from the auditorium. Both her and Gordon knew that this was bound to happen as not too long ago, they saw Hah pass by the cafeteria so this gave them the cue to get ready.

"We have to warn the others." Gordon said and grabbed her hand. "This is that same guy who threatened us during that hide and seek challenge, right?"

"Yeah, I'm sure of it." Vanessa immediately nodded. "Maybe he was trying to seek for revenge?"

Gordon sighed as he ran a hand through his hair, thinking about what would happen to them if they don't make a move in time. "You know, let's try and go get the others to gather up here. Who knows what that guy is up to. And since we just heard a gunshot off of the distance I think he might've shot someone by now so this place is definitely not safe."

Vanessa groaned. "Ugh for goodness sake, why is there a freaking psycho involved in this?"

"Probably seeking revenge from the last season." Gordon answered her and the two went out, looking left and right cautiously.

Vanessa quietly walked just behind him. "I… I'm not sure about this, Gordon…"

"Trust me Vanessa, we just need to- hold up, is that Brea?"

Gordon squinted his eyes shut as he could see someone running into their direction. He widened his eyes in realization as soon as he could see the person clearly, and that person was indeed Brea, with a slit on her neck.

"Whoa, what happened to you?"

"Long story." Brea panted. "Listen up, we have to get out of here like RIGHT NOW. There is a HUGE army of robots outside and they got all sorts of weapons. Hah locked me up in the basement with a bomb that's about to go off soon and now he's roaming about in here and probably shot someone by now-"

"Wait wait wait, hold up for a second… did you just say that there is a bomb in here!?" Vanessa shrieked in a panicky manner. "Oh my- oh my god… oh my freaking god…"

Brea grabbed the pianist's shoulders. "YES THERE IS A BOMB IN THE BASEMENT ABOUT TO GO OFF IN ABOUT EIGHT MINUTES SO IF I WERE THE BOTH OF YOU, I WOULD MOVE MY ASS AS QUICK AS I CAN AND ROUND EVERYBODY UP SO THAT WE CAN GET OUT OF HERE FROM THE BACK OF THE THEATER AND LEAVE THAT STUPID PIECE OF SHIT NAMED HAH IN THIS BUILDING BECAUSE HE CAN BLOW HIMSELF UP ALONG WITH HIS ARMY OF MECHANICAL SHITHEADS!"

Vanessa was scared out of her life as Brea spilled the beans in front of her. Even Gordon was just as scared as she is, but grabbed her elbow.

"Nessa, you heard her, now let's go!" Gordon shouted, and they both run towards the direction that leads to outside the theater while Brea made her way towards the auditorium.

Gordon and Vanessa ran up the lobby, but almost stopped in their tracks as they could a bunch of huge robots coming and surrounding the theater.

"We have to find a way to the houses. There's no doubt that some others are in there, we have to at least check if they're indeed still there." Gordon informed.

Vanessa groaned in frustration. "So how do you think we're going to get there? Ring around the rosie on them and hope we don't get shot?"

"Exactly."

"Gordon, you're insane!"

"Well what would you do if you want to save your friends!?"

The pianist fell silent for a moment, pondering about her thoughts and thinking what on earth is going on.

Gordon grabbed both of her hands and caressed them, catching Vanessa's attention. "Look, I know you're scared. Of course I am too, but we can get through this. Okay? Just follow my lead."

"Okay." Vanessa sighed.

Gordon leaned in and kissed her in reassurance, with Vanessa returning the kiss to him as well. "We can do this, I promise." He said.

The two got themselves ready to make a run for it.

---

Boys' House

Therion could only have a few glances towards the windows in worry. As soon as he saw the robots about to approach the theater, and quickly bent himself down, where Ryder, Rival, and Colin were sitting.

"W-what's happening out there?" Rival stuttered, still not believing the situation.

"Robots." Therion quivered. "Honestly, I feel like this wouldn't happen if we never went to Musimental Village."

"So what are we going to do in here?" Colin asked. "Stay here and play damsel in distress until someone saves us? Of course we are."

Ryder sighed in disappointment. "I guess that's the only thing we can do for now. I really do hope the hosts know about this because I so don't want to stay in here anymore."

"Would they know that we're in here, though?"

Suddenly they could hear a bunch of gunshots shooting at the same time. The four boys instantly got down and covered their ears and shield themselves from the noise.

"Ugh, when is this going to end!?" Ryder shrieked in frustration.

The shooting stopped after a few seconds, which brought some quick relief to the boys, even though they were still scared as hell.

All of a sudden, the door swung open. All four boys screamed in unison.

"Chill!" Gordon panted, his hands on his knees. "It's just us!"

Vanessa nearly collapsed from exhaustion as Gordon caught her. "Hey, you alright?"

"Yeah, kind of."

The other four boys rushed up to them.

"Do you guys know what's going on?" Rival frantically asked.

"Yeah, and it's not gonna be pretty."

"What is it?"

Vanessa decided to barge in and tell them everything. "We ran into Brea earlier. Some psycho locked her up in the theater's basement with a bomb that's about to go off in any minute now. That psycho probably has a gun since we heard a gunshot inside the theater not too far from the cafeteria."

"A what!?" Rival almost panicked. "There's a bomb in the building!?"

"Yes, there is a bomb in the building! Now we have to go find the others or else we're toast!" Gordon ordered all of them, but as soon as he said so, another round of continuous sounds of bullets being shot was heard again. The teens all screamed, covering their ears and crouching down until the insanely loud sounds went away for a few seconds.

"H-how did you guys even got here?" Colin asked the couple as soon as the sounds were gone.

"I threw something all the way to the other side of the building. The robots heard it and began shooting their guns there while we made a run for it here." Gordon explained as he panted.

"I guess that explains the gunshots earlier." Therion said shakily.

"Come on, guys. I think now's the best time to go get the others and get out of here." Ryder declared. Everyone nodded in agreement and quietly exited the house as fast as they could.

---

Hallways

Carter, Pierre, and Lyle were all making their way quickly and quietly through the hallway. They have also decided that it would be better if they were all together again so that no one would split up, and so they have come to a decision to find the others as well.

Along the way, they could hear faint sounds of gunshots from outside, startling the three boys.

"Okay, I guess now's the time to make a run for it." Lyle declared. And with that, the three boys broke out into a sprint.

"There! The library! We should be safe in there for now!" Carter shouted and held onto the library's doorknob. But unfortunately, it was locked.

"They've got to be in there." Pierre said. "I mean, maybe a few of them. Maybe they got scared of the gunshots and decided to lock the door."

"Maybe that's the case, maybe it's not." Carter responded, cracking his knuckles in the process.

"So what should we do?" Lyle asked. "We can't just holler out to whoever is in there, I mean, who knows, maybe that person with the gun is nearby."

Carter knocked on the door several times in a furious manner. "Guys! Open up! It's just me, Lyle, and Pierre!"

No responses were heard from inside.

"Ugh, dang it!" Carter groaned in frustration and knocked several times again. "For god's sake, whoever is in there, open up!"

From the other side of the door, May, Beatrice, and Sami could be seen hiding under the farthest table to the entrance.

"S-should we go get it?" Sami asked. "I mean… it's probably the others-"

"No!" May stopped her. "They're probably just trying to pretend that they were one of us! What if it's not them and they shoot us down?"

"May, for goodness sake, did you even hear that!? It's sounded like Carter!" Beatrice retorted. "I say we let them in." She added, turning to crawl out of the table and open the door once and for all but May grabbed her hand and stop her.

"Please… no. We still need proof that it's them. We can't just let our guard down especially if whoever's out there is just trying to be some impersonator." May pleaded.

"May, please. Beatrice is right, we HAVE to let them in. I am also pretty sure and confident that that was Carter and some of the others." Sami added, also joining in to Beatrice's side.

May let go of her friend's hand. "Fine. But if you die out there for no reason, don't blame me."

Beatrice huffed at May's change of demeanor, but went up and opened the doors anyway. Opening the door, she was quite relieved to see that it had been indeed Carter, and he had Lyle and Pierre along with him.

"What took you so long!?" Carter scolded her. "Do you know that we could have died if those gun wielding psychos were around!?"

"I'm sorry! We couldn't hear you guys because we were hiding in the farthest table so it was kind of impossible to hear you guys just by knocking!" Beatrice tried to defend herself. "Plus some of us weren't too sure on opening up the door!"

"Well, you've got your answer to that right now." Pierre rolled his eyes and locked the library entrance. "We might as well be stuck here for now, or at least until the shooting stops."

Sami had her face buried in her hands. "Oh god, I hope that this is just a shootout. I hope that there's nothing else going on in here… because if there is, we are dead."

"I don't even know if the judges know anything about this." Lyle added. "Worst part is the hosts DID say that the judges are all on their way here and this shootout is what they're gonna get as a welcome."

"Which is why we have to let everyone out of here as soon as possible." Carter told him and turned towards the three girls. "Hey guys, do you have any contact numbers of the hosts? We have to know if they are okay because I have a feeling that the gunshot we all probably heard came from the auditorium and it's not far from here, plus I doubt that the hosts have left that place."

"Yeah, I'll try and contact them." Sami said, grabbing her phone and scroleld through her contacts while May did the same. Beatrice however, was beginning to sense something else happening…

---

Auditorium - Backstage

Misha and Antoinette were still in place with what had just happened not too long ago. Now that they have learned about even more stuff with what is about to happen to the theater, they couldn't help but feel even more worry for themselves and the others.

"...What the hell do we do?" Antoinette asked, who finally got out of her shocked state after quite a while.

"We try and get out of here." Misha answered.

The two girls began slowly and carefully making their way to the door without any sounds and as quiet as they could, but they both stopped as they could hear someone entering the auditorium.

The camera secretly pans to the main area of the auditorium where the center of all the chaos is occurring.

"HOW ON EARTH DID YOU GET OUT OF THAT ROOM!?" Hah's voice echoed throughout the auditorium.

"LOGIC, THAT'S WHAT!" Brea retorted, but her face fell into a worried expression as soon as she saw the hosts huddled up with Topher who had been shot and looked as if his wound wasn't going to heal up any time soon. "What the actual fuck have you done to him!?"

"Oh, Blaineley was just being a whiny rat and her knight in shining armor Topher tried to came in and save the day but I end up shooting him and sabotaging his leg in the process. Oh, how sad indeed." Hah declared to her in full sarcasm, especially on his last sentence.

"Ugh, you know what!? You're a fucking sadist!" Brea snapped. "You are like a million times worse than Chris! Thank god I never accepted you as a host for Act I because if I did, I would actually be dead right now."

"SHUT UP!" Hah demanded, pointing his gun towards a stage light and shot it down in the process. The stage light then fell down with a really loud thud and shattered on to the ground. Its light went off as the electricity burst through it, causing the stage light to develop flames.

Loud and frightened screams were heard from the hosts as everyone were surprised at the current happenings in the theater.

Since Antoinette and Misha were just in between said stage light and the backstage exit door, they barely dodged the stage light falling and ended up with themselves falling on the ground. The fire then went bigger, and was about to reach for the door.

"Shit shit shit shit shit." Misha swore to herself, attempting to open the doorknob that was just next to the fire in case they had a slim chance of getting out but recoiled her hand back as she got burned instead. "AH, FUCK!" She screamed.

"WHO WAS THAT!?" Hah hollered out from the main auditorium area. The hosts could only stay silent as they had no idea on what to do.

"Awww shit!" Antoinette whined as Misha blew their cover. Speaking of Misha she ran back and grabbed the other girl's arm as they went to hide further on the backstage area.

Just as soon as Hah entered the backstage area, flourishingly opening up the stage curtains in the process, he looked left and right to see if anyone was there. The fire from the fallen stage light was starting to get caught on to the curtains, causing the fire to get dangerously bigger so there was no time to waste or else, they would be toast.

As Hah made his way through the backstage, the hosts quickly and carefully had Topher up and ran out of the auditorium while he wasn't looking to make use of the time left. Worst part was that they never knew that Antoinette and Misha were still in the backstage and Hah was now looking for them.

---

Library

Beatrice, Sami, May, Carter, Lyle, and Pierre all almost jumped in fright as they heard the stage light fell to the ground.

"WHAT WAS THAT!?" May cried out in fright.

Beatrice dropped her phone as her hands were shaking. "I… I couldn't contact any of them! T-there must be something wrong with the cellular signal over here-"

"SHIT!" Carter shouted in pure frustration, throwing a chair down in the process causing Sami, May, and Beatrice all to flinch at the same time. Truth be told, no one has even seen anyone super distressed before… maybe a few people back at the previous challenge but that was it.

Everyone of them stood just next to each other in case something was about to happen.

Suddenly, several loud knocks were heard from the library's entrance.

"...I-is someone gonna answer that?" Sami asked shakily. "I swear, I don't want to answer the door again only to get shot or something this time!"

"I'll do it." Pierre declared, making his way slowly and cautiously towards the door in case something else were to happen.

"HURRY UP!" Chef's voice rang from the other side of the room.

"Oh crap." Pierre broke out into a full sprint towards the door and unlocked it. In came the hosts, most of them holding an injured Topher carefully in the process and settled him down on one of the tables.

"Oh my god, what happened!?" Lyle shrieked out as soon as he saw Topher's condition.

"Hah happened, that's what." Brea shot up, quickly locking up the door in the process. She then turned to Sami, who was just right next to the countertop. "Hey Sami, can you get that first aid kit just by the counter?"

Sami quickly obeyed and grabbed the first aid kit.

"Why do you guys even keep a first aid kit here in the library-"

"Pierre, do us all a favor and be quiet!" Blaineley snapped loudly.

As soon as Sami gave Brea the first aid kit, she then passed it on to Topher who was just sitting next to her.

"Okay now, we have to try and stop the bleeding." Blaineley gulped as she had gauze on her hand. She prepared it in order to wrap it around Topher's wound to stop the bleeding, along with some cleaning materials that will disinfect the wound. She carefully and slowly pulled up the right part of his pants so that she could see it, to which she winced at the awful sight of how terrible it looked. "I… uh… this… this is probably gonna sting, okay?"

"Just… don't make me die." Topher grunted in pain.

"Oh god, I don't think I'll be able to see this…" Carter bit his lip as he turned back, with Lyle doing the same, both not trying to think of anything at the moment. May even began to shudder and cry a little as she clung onto Beatrice who got teary-eyed as well. Even Sami squinted and shut her eyes tight and covered her ears, while Pierre sat down at the floor in defeat as he gripped onto his hair.

"Jesus Christ…" Chef hissed and looked back as well, even Don didn't dare to look at Topher the second they went in.

Brea took a deep breath and exited out of the library as she didn't want to hear someone cry out in pain.

Blaineley squinted her eyes shut as she dabbed lightly the gauze on Topher's leg. To Topher, it hit him so much that he could feel himself immersing into pain so he let out a shrill scream. The teens inside and the hosts were extremely disturbed, and even all the contestants inside began to sob a little. Hearing this, even Blaineley began to let a few tears fall from her own eyes just by hearing the cries of the contestants, and mainly Topher.

As soon as she was done cleaning it, she took a big deep breath to calm herself down. She looked at the young man who laid by her for Blaineley, it felt heart-wrenching just by seeing Topher's face with his eyes bloodshot red.

"Y-you don't deserve this." Blaineley muttered. "You never did. You were only here for a few days and now you protected me. I just…"

"It's okay, really." Topher began to breathe slowly. "Thank you."

"No… thank you, Topher." Blaineley said, wiping her tears from her eyes with a clean hand. "You… you took that bullet for me… you… you don't deserve to die so young, you know!"

Topher grabbed her arm. "Hey, I got shot in the leg, I won't die here you guys, I promise."

"Promise us you'll stay awake then and don't sleep. You literally just played the role of a twenty year old young man who protected the life of an old coot who is probably fifteen years older than you. That is not really gonna look good in my book if I ever wrote one, but of course I can't write because I'm a chef who makes slops 24/7." Chef joked, with Don chuckling off to the side to at least brighten the mood a little after everything that just happened. As everyone heard him chuckle, they could at least feel themselves enlightening up a bit amidst of the current situation.

In the hallways outside, Brea was currently pacing back and forth just outside the library. She had her phone just by her ear as if she was trying to contact someone.

"Come on, Seph. Please pick up the phone, for goodness sake-" she squinted her eyes shut.

"Hello?"

"OH THANK GOD, YOU ANSWERED." Brea sighed in relief as she heard the voice of the former guest. "Seph, please tell me you're with the other guests right now."

"Yeah me, Epi, Godfrey, and Erin are just hanging out by the entertainment building. And… are you okay? You seemed a little… panicky." Sephiria asked with concern.

Brea immediately responded. "No, we are not okay. Hah just came by for a visit of life and death. He literally locked me up in the basement with a fucking bomb and shot Topher in the leg. Now we're actually trying to round up everyone before the bomb explodes. There's also freaking robots outside and I have no idea if we can go out and get past them."

"Oh shit. Uhh, what to do… Ah wait, I'll have Arturo and his military men right there. He'll be on a chopper to try and pick you guys up. As for the robots, I'll have him send some of his men in the grounds unit to cover them up." Sephiria quickly offered.

"Oh gosh, thanks. Hopefully your husband's back won't give him pain anymore especially since that we're roping him into a tight situation." Brea added. "Also, would you do me a favor and have the entertainment building dorm rooms ready? I feel like we'll have to stay there for now."

"Sure, I'll have everyone else prep them up for you guys."

"Thanks, Seph. I knew I could count on you and the others." Brea said with a smile.

"No problem. Now, do us all a favor as well and bring everyone here safe and sound, okay?"

"Gotcha."

---

Auditorium - Backstage

"WHERE ARE YOU!?" Hah's loud and furious voice was heard from just by the curtains.

Misha and Antoinette ran by the darkest section of the backstage area. In fact, it was so dark that couldn't see a thing.

"Oh shit, where to now?" Misha winced.

"Hello!? Who's out there!?" A faint voice was heard from behind them. The two girls quickly turned around, but still couldn't see anything.

Antoinette slid her hand across the wall until she felt a doorknob. She tried opening it, but it seemed to be locked. "There's a door in here."

"Who the hell is in there!?" Misha shouted, but Antoinette quickly shushed her.

"Stop shouting or that psycho is gonna hear us!"

"I CAN HEAR YOU, BUT I CAN'T SEE YOU!" Hah's voice rang across the backstage.

"Oh fuck…" Misha swore and turned to the door again. "Seriously, who are you!?"

"The interns!" the voice said. "Remember Eden? Yeah, that's me!"

"Oh good, it's the interns…" Antoinette sighed in relief. "I thought they were gonna be Hah's henchmen or something."

"What's happening in there?" Misha asked.

"Hah trapped us in here. Ulysses is acting crazy and Maya's just frozen in place! Even Mara passed out! Only Dustin and I are the sane ones left."

"That bastard left the key near somewhere where you guys are standing. He dropped it not too long ago so it should still be there!" Dustin hollered.

Antoinette started feeling the floor until she could hear some clinking. "Found it."

"Found what?" Hah called out from the far side of the backstage area.

The two girls were frozen in shock. They didn't have much time left as the fire was already beginning to burn the left side of the area.

"TELL ME!" Hah demanded. He shot the other stage light, causing it to suffer in the same fate as the other. It shattered on the ground with its electrical lights flickering, until it burst into flames due to the electricity. The fire caught onto the curtains as well, which caused the two girls to panic even more.

"WHAT'S HAPPENING OUT THERE!?" Eden began freaking out from the other side of the door.

"...Quick, unlock the door." Misha commanded.

"But I can't see a thing-"

"JUST UNLOCK THE MOTHERFUCKING DOOR, GODDAMMIT!" Misha roared at her.

Antoinette just complied and shakily led her fingers towards the doorknob, without knowing that Hah was already running for them.

"HURRY THE FUCK UP!"

"I'M TRYING!"

Antoinette successfully unlocked the door and she and Misha quickly let in. However, as they were about to close the door, Hah let his arm through the gap, which hindered the door from closing.

"Fuck!" Misha swore. Immediately, Dustin and Eden came to the two girls and tried to help them close the door, using up all the strength they had.

Even Hah started using up his strength too. With his brute force, he pushed the door so hard that the four nearly almost got pinned to the walls because of it. This caused the door to broke, thus letting the former intern in.

The four all panted on the floor as they tried to get up. Hah looked around the room, wiping the dripping sweat off of his forehead. He saw Maya frozen in shock in the corner, Mara laying unconsciously on the floor, and Ulysses in the other side of the room acting as if he were drunk, almost smashing the beer bottles next to him in the process. He growled and quickly ran up to Antoinette and grabbed her hair harshly, causing her to scream out, trying to get herself out of his tight grip but to no avail. He lifted her up by gripping her hair with one hand as his other hand held a gun, aiming for her head.

He then yelled at Misha. "YOU! WERE YOU TRYING TO MAKE A DISTRACTION SO THAT I COULDN'T FINISH THE HOSTS?! TELL ME NOW, OR I'M BURSTING YOUR FRIEND'S BRAINS TO BITS!"

Misha held her hands up defensively. "N-no… No I wasn't, goddammit! I was just- I was just scared as hell since that stage light fell, okay!?"

"You shut the hell up, Hah!" Dustin yelled out, grabbing one of Ulysses' beer bottles and aimed it at him, but Hah quickly transferred the aim of his gun to him, causing the other intern to stop.

"What, you think you can best me out!?" Hah scoffed loudly. "I'd like to see you try!"

Before he could even pull the trigger though, Eden quickly leaped and grab Hah's arm, aimed it somewhere else just in time as he pulled the trigger. This also caused him throw Antoinette, away from his grip with sudden force and had her land head first towards the ground hard, which eventually caused her to pass out.

BANG! A gunshot was heard, yet since it was fired aimlessly, it hit the wall, causing it to form a hole that gives them a view of the outside.

But this didn't stop them from fighting. Eden tried to throw him down on the ground but failed as he was too strong for her. He grabbed the agent and swung her, throwing her towards the wall violently. She landed on the ground with a thud and cried out in pain.

"WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS!?" Dustin shouted at him. "YOU WEREN'T LIKE THIS WHEN WE FIRST MET-"

"THAT WAS IN THE FUCKING PAST, IDIOT!" Hah retorted. He tackled Dustin onto the ground, grab the glass beer bottle from him and smashed it right on his hand and into the floor. This caused the glass to shatter, to which some shards of it pierced through the intern's hand.

"AHHH!" Dustin wailed in pain as the glass pierced right through it. His hand shook violently as blood started to rapidly flow out from it.

"DIE!" Another voice was heard behind Hah.

It was Ulysses, who still seemed to be drunk but managed to throw in a powerful punch right into Hah's head. This was followed by several even powerful punches, which eventually gave him a black eye and several bruises on his face.

Meanwhile, Misha ran up to Antoinette who was still on the ground. "Bitch, please wake up." She then began to shake her. "BITCH FOR FUCK'S SAKE, WAKE UP!" she yelled even louder. She genuinely never liked her anyway, but to her, even she didn't deserve this kind of treatment. She then gave her a harsh slap on her face, giving her a huge slap mark on her left cheek. This was her only hope to wake her up now.

"WAAAAAAAAAAKE UUUUUUUUUUUP!"

Antoinette weakly opened her eyes as she looked up to Misha. "M-my… my head hurts…" she winced as she started to cry. Misha carefully lifted the back of her head up a bit, and widened her eyes as she felt something sticky.

Blood.

"Oh shit… uhhh… just try not to sleep." Misha said shakily as she was beginning to panic.

"...sleep...?"

"Y-yeah, just try not to sleep." Misha gulped, squinting her eyes shut as she had no idea what to do. "Oh my god…"

Ulysses was delivering even more blows and hard punches towards Hah. By this time, blood oozed from his mouth and his eyes were botched out. And by the looks of it, Hah's body was now laying lifeless on the floor as blood kept on dripping out of him.

Eden quickly limped over to Ulysses and pushed him over. "ULYSSES, PLEASE STOP! HE'S ALREADY DEAD!"

The bulky intern quickly stopped, as his feelings went back to normal. "What… what did I…" he noticed Hah's corpse on the ground. "OH, JESUS-"

Dustin went over to where Ulysses was standing, clutching his violently shaking hand in the process and gasped. "Oh… oh shit-"

Eden couldn't help but start sobbing at the sight, as never she has seen something so wretched in her entire life. Dustin wrapped his free arm around her in for a hug in an attempt to calm her down.

Misha covered her mouth and almost vomited at the sight as well, not wanting to see it. "Oh god, let's- let's just get out of here, please."

Ulysses tried to ignore the bloody sight and marched to a nearby hatch on the wall. "This is a way out. Everyone up in here now while I'll go get Maya and Mara."

Everyone obeyed him. Dustin helped Eden up on the hatch first. After her, he let Misha and Antoinette go follow and then hoisted himself up. Ulysses had both Mara and Maya on his shoulders and climbed up on the hatch carefully to not drop them. Once they were all in, he closed the hatch up before the fire from outside could reach the room, commanding everyone to crawl as fast as they could to the exit.

---

Backyard

Colin, Gordon, Ryder, Rival, Therion, and Vanessa all slowly made their way out of the house, cautiously and carefully as one noise from them could lead them straight into a hole of disaster. They were all currently leaned up on the wall from the back of the house.

Something caught Colin's eye from the right and nudged Ryder. "There's a car coming from over there and it looks like they're heading this way."

"Crap, those are probably the judges!" Ryder exclaimed but kept himself quiet as the robot army were just on the other side of the house.

"Do we stop them?" Rival asked everyone. "I think we should make them turn back. It's too dangerous for them to go here."

Therion looked at the odds of that happening as the robots were nearby. "How? If we do end up running over there and signal them to go back, those robots are going to hear us and shoot us down on the spot."

Vanessa quickly fished her phone out of her pocket. "Then we contact them."

The boys all waited patiently as Vanessa tried to call at least one of the judges. When the pianist shook her head, they all heaved a sigh.

"They're not picking it up!" She groaned, almost throwing her phone into the grass.

Colin sat down on the grass leaning his head on the walls. "So what do we do- wait, hey Rival, DON'T GO THERE!"

The teens all looked in shock as Rival made his way to the approaching car, waving his arms up in order for them to see him. "HEEEEEEEEY! TURN BACK! IT'S TOO DANGEROUS HERE!"

In the car where the judges were riding at, Leticia, Holly, Evan, Lee, and Enrique were all wondering what on earth is going on.

"Is that Rival?" Evan asked himself as he squinted his eyes to get him a better view. Since he was the one in the driver's seat, he managed to pull over off to the side.

Rival was still giving them the turn back hand gesture from afar. This however, caused the robot army to hear him, and thus made them take a run for him.

Colin almost winced at what was happening, and ran up to Rival.

"SHIT COLIN, GET BACK HERE!" Therion shouted and chased him as well. Ryder held out his arm in order for Gordon and Vanessa to stay where they since they can't risk themselves going out there too.

"RIVAL, DUCK!" Colin hollered as he saw one of the robots aim for the redhead. Even Rival had no time to react so instead, Colin tackled him to the ground. Before the two could even get hit, Therion, who caught up to them on time, managed to pull them behind a nearby bush for them to take cover in as a huge wave of gunshots were now heard around the area.

"OH MY GOD!" Vanessa shrieked as she, Gordon, and Ryder all huddled up and laid down behind the house.

"JUST STAY LOW!" Gordon commanded, constantly looking at the bush where the other three boys hid themselves on.

With the judges, they were all shocked out of their minds as they heard the gunshots. They all screamed as they tried to stay down low.

However, much to their dismay, they were parked in an angle where it was possible to hit the car's gas tank. With this, it got hit by a bullet.

Enrique widened his eyes in terror as soon he could smell the gas coming out. "EVERYONE OUT NOW! THE CAR IS GOING TO EXPLODE!"

Lee quickly opened the door from the back and helped the eldest judge, Holly, exit the car. Evan and Enrique had no problem getting out as they were seated in the front. They were gestured by Therion, Colin, and Rival to hide in the bush where they were at.

"Ms. Henderson! We have to go!' Lee shouted towards Leticia, who was struggling to get her seatbelt off.

"I can't!" Leticia cried out. "It's stuck!"

"Oh crap…" Lee sulked in his breath as he went back in to help get Leticia out.

"No dear, no need for that-"

"What!? What do you mean!?"

"Go! Just please make sure the others are safe!" Leticia pleaded and urged him to get out of there.

The younger judge started to cry a bit. "I'm… I'm sorry." He said, before slamming the door shut and running off to the bush where the others were hiding.

Leticia sighed as she had no way out. "It's okay, dear… it's okay…" she said as she closed her eyes shut, preparing for the worst.

Lee went to the bush where the other judges, plus Rival, Therion, and Colin were at.

"Where's Leticia?!" Enrique shot up, demanding an answer.

Lee couldn't even speak up. "I… I couldn't-"

BOOM! Their car exploded loudly, redirecting the aim of the robots to said vehicle, which was now being enveloped into flames.

The judges and the three boys all watched the scene in horror. With this, Holly gave Lee a harsh slap across his faced. "You could've saved her, you young coward!"

"I tried to but her seatbelt was stuck!" Lee defended whilst sobbing in defeat.

Since the robots' aim was redirected, this gave the group some spare time. Vanessa, Gordon, and Ryder all rushed up to where they were hiding and helped them up.

"Come on, everyone! We have to get into the theater and find everyone!" Ryder yelled.

Lee stopped him. "N-no. I will head onto the gardens, I-I have contacted the military and they will be rescuing us from there. Please do round everyone up and head over to the gardens."

"I will go with you so that I could keep an eye on you in case you waste another precious life!" Holly retorted harshly and ran towards the direction of the garden. Lee quickly followed her.

"Dang, this old lady sure knows how to run fast-" Rival muttered but Colin hit the back of his head.

"You twat, you could've get yourself killed, you know!" Colin scolded him.

"Stop fighting! We have to get into the theater now!" Gordon yelled and led everyone else remaining into the theater to get the rest of the cast back. "There is a bomb in here that could explode in a few minutes!"

"A bomb!?" Evan almost jumped up in disbelief as they entered the theater. "How-"

"Long story, let's go." Vanessa ordered.

As they were now in the lobby, Enrique stopped everyone by calling out.

"Wait."

"What?" Evan asked.

"I'll try and diffuse the bomb. I have taken electrical engineering before so it shouldn't be that hard." He offered.

"You idiot! This is a suicide mission you're talking about!" Evan scolded the other judge. "We should just get everyone to the gardens like what Lee said!"

"Listen, what would you prefer? Not getting there on time and the bomb explodes or try to AT LEAST diffuse the bomb so that we would only have to worry about the robots!?"

Evan sighed. He has a point, but they already lost one judge and he certainly didn't want to lose another.

"Fine. Just…" Evan sighed to himself. "I need a moment. Excuse me." He said, excusing himself and ran off to the other hallway.

"HEY WAIT, YOU CAN'T JUST EXCUSE YOURSELF WHEN WE'RE IN THE MIDDLE OF SOMETHING SERIOUS, YOU KNOW!" Rival called out, but the judge didn't hear him as he was far away out of sight. "Crap…"

"It's okay. Just let me know where this bomb is." Enrique declared.

Gordon was a bit hesitant but answered anyway. "It's… it's in the basement. The way there is not too far from here, so I'll let you know once we reach it."

"Noted."

As they went down the hall, they could see some people up ahead.

"OH MY GOD, IT'S THEM!" Vanessa almost cried in joy as soon as she saw the hosts and most of the other contestants.

The teens all rushed up and gave each other a tight and heartwarming group hug.

"Thank god you guys are alright!" Sami cried out in pure joy.

"I hope everyone is here, though." Carter said as he looked around, but noticed two people are missing. "Where are Antoinette and Misha?"

"The interns are missing too." Lyle pointed out. "But for goodness sake, I hope nothing bad is happening to them."

Brea stepped forward to make an announcement. "Just got a text from Eden. Antoinette and Misha are with them along with the other interns. I told them to head for the garden because Sephiria told me that some of her husband's military units will be there to pick us up. We're going back to Chicago since Epi, Godfrey, and Erin probably have the entertainment building ready for us to head in for the night."

"That's what Lee told us earlier, about the garden part." Therion added. "He and Ms. Rosewood are already by the gardens right now. Mr. Zito excused himself for some reason and… we lost Ms. Henderson..."

"Oh my god…" Blaineley said as she held up a hand by her mouth. "I am so sorry…"

As everyone kept on giving some announcements with what was happening, (which almost seemed like they forgot that there is a life and death situation in front of them) Gordon noticed the door leading to the basement. He then tapped Enrique by the shoulder.

"There it is." He pointed.

"Okay. Here goes nothing."

"WAIT, WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING!?" Don yelled out, but was careful as he and Chef were helping Topher out.

"The bomb is in there!" Topher added.

"Yes, and I am going to diffuse it." Enrique declared.

"Wait, you can't just do that!" Brea opposed.

Silence ensued the room for almost a full minute, or it seemed like it. No one knows what to respond into such a dreaded situation.

"Go! Now!" Enrique shouted at everyone. "I'll take care of this! Please take my regards to Sergeant Arks once he and his men arrive!"

"Please be safe, bro." Chef said as the two quickly shared a hug, followed by a few hugs and waves from the others.

"Yes, I'll come back. Now please, make your way out of here, quickly!" Enrique pleaded. And with that, everyone else ran on to the direction of the lobby with the judge making his way to the basement.

As everyone ran through the halls, Beatrice couldnt help but feeling she was lagging behind.

"Help!"

The timid seer quickly turned around…

...only to see Evan crawling on the floor. It looked as though he had been shot in the stomach.

Beatrice gasped and covered her mouth with one hand. "Oh my god… I… hold on, I'll get help!"

She turned to run away but was stopped by the judge. His hands trembled as he handed her a gun.

"Please… finish me…" he groaned in pain.

"No… no no no no no no no no… I am going to get help whether you like it or not!" Beatrice retorted.

"PLEASE!" Evan shouted.

Sami, May, and Ryder, who were at the back of the group, heard Evan's cries and couldn't help but ran back to where Beatrice was. Even the rest of the group had stopped.

"No… please…" Beatrice shook her head and let a few tears drop from her own eyes, trying hard to think that this was all just a dream. She knelt down at him. "I… I will help you, I promise! I swear to god, I-"

"Please… just end my life… right now... I beg you…" Evan began crying as well as soon as he saw the girl drop down to her knees. "At least… at least I get to be with my son Devin… in a better place... please… this is not your fault…"

"Beatrice! Don't do this, we can get him medical help!" May cried, seeing her best friend going in such a situation.

Beatrice shakily took the gun on her own hands, with Evan nodding at her for reassurance.

"You'll be fine… I wish you all the best of luck in getting out of this one hell of a mess... " Evan whispered at her. "But do me one last favor… once I have taken my last breath, place my hands by my chest and the gun you used on my hands so that it would look like I have committed suicide. I do not want you to take the blame for my death."

She trembled. She never got the courage to do something… morbid, at least in her own perspective. What will her younger siblings think of her now once they know what she would do? Would she still be loved by them?

She buried her face into her hands and sob. "I can't… I'm sorry, I can't do it…"

---

Not too long ago…

After Evan had excused himself from the group, he grabbed a gun and aimed it for his head.

"I can't stand this anymore… why must life be so hard without you, Devin?" he contemplated.

Right when he was about to pull the trigger, he switched his aim in a split second and…

BANG!

"AUGH!" Evan knelt down in pain as he shot himself in the stomach. "WHY… WHY AM I STILL ALIVE!?"

He dropped himself on the floor and attempted to crawl back to the group.

"Someone else must finish this for me…"

---

Evan weakly grabbed her hand that had the gun on it and got her ready to fire, aiming it straight for his heart. "Yes, you can."

She squinted her eyes shut. "I… I'm sorry-"

The judge pressed his finger against hers, causing her to pull the trigger and open fire at him.

BANG!

The loud sound of the gunshot rang throughout the hallways, as everyone shrieked in fear.

She opened her eyes again. This time, he was laying dead on the ground.

"No… I… I just… murdered someone… I'm… I'm a monster..." Beatrice felt like she was going to hyperventilate. She dropped the gun from her hands as both Ryder and May quickly ran up to her and pulled her into a hug as she sobbed uncontrollably.

As the two comforted her, Sami wiped her own tears from her eyes as she placed the gun on the judge's chest for his final plea. She understood why Beatrice didn't do it as it was too much for her.

Everyone was still shocked and sad about the whole ordeal, but a faint beep was heard from Brea's watch. "Guys… we have… less than forty five seconds left and we're barely out of the theater!"

"Oh shit, come on, everyone! We have to meet up with everyone else by the gardens!" Rival called out to everyone in the front as the group made a run for it.

---

Basement

30…

29…

28…

27…

26…

There were only thirty seconds left on the clock as Enrique quickly rushed down the stairs and raced against the time, rummaging on different random things until he found the suitcase with the bomb.

25…

24…

23…

22…

21…

He gasped as he saw the bomb that was covered under the styrofoam. He grabbed a pair of pliers nearby and quickly prayed to the heavens above that he would cut the right wire so that the bomb wouldn't detonate.

20…

19…

18…

17…

16…

Opening his eyes once more, he looked between the blue wire and the red wire. He panicked, unconsciously placing his pliers on the blue wire.

15…

14…

13…

12…

11...

The question is, is it really the blue one?

10…

9…

8…

7…

6…

He rapidly transferred to the red wire.

5…

He quickly changed his mind as he went back to the blue wire.

4…

"It was nice being with you all…"

3…

"Even though you guys aren't with me right now…"

2…

"Goodbye everyone, I will miss you all so so so so so much…" he cried softly.

1...

He snipped the wire.

---

Day 18, 10:09 AM

---

Backstage

"RUN!" Eden shouted as soon as she got off the passageway. The interns plus Antoinette and Misha soon followed behind her as they tried to run farther and farther away from the theater in case it would explode…

...in which…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

...

...it did.

An extremely loud and ear-piercing explosion was heard from below as debris flew everywhere. The theater immediately began to fall apart with some parts of it flying off in the distance.

Due to the strong impact the explosion made and even though they managed to get a few yards away from the theater, the interns and two contestants were still blown by it. They were all sent flying into the air until they hit the grass in the open field just behind them, landing with a few sickening cracks and thuds.

"Ugh…" Dustin groaned in pain, accidentally landing on the side where his injured hand was located. He even attempted to pull out the few shards that remained in it, only for him to wheeze out in pain again.

"Oh my god…" Eden covered her mouth as soon as she got up. "W-where do you think the others could have gone!?"

Ulysses, who was still carrying both Mara and Maya heaved a huge grunt as he tried to sit himself up. "We don't know, okay!? We don't fucking know! All we know for now is that they could have either died in the explosion or even barely manage to escape, who knows!? Knowing them and hoping for a miracle to happen, it should be the latter!"

Misha helped a dizzy Antoinette sit up and looked at the interns with fury on her face. "What the fuck did just happen!? Tell me! What the fuck did that son of a bitch did to the theater!?"

"He kept a bomb in the basement, remember?" Antoinette whispered to Misha as she laid on the contestant's shoulder for support. "We… we overheard their conversation…"

Ulysses groaned in pain as he stood up and slumped both Maya and Mara on each shoulder. "Let's go to the garden. We should get help from there."

---

Parking Lot

Everyone was seen laying down scattered all over the farthest part of the parking lot due to the impact the explosion had brought onto them. Some of them even had parts of their faces black due to smoke ensuing, and others had several bone cracks with them landing hard on the pavement.

"Ugh, my head hurts so freaking bad…" Ryder groaned as he attempted to sit himself up but failed as he ended up lying back down again. "Did… did the theater just-"

"Is everyone okay?" Chef coughed weakly, hoping that the others would hear him despite that. But since they were all over the area, he couldn't help but doubt it.

May slowly and weakly crawled over to Ryder and grabbed his arms. "The… the theater just exploded… and by a miracle we are still somehow alive."

"The-the theater exploded?" Blaineley stammered, having an extremely hard time to think of what to say next. "So… so that means-"

Topher had his hand by her arm. "Enrique is gone." He softly spoke as his other hand was clutching his leg in pain still.

"Oh my god…" Blaineley immediately broke out into a loud sob. "Please tell me that this is all just a fucking nightmare! Someone wake me up! Please, I don't want to be stuck in this forever!"

Don quickly saw how hysterical Blaineley was getting and crawled up to her and rubbed her back. "Blaineley, this is not a dream. We're gonna have to go through this. Besides, he is gone now-"

"I don't fucking care or even give a freaking shit if that stupid intern is dead! The fact that other judges have died just makes this even more worse than it already is and they were only supposed to help us in this musical season! Not die in a fucking battlefield on a battle they're fighting that's not even theirs!" Blaineley wailed even louder. Even Don and Topher felt bad about the entire thing as well and they couldn't help but mourn with her.

Brea groaned on the other hand, as she kept hearing her phone ring over and over again. She almost hesitated to answer it, but did it anyway.

"Ugh… okay… that's good news… okay, just wait for us over there."

She quickly hung up.

"Who was that?" Don asked.

"Madame Holly." The hostess said as she got up. "The interns are already at the garden. The military should also be there by any moment. We should get everyone going there as soon as possible."

Even farther down the parking lot, we can see that Vanessa had landed on top of a car. She sat up with immense pain on her back and couldn't help but shriek out.

"Ugh… my back…"

"Nessa?" Gordon spoke as he limped his way towards her before sighing in relief. "Ugh, thank god you're alright-"

"Alright!?" Vanessa almost shrieked at him. "Do I look alright to you? Do we all look alright to you!? Of course we are… not! Why would you ask that when the theater LITERALLY EXPLODED INTO PIECES AND COLLAPSE RIGHT IN FRONT OF OUR FACES!? TELL ME ALL ABOUT IT!"

Gordon sighed at his girlfriend's attitude, but then again, he couldn't blame her so he just let her stay like that for a moment and laid himself down on the pavement next to the car she was on top of. He placed his hands on his face in full frustration with the whole situation and kept thinking over and over about what had just happened merely a minute ago.

"Just let her be, Gordon. It's understandable why she's like that." A voice spoke to him. He took his hands off his eyes and it revealed to be Rival who sat next to him, clutching his arm in pain. "I think I may have broken my arm."

Gordon groaned. "We're gonna need so much therapy for this once everything is over. And not even only therapy, but also possibly some operations."

Rival sighed in the same level of frustration much like the other boy. "Ugh, why do people that aren't supposed to be involved get themselves involved anyway? I mean, look at what that bimbo Hah caused!?"

"Well he's dead now, so he probably doesn't even know it anymore." Carter spoke as he approached them, sounding extremely fine and normal but the two boys couldn't help but noticed that several bruises and cuts on his arms and legs thanks to the fall. "But as well all know, he's probably going to hell thanks to all this shit he has caused."

Rival shrugged. "For once, I actually agree with you, Carter." He said, attempting to move his arm in the process but groaned again as it only caused him more pain. "OW!"

"Yeah, you probably shouldn't move that, you know." Vanessa sighed from the car roof, hearing the boys' conversation from above.

Beatrice was seen lying down unconscious on the other side of the parking lot. Not too far from her, Colin was also seen having just awakened from a short time of unconsciousness.

"Argh, am I dead?" He asked himself out loud as he opened his eyes and looked around his surroundings, only to see debris everywhere and people on the ground with what he quickly assumed was the other members of the cast. He looked towards his left and saw Beatrice on the ground not too far from him and so, he decided to approach her. "Beatrice!"

The timid seer didn't even move an inch as she was still unconscious, but Colin caught up to her anyway. He wasn't usually the type to do so and would usually just assume that she died anyway, but instead of that attitude, he tried shaking her to see if she would wake up.

"Hey, wake up!"

Still nothing.

"Beatrice, please wake up! I know you're not dead in there, but seriously!"

"...ugh… what?" Beatrice meekly spoke and opened up her eyes, only to see the ragged messed up boy in front of her. "Colin?"

Colin immediately gave off a sigh of relief as he saw that his assumptions were correct. "Yeah. Let's just find the others before someone else dies."

Sami woke up to a pounding headache. There was still smoke all over the place since unlike the others who landed pretty far away from the theater, she landed… not too far, so to speak. She couldn't even hear anything.

"Ugh… guys?" She tried saying something but gasped as she couldn't hear her own voice. She then felt someone's hand on her shoulder, which caused her to yelp, but again she couldn't hear her own voice so instead, she turned back to see who it was. When she did, she almost sighed in relief.

"Come on, let's get out of here." Lyle told her as he helped her up. He looked at the girl with a worried expression. "You alright?"

She didn't say anything in response, so Lyle quickly assumed that she couldn't hear.

"Oh dear… let's try and find the others, okay?'

Sami just nodded, having no idea what he was saying at that point so she just followed him.

After a few minutes of finding everyone through the smoke, all the hosts have managed to successfully round up the remaining contestants that they were with and head over to the garden.

---

Gardens

Holly, Lee, Eden, Ulysses, Mara, Maya, Dustin, Misha, and Antoinette were all waiting by the garden's gazebo. The military were all held at standby, with one of the soldiers leading them, presumably being Arturo Arks, Sephiria's husband.

"There are people up ahead, prepare to stand by." Arturo commanded his men as they all went into their positions. There was indeed a group of people heading towards them.

"HOLY SHIT, IT'S THEM!" Misha screamed in pure joy as the rest of the cast all now came into view. When they had all arrived, everyone took the time to share a quick moment of finally reuniting together again.

Arturo was giving special instructions to some of his men on the other hand. When this was done, they all went into different places while the sergeant himself approached the group. "There was no space for the helicopter to park here so we would have to go to the island's arena. That is where it is parked. We will get there by the bus parked over there."

"Noted. Let's go, everyone." Don declared out to everyone to head for the direction of the bus. Once everyone was boarded, they drove off.

---

It has been about a minute since they left. They haven't saw the theater yet, so it was a sign that they haven't gone very far yet.

Brea had a towel pressed against her neck to stop the bleeding, to which she didn't know it bled in the first place due to all the chaos happening around them. She never expected that intern to just return to the scene like a storm coming from the coast and just end up bombing the whole theater.

Everyone watched the horrid scene as the bus carried them further and further away until only smoke was seen. The military were on their way to the theater as well, armed with weapons on their hands.

"Honestly, things would've been so much different if you didn't terminate Chris's contract." Blaineley accused her. "Look what happened to the contestants. Just like Act I. Scared for life. Trauma haunting them. You literally just took the whole thing and did it again, Brea."

"Listen, Blaineley! It's not my fault that that son of a bitch born with a stupid name came back out of jail! I hired you as a co-host for a reason and gave you a job and now you think I caused this? Ha! Very funny." The other hostess retaliated against her. There was no doubt there; she really did hire her, yet at this rate, she felt like she wanted to fire her. "What happened last season was an accident. This one? I didn't even cause it so stop blaming me, you imbecile!"

"Well, where do you think the next season will take place, then?" Blaineley asked, having to look at the remaining fourteen contestants from time to time just to see if any of them went into a breakdown from the traumatic experience.

"There's a music company in Chicago. That's where Act III will take place and that is where we are heading so do me a huge favor and shut the hell up." Brea snapped.

Don, Topher, and Chef all glanced at each other with concern. No one said a word on the rest of the trip.

By nighttime, everyone had now arrived at the entertainment building in Illinois. When everyone exited out, they were greeted by warm and comforting hugs from everyone present there (save for maybe Toxa or Arabelle). Everyone then headed inside to at least eat something before they would all rest for the day.

---

Day 18, 8:00 PM

---

Hallways

Everyone was just about to turn themselves in for the night. It had been a super dramatic and hectic day for everyone because of everything that had just happened in the day. News about it was even spread throughout almost the whole country.

Sami was seen walking slowly in the hallways, not even trying to focus on where she was heading to… if she was actually heading anywhere. Footsteps can be heard approaching her from behind but she didn't even react, almost as if she didn't care.

"Sami, hey you alright?"

She stopped walking. She recognized the voice. Turning around, she saw the person whom she trusted the most out of the cast.

Zack.

He saw her face, there was no emotion whatsoever. Just thinking.

"You okay?"

The fandom girl slowly shook her head no, before breaking out into a full sob. Zack immediately pulled her in for a warm, tight hug, attempting to comfort her. This wasn't the first time he saw her like this but he hoped that it would be the last. And most of all, he knew what had happened this time, and it hit him.

"There there, just let it out. I can't even imagine what you guys had to go through." Zack whispered as he rubbed her back. There was one part where he felt thankful that he was eliminated during this time around, but there was also another part of him that he wished that he was in her place instead so that she wouldn't experience these happenings.

---

Dorm Room 1

May and Beatrice were in the room so far. They were waiting for Antoinette, Misha, Sami, and Vanessa since the six of them decided to sleep in said room for the night.

May was currently fixing her own bed, alread wearing pajamas. Beatrice leaned against the wall, looking down on the ground.

"I knew that this would happen." She said to herself. "I knew that this would happen from the start of today. I never got a good feeling about today, and turns out this was the answer."

May looked at her. She knew Beatrice somehow had the capacity to see into the future… or at least, predict everything and get something right. She knew her friend was gifted. She knew all of this. She wasn't the only one who knew, but May was one of the only people who understood Beatrice. Yet something was, in full honesty, ticking her off.

"If you knew about this…" she took a deep breath. "Why didn't you let us know then? We… if you told us way earlier then… we could've actually saved the judges! Especially Evan!"

"How am I supposed to know?" Beatrice shot up, trying her best to defend herself. She never knew that May would take this route on her. "I want to be so wrong and believe that this was just all in my head! I thought you would understand me!"

May tried to keep her composure. She genuinely does understand her and she was the closest friend she had throughout the whole season. "Yeah but… sometimes, you just don't think very well." She told her in a rather disappointed tone before turning to leave the door, leaving the timid seer utterly surprised at her actions.

---

Music Room

Rival carefully opened the door to the building's music room, immediately remembering the theater just by how the room looked and how it was set up. It looked almost exactly the same, save for the colors of the walls and floors but still, a shiver ran up his spine. He looked to see Therion seated on the piano bench and rushed up to him.

"Hey, there you are! I've been looking everywhere for you. Carter told me that you, me, Colin, Pierre, Lyle, Gordon, and Ryder will be sleeping in the room not too far from here." he chirped, trying to get himself in a positive mood despite everything that happened. He even had a cast on his arm because of the pain he felt earlier but he shrugged it off.

However, Therion didn't even say anything.

"You okay?"

"..."

"Hey, Therion!"

"..."

"Uh… do you want me to get help?"

"..."

At this point, a hint of frustration was seen on Rival's face. He couldn't help but feel a bit frustrated at the fact that he was being ignored so he knelt down and… begged.

"Therion… please speak to me. I know it must be really hard for you right now. Trust me, it's super hard for me too. But if there's anything bothering you or if you need to vent out on anything, I'm here… I'm your friend… way before this show happened. So please…"

"Just… leave me alone. You can go ahead with the other boys. I need some time for myself." Therion spoke in a cold voice, which nearly shocked Rival. However, he completely understood this and turned to leave, with a rather disappointed expression on his face.

---

Staircase

Ryder was walking on the halls with a bit of a bothered look on his face. Not too long ago, he ran into May but she simply ignored him and went off elsewhere. He didn't know the reason behind this which lingered on his mind a lot.

He found Colin sitting on the staircase looking on the ground. He seemed to be contemplating on something.

"Hey." Ryder said as he sat next to him, before heaving a sigh. "Can't sleep?"

"No." Colin shook his head. "Then again, I always can't sleep."

"You look like something is bothering you."

Colin shrugged. "Besides everything that happened?"

"Yeah."

"Not much." he shook his head. "What about you? You look like you were bothered by something."

Ryder sighed again. "It's May. She was ignoring me just now. I don't know why, but there's that and it's kind of annoying."

"Maybe she had a minor disagreement with Beatrice."

Ryde raised an eyebrow at Colin's assumption. "What makes you say that?"

"Considering that May was heavily against the fact that Beatrice shot Evan."

This made Ryder realize the fact that May had said earlier that they could all help the judge and stop Beatrice from shooting him. But what she probably didn't know was that technically, Beatrice didn't shoot him, Evan shot himself using her.

Ryder had his hands over his face. "I don't know. You have a point, but it's super confusing."

"Oh I see. I guess my points were useless."

Neither of the two spoke for a bit… until Ryder brought up something. "You know Colin, you rarely put up that dramatic schtick on you. I would prefer it if you were like that."

Colin merely shrugged at Ryder. "I am just like that. Why would anyone believe me then?"

Ryder sighed. "I understand but… sometimes I hope that you would tone that down a bit."

"Oh."

---

Dorm Room 2

The next room was extremely quiet as only one person was present inside.

Pierre opened the room gently and carefully, hoping that he wouldn't make a sound. His blue eyes widened a bit as soon as he saw her just… sitting on the bed facing the wall in front of her.

He remembered her face when she gave him that huge slap. He remembered her face when she called him a coward. He remembered her face when she realized what she had done, what he had done, what had they both done during that night.

And there she was. He couldn't see, but sorrow was written all over her face. He knew what he was going to expect. He figured what she was going to say, but did he muster up the courage to say one simple phrase?

"Sybil… I'm sorry. For everything… really. Can you-"

"Do you know what happened to me?" he heard her ask, her voice was shaky so he assumed that she let out all her bottled emotions before he took a step into the room. "Do you know what kind of reality I had to deal with?"

"W-what?"

"It's gone…"

"What's gone?"

"You know what I mean."

The coldness and shakiness of Sybil's voice immediately had Pierre realizing what she was talking about. This… all of this was mainly his fault. Or at least he thought so. Every time he had himself thinking about it, he wanted to beat himself up, but he couldn't.

Those words struck his heart. A tear slipped down from his eyes and onto his cheek. His lips quivered.

"I'm… I'm sorry…" he said one last time towards her before dashing out of the room.

Antoinette just happened to pass by the room, looking for the room where she was supposed to be. She stopped in her tracks as soon as she saw Pierre exit out of the room with his face all puffed up.

"You okay?" She asked. She's never been this concerned to mostly anyone before but somehow, she took another change of demeanor with this one.

Pierre just slowly shook his head no, unable to bottle up his emotions anymore. Antoinette sighed a little before pulling him into a hug.

"That's okay, just let it out." Antoinette patted his back as he cried. She didn't know what was going on and was just as clueless as Lyle about everyone at this point but she did her best to comfort him anyway, something that she would never have done.

---

Dorm Room 3

Alec, ELV, and Nash have invited Gordon over for the time being as Gabe, Robert, Oli, and Zack weren't currently present in the room.

"You know, it was all such a nightmare." Gordon leaned onto the wall, summarizing everything that had just happened earlier. "It's just… weird. I find it even weirder with why would he do all that in the first place."

Nash sighed with him. "It sure is darn confusing, partner. Maybe he had some kind vendetta against the hosts?"

As soon as the southern cowboy had made his comment, it caused Alec to widen his eyes almost in realization. ELV even gave the joker a confused look.

"What is it?"

"Well, I remembered something."

The other boys leaned forward to listen to what the wannabe joker wanted to say and turned their attention to him.

"You see, when I tried to sign up for last season…" Alec began. "I could've sworn I saw Hah signing up for auditions there too. Then I got rejected. I assume that he probably got rejected too. Because I saw his audition and god, his rapping sucks."

Nash widened his mouth in astonishment. "Partners, I was right! He DOES have some sort of vendetta against the cast last season and decided to bring it up here!"

"Well then why would he do that?" ELV questioned. "Judging by all your assumptions, he's probably just as psychotic as my father."

Gordon yawned, feeling exhausted and his head hurting from all the assumptions. "...Yeah… I appreciate the theories but I really need sleep now."

"Ah, well… good night! At least we get to have a little chat before you go to bed." Alec smiled.

"See ya in the morning, partner!" Nash waved followed by ELV as Gordon turned to exit their room.

"Night!"

---

Filming Studio

Adala and Janice were currently in the middle of a discussion in the filming studio. Adala was still seen in a wheelchair whilst Janice was currently sitting on a stool.

Little did they know that the door had opened, and in came Lyle from the hallways.

"Oh my god!" Janice widened her eyes as she ran up to him, pulling him in for a hug. "I'm sorry for what happened."

"It's okay, really." Lyle quickly said as he settled her down on a stool and went to sit on another stool himself.

"How have you guys been holding up so far?" Adala asked politely. "I know it's only been a few hours but a lot just happened with you guys and it's really hard to think that that would happen."

"I'm good, really." Lyle took a deep breath to process what had just happened earlier. "I just find this all super confusing."

Janice nodded in understanding. "We understand. You have only just returned to the competition and who else would expect this mess?"

"Well, thing is, they said it also had to do with one of the previous challenges that I was absent on." he theorized, jutting a hand on his chin.

"The hide and seek one, definitely." Adala sighed, not liking the way this was going. "He appeared in it after all, as well as all those robots."

"This is probably a really bad time to return to the competition. You know, I'm somehow hoping that I would get eliminated again because I do not want to be a part of this mess anymore longer." Lyle rubbed his head in frustration as Janice rubbed his back.

---

Girls' Restroom

Arabelle was the only one present in the room. Supposedly, her, Mairead, Janice, Mag, Sybil, Adala, Arreis, Kimmie, and Toxa were to sleep in the bigger dorm room, but no one wanted to interrupt Sybil since she had just received her own dreadful news. However, they all decided that they would see the other contestants before at least going back to bed.

Arabelle herself couldn't care much though as she was just washing up her face with soap and water. Once she was done, she grabbed a towel and saw Toxa step foot into the restroom.

"Nice head." Arabelle teased. "And super shiny too. Did you use Mr. Clean on it?"

"Shut the hell up." Toxa sneered as she kept on looking at her own reflection in the mirror over and over again.

Arabelle laughed at her own gimmick. She didn't really pity the girl as she thought she deserved it anyway. "So… you don't really care about what happened to the others?"

"No, they all suck." Toxa spat. "Why should I care about people who don't care about me?"

Arabelle widened her eyes and a smirk formed at her lips, somehow liking where this was going. "You know, we both think alike. Why didn't we team up earlier?"

"Because you were being a dunce with your own team, you twat."

This caused the girl's facial expression to change rather quickly. "Ugh, fine. Whatever you want to do with your bald headed ass anyway. Hell, you're still even grounded by the fact that you completely lost ELV's notebook." She snapped before strutting out of the restroom.

Toxa widened her eyes in realization and there was only one thing that lingered in her mind now.

Where the fuck is that goddamned notebook?!

---

Greenhouse

Mairead, Gabe, Arreis, Robert, Kimmie, and Oli, also known as the veterans of the season, were all gathered up in the green house.

"I can't believe that this happened." Mairead sighed in defeat as she had her hands on her head. "Like… who? What? Why? And how?"

"The answer to the who part was obviously Hah, of course. Do you remember what happened last season? He ended up injuring Meredith, Vivianne, and May. This season was on a whole new level." Gabe recalled.

Oli jutted his chin in thought. "That almost seemed unbelievable. He managed to injure three people in just one push. Now he returned and… literally three people DIED this time! How many bullets did that take him if you counted those stage lights… about five? What's even weirder that one of the deaths included him! Actually, we had four people that died today!"

Arreis shrugged. "I don't know… well, I have no idea if we should worry about him again because… you know… he's dead."

"Unless he has some family member here who is just as insane and psychotic as he is." Kimmie crossed her arms.

Robert cleared his throat. "You know guys, if I were to be completely honest, I am kind of glad that in both seasons, I got eliminated before the merge. I swear, shit stirs up every time we merge so if this same thing happens next season, regardless of Hah's status right now, this series is gonna be in big trouble."

"So what do we do? Just let them be and watch them mentally suffer?" Mairead eyed everyone.

Oli sighed as there were limited choices of what to do for now. "Well, there is nothing we could do for any of them at the moment. It's best if we just let them reflect amongst themselves and give them some space."

"That…" Arreis began. "That was the most mature thing you said ever since Act I happened with you sniffing me and all."

"Oli sniffed you?" Robert asked as he was taken aback.

"Shut up, that was a long time ago."

---

Filming Studio

Inside the filming studio, Spear, Ella and Hali were talking amongst themselves with what had just happened earlier when no one noticed that the door had opened.

Misha opened the door, only to see the three mentors talking to each other. About to leave and close the door, she turned back only to hear a voice.

"Wait, Misha!"

The pink haired girl kept the door open as Hali rushed up to her, leaving the other two mentors be.

"I saw what happened-"

"Bitch, of course everyone knows what happened at this point! It was all over on the fucking news for fuck's sake! Have you been paying attention to that shit!?"

"I know! And I'm really sorry that this has happened to you guys." Hali quickly told her before pulling the contestant into a hug, in which she accepted and returned it anyway. "I just... I can't believe we lost three judges. How on earth are we supposed to carry onto the next season without them?"

"I know the perfect solution. Just fucking cancel the rest of the whole fucking series, goddammit! Like, who the absolute fuck cares if that pyschotic bimbo Haha bitchass is deadass shit, because everyone in here for sure as hell knows that we don't want another piece of that bullshit happening ever again!" Misha spat loudly, her face full of rage at this point.

Hali grabbed the girl's shoulders. "You know Misha, it doesn't freaking work that way! And for that, I'm giving you the chance to turn down that offer for you hosting next season. I don't think you can handle it anymore due to all that has happened earlier."

"Well… you know what, suck it up all you want mentor motherfucker, but I ain't turning down that offer because I am sure as hell that I'm gonna need that for my future." Misha immediately answered as if everything wasn't that much big of a deal to her.

Hali was almost at a loss for words just by Misha's reaction. "Well… okay then. But if you ever feel like changing your mind, you know who to talk to. I mean, I'm still pretty much kind of worried since this happened and… you know what, I don't even know anymore. Your choice."

"Well, either way, thanks for putting that much faith in me, motherfucker. Never thought that you would be that type of girl." Misha gave her a quick grin before leaving her in the filming studio along with the other two mentors.

This just made Hali even more confused about the girl than ever. She sighed. "Did I even pick the right host because I am starting to have doubts about her now." She said to herself.

---

Lobby

Carter, Vanessa, and Mag were just talking amongst themselves by the lobby. They talked about what happened earlier at some point, but they also talked about another thing.

"Glad you two got along." Vanessa commented towards the both of them. "I mean, at least you two don't have any conflict with each other."

"Because it turns out that I was wrong." Carter answered, placing his hands on his knees. "If I were to be fully honest, I was quite relieved for a bit to hear that I was wrong. I would have placed all my blame on Mag for everything in my life, right?"

Mag didn't hear anything he said, she just stared intently at the window.

"Mag?" Carter asked her, before looking towards where she was looking. He widened his eyes in realization.

"Holy crap, it's Chris." Vanessa gasped as Chris entered the lobby, seemingly looking for the hosts. His gaze then turned his attention to the trio.

"Why are you here?" Mag asked with her arms crossed.

"I was a part of this production, so I have the right to know what happened, for your information, Miranda." Chris sneered at her.

"Formerly a part of the production, Chris." Carter corrected him. "Weren't you already fired?"

"I wasn't fired, Brea just terminated my contract." Chris snapped.

Vanessa was utterly confused at this point. "But that still means that you were fired!"

"Quiet!" Chris yelled at them, causing the three to fall silent but still have the scowls on their faces. "No one say a word. I will look for the hosts whether you like it or not because I will still head out afterwards anyway!"

The three all stared at Chris as he went further down the hallway to look for the said hosts.

---

Director's Office

The guests that have appeared in the previous episodes were currently seen gathered up in the director's office. Epi was guarding over by the entrance door in case someone barges in. Godfrey was staring intently on the ground whilst sitting on an armchair, presumably thinking about the whole thing. Sephiria and Arturo sat next to each other by the couch, exchanging worried glances at each other about how quiet everyone is. And lastly, Erin was playing around by the office table, poking her head with a pen in the process.

"We should interrogate with the cast about this matter." Arturo declared, with a straight and serious face. "The police and authorities are probably looking for sides of the witnesses."

"I'm not sure if everyone would be up for it though, Arturo." Epi shook his head, with a hint of doubt in his face. "We should at least give everyone some time for themselves first."

"Well then, maybe you could do it tomorrow." Sephiria suggested it to her husband. "I have everyone go to bed at this point, it will be rude to just wake them all up in the middle of the night just for an interview."

Godfrey nodded at everyone's suggestions so far. "I therefore suggest that we should conduct this interrogation in the afternoon. Arturo will be leading the interrogation."

Arturo could almost agree with Godfrey's suggestion, but there was one thing. "I'll do the interrogation myself. I think it is best for you to make sure that you keep everyone in company. The lieutenant has a personal assistant who helps him when it comes to interviews and interrogations. I will see if I can ask her to be of assistance."

"By the way, do you have some of your military units surrounding this place?" Sephiria asked her husband. "We could use some security in case anyone barges in without consent and who knows what will happen to the cast."

"Yes, I have a few units on guard duty. Don't worry." Arturo answered, much to the relief of the other guests.

Everyone looked at Erin to see that she had accidentally poked her forehead again, this time, with a sharp pencil. As soon as she felt that all eyes were on her, she chuckled sheepishly.

"Um… oops, I guess. Got carried away with the writing utensils here, hehe." She chuckled sheepishly, to which some of them could only sigh in pure annoyance.

---

Day 19, 11:00 AM

---

Recording Studio

The next day came by pretty quickly. Arturo and the lieutenant's assistant came by the recording studio as planned, to get a head start with the interrogation, to which luckily, everyone involved in the situation decided that they would comply.

The recording studio looked completely empty as Beatrice, Carter, May, Lyle, Pierre, and Sami stepped in. Most of the equipment was placed on the side, save for about eight chairs and a long table. There was also a note just by the door that the room would be temporarily restricted until everything that needs to be accomplished is taken care of.

"Have a seat." Arturo said as he gestured the six teens to sit wherever they desired to just by the table. He also had a recorder placed in the middle of the table to record everything that they said. "This interview will be recorded for reference since we are planning to have the police solve this thing. None of your names will be mentioned to them unless needed otherwise. If ever I will call you by your surname for respectful reasons, it will be immediately edited out of the recording for the formality of the interrogation and for the safety purposes of those being interviewed."

Everyone nodded in understanding (though some had no idea about what he had just said). Once they were seated, the assistant, who was a young woman wearing a presentable business attire, sat just by the former military man to help with the interview. She had her clipboard and pen ready to take down any notes that needed to be taken note of.

"By the way, this is Evelyn Porter. She will be of assistance for the interrogation for today." Arturo introduced.

Evelyn simply gave everyone a small smile with some of the others waved at her for a bit. But for now, Arturo has decided to resume the interrogation.

"Where were you all during the time of the whole incident?" Arturo inquired.

The six teens all glanced at each other, wondering who in their group would answer. After about a few moments, Carter cleared his throat.

"Ahem, well… Lyle, Pierre, and I were in the music room." He began to explain. "And… there was some point where Pierre left the room and came back in. Before he did though, someone went past by the room and I… kind of assumed that it was this Hah person since he wielded a gun and all, but he seemed to be wounded… or that's what I thought."

Although the interview was being recorded, Arturo gestured to the assistant to quickly take down the notes. The assistant complied, though she did it shakily.

The former military man then turned to Pierre. "Very well then. Mr. Kane included in his explanation that you left the room and came back, Mr. McLowery. Now tell me, where were you during this short period of time?"

Pierre fumbled his fingers for a bit as he looked down to the ground. "Honestly… that was during the time I had enough with Carter. I didn't go too far away since I only walked a bit towards the other hallway, but I saw the same guy Carter was talking about and went back to the music room as soon as he passed by."

Lyle quietly raised a hand. "May I have a word?"

"Go ahead, Mr. Ray." Arturo insisted.

The returnee cleared his throat. "I know I haven't been watching the past few episodes since my elimination but… I'm still extremely confused with what is going on. Like, I've heard that this is not the first time these robots appeared in this season. Is that true? And if so, why have they returned? Not to mention, is this 'Hah' person you guys are speaking of, their mastermind of some sorts?"

Everyone else looked at each other, trying to remember what happened back in the episode where they went to the village.

"I think I may be able to answer a part of it." Sami spoke up.

"Please continue, Ms. Gardner."

Sami nodded as she started to speak up. "On one of the previous challenges, we did this hide and seek episode over at Musimental Village. I fell down through a hole and Gordon soon joined me so at first I had no idea that there were robots. When I saw the other contestants and met up, well, they kind of explained to us a bit of what was happening since if I'm not mistaken, they saw these robots. I remember before we drove away from the village, Brea shot Hah in the leg. He kind of controlled the robots, but at first we thought he'd be dead at that point."

"I see…" Arturo said as he rubbed his hands together, trying to process in his head with what was going on. "I am not a detective, but I do have the ability to investigate different things that are currently happening with this case. Once these interviews are over, I will handle this case over to the authorities. Therefore…" he turned to both Beatrice and May. "Ms. Eddlestein and Ms. Gale, would you two like to add anything further onto our discussion?"

"I'd like to do so first, sir." Beatrice politely said. "But… I'm not sure if this belongs to the topic or if I'm straying away from it… but… the fact that Mr. Evan Zito just wanted to… end his life is haunting me, bothering me, I don't even know what to say at this point. It's… it's so messed up… almost as if he… sounded depressed…" Beatrice heaved a sigh, trying to calm herself down after what she had done. "It… everything felt so surreal… he even said that after I shoot him, he told me to put his gun by at his chest so that it would look like that he had decided to take up on his own life, but… there are cameras on the theater and there will be no doubt that the authorities of the theater have seen it… unless they have evacuated before the bomb exploded."

Arturo nodded, but there was a hint of frustration lying on his face. No one could blame him though as everything the contestants have said is just piling up towards the mess instead of actually putting the pieces together. It's like one problem after another and it's not going very well for any of them.

"Okay then, noted… how about you, Ms. Gale?"

May just sat there, unable to think of anything to say. Pretty much everyone has said everything at this point, which gave her somewhat of a hard time to speak up. But the question is, was there anything more to be said?

"Where were you during the time of the theater's bombing?" Arturo asked to help her out.

"Well, me, Sami, and I were in the library. We heard the gunshot so loud and clear so we hid under the tables and never noticed that Carter, Pierre, and Lyle were knocking on the library's doors. It actually took us a while to let them in because we didn't know who was knocking until one of them shouted out. And… not long after them, the hosts came in and Topher was wounded so we assumed that Topher probably took the bullet that caused the gunshot that we heard."

Arturo nodded his head as soon as May had finished speaking up. He stopped the recording and gave the assistant a thumbs up, before giving a nod of approval towards the contestants.

"Thank you for all of the insights. I have stopped the recording because I feel like we have the information needed from your side." said the former military man. "You six may take your leave."

The six contestants gave him nods and thanked him as they left the room.

"We're gonna need a bit more information from the others." Arturo declared. "Evelyn, please find some of the others who are involved with the incident and bring them here."

Evelyn, the assistant, took a quick bow and nodded. "Will do, sir." She said before leaving the room.

---

At this rate, it didn't take Evelyn too long to round up Rival, Ryder, Colin, Gordon, Vanessa, and Therion into the room. They all quickly complied with Arturo who insisted they sit down onto the chairs. He then eyed them before positioning his finger by the recorder.

"This interrogation is going to be recorded for future references." He started calmly. The six contestants all nodded in understanding as he pressed the record button. "Where were you all during the incident?"

"I have something to say." Gordon raised his hand.

"Go ahead, Mr. Parag."

"Well…" Gordon took a deep breath. "Me and Vanessa were in the theater when we found Brea being all panicky and stuff. She then said that there was a bomb so we did our best to try and get the others, to which we managed to round them up." He gestured to the other boys in the room.

As soon as he didn't say another word, Ryder decided to add some in. "There were lots of robots outside. So we kind of assumed that the same guy who controlled them back in another challenge was the one who is responsible for this mess. In which, he is."

"I see, thank you both Mr. Parag and Mr. Walker. Anyone else have something to say?" Arturo asked.

"...The judges." Colin quietly spoke up, thinking that no one would hear him again but Arturo turned his attention to him so it turned out not to be the case.

"Go on, Mr. Lanthored."

"...We tried to stop them from arriving at the theater. One of them burned inside of the car since it exploded due to the robots redirecting their aim at them." He sighed in frustration as he crossed his arms, a bit salty about how the situation was being handled during that time. "This… this would have possibly ended differently if Rival handled it differently AND NOT RAN UP TO THEM because the robots would of course redirect their aim towards them."

This annoyed Rival as he rolled his eyes and stood up. "Well what were you all going to do during that time? Stay behind and watch them potentially get hit?"

"But they DID get hit anyway! You could've just stayed where we were and warn them from there!" Vanessa added into the argument.

"Well I didn't! Because it would be too late for them to see us since we were so far away!" Rival yelled at Vanessa this time.

The pianist stood up, angry at how he was saying things. "ALL OF THEM could have been saved if you just didn't run over there and yell out you know!"

"Oh my god…" Colin sighed in frustration as he had caused a fight this time.

"Enough! Mr. Survival and Ms. Navarro, please take your seats right this instant!" Arturo strictly commanded. The two glared at each other before sitting down.

"Uh… I have something to say." Therion spoked up.

"Yes, Mr. Suarez?"

…

It took about five minutes to wait… but Therion didn't say anything.

Suddenly, he felt a huge headache coming his way as he gripped his head tightly.

"I have to go." He quickly said and excused himself out of the room, much to everyone's surprise. The sergeant had no choice but to dismiss everyone else as he felt like they were going nowhere at this point.

---

At this time, they have reached the third interview for the day. This time, both Misha and Antoinette were present. The former had her arms crossed and she had a slight scowl on her face. The latter just looked at the table in front of her. It was also noticeable that her head was wrapped neatly with gauze, mostly because of her head injury.

Evelyn looked at both girls' reactions before turning back to her clipboard. Arturo once again pressed his recorder to activate.

"So let's start. Similar to the others, I will record your answers for future references. So let's start," Arturo said as he tried to sit comfortably before he would begin. "Where were you two during the whole incident?"

Antoinette glanced at Misha to see if she would speak up first. The latter just kept up her scowl but cleared her throat, which mostly signaled that she would start the answering.

"We were backstage." Misha began. "We heard and saw all sorts of shit. Lights falling, gunshots, screaming, shit went down hard as fuck, you know? And for some fucked up reason, I screamed loud as shit and the fucked up bitch heard it and tried to find us. So we head further into the backstage that was dark as crap and found the keys, eventually finding out that the interns were being held hostage in there for some fucking reason."

As soon as Misha didn't add anything else to what she had said, Arturo slowly nodded, cueing Evelyn to take note of the most important things that she had said. "Thank you, Ms. Thomas. Would you like to add anything to that, Ms. Mirasol?"

Antoinette looked almost everywhere but at both Arturo and Evelyn. Her mind was completely clouded at this point and she was having a hard time to think straight.

"W-well…" she said quietly. "There… there was this huge fight between the interns and… Misha and I were almost being held at gunpoint by that person. He even managed to injure a few of the interns… but then Ulysses came by and…" At that point, she was already trying to look for words that she could say. She knew that it was pretty hard to word things up at this point. "He… killed him… he punched him and beat him up into death… it was so… gruesome… and-"

She couldn't take it anymore as she choked out a sob. Misha even had a hand covering her mouth, the two girls finding it extremely hard to process what happened to them at that point, and so they both couldn't help but cry about it.

Evelyn settled her clipboard and pen down as she walked up to the two girls and pulled them into a comforting hug in an attempt to at least calm them down. Arturo even had to stop the recording, at least to respect the two girls for having to go through something traumatic.

"I will leave you three here, Evelyn. Please don't leave them." Arturo ordered the assistant, to which she responded with a quick nod. He then left the room to find other people whom he could ask about the incident.

---

Filming Studio

Arturo sauntered across the hallways and managed to hear a bit of chitchat from the filming studio. Being careful to not let himself get heard, he pressed an ear towards the closed door. He couldn't hear much, but it was much better than having to hear someone muffle about nothing.

"Why did you kill him?"

"I was drunk! I didn't know what happened!"

"Wait, someone died?!"

"Yeah, you never knew that because you were knocked out the whole time!"

"Well, guess what! So were you!"

Knock knock!

Arturo didn't even know that he would come knocking at the door at some point, yet he felt like he had to. There was a part of him that didn't want to hear any arguing, so with that, he knocked.

"Uh… come in, I guess."

He opened the door carefully. There stood the five interns in the huge room just behind the green screen.

"I would like to have a word with you five…" Arturo began as he placed the recorder on a nearby desk. "...about the incident."

The five interns all shared different glances and expressions with each other but nonetheless, they decided to comply. Ulysses grabbed six chairs from a huge stack behind him and handed a chair to each and every one of them to sit on.

The former soldier sighed and had a finger ready just by the record button. "This interview will be recorded for reference purposes. Do you understand?"

They all nodded in response to his statement.

"Very well." Arturo cleared his throat. "What happened and where were you all during the time of the incident? Based on a few of my findings from what I've heard, you all were present on the scene where Mr. Dela Rosa, or as you most likely know him as Mr. Shutape, had been murdered."

The interns all glanced at Ulysses to make the first move as he was the core reason why that happened.

"Yes, Mr. Smith?" Arturo eyed the bulky intern as he figured as well that he would go first.

"I… To be honest, I wasn't too sure of what had happened. I think I was… drunk."

Arturo jutted his chin in thought and nodded, this gave Ulysses the cue to continue even further.

"All I remembered was that… well… the first thing I saw was his botched up face… and… there was blood everywhere… it was so gruesome… at first I didn't even believe that I did that but… judging by the looks everyone gave me… it seemed like it." Ulysses explained before heaving a sigh as he was completely confused at that point.

The other four interns all had different reactions. Mara and Maya were clearly surprised about the whole thing while Dustin and Eden, who already knew what had happened, just stared at the floors without much emotion written on their faces.

Arturo has seen the differences of the reactions between the two pairs and have decided to try and interrogate them as to how and why they feel this way. "Ms. Garcia and Ms. Parker. I assume that you were with these three interns during the incident. May you explain why you two have no idea of this?"

"I… I passed out…" Mara quivered. "I remember Hah just taking us and locking us up on that room in the backstage of the auditorium… I guess I… well… hyperventilated and panicked so much that I passed out."

Maya slowly nodded. "Well, I could say that the same thing happened to me but the others keep on telling me that I was frozen during the entire time so… it kind of confused me because I don't think I remember either."

Dustin sneered at Maya. "Are you planning to lie again? You literally lied about different things last season and now you are going for that route again!"

"Hey mind you, I wasn't behind all of those lies! It was that poor excuse of an intern who Ulysses killed that hour! And before you call me a liar, why don't you examine yourself first about your knowledge of Hah?" Maya shot up.

"Enough!" Arturo commanded. "Ms. Parker, please do not stray away from the topic. Mr. Newton, please wait for your turn so that we will not have to record such unnecessary arguments!"

Everyone fell eerily quiet after Arturo had reprimanded them a bit. Since no one knew or figured out who was going to speak up next, Arturo let out a sigh.

"Ms. De Parsel, please let us know about your insights of this matter." the former soldier ordered towards Eden, who finally looked up at everyone after the quick dispute.

"Um… okay then." the agent let out a hesitant sigh, not knowing whether the words coming out of her mouth soon are going to be accurate enough. "Well… Hah really did a number on us back there… h-he almost held two of the contestants at gunpoint, shattered glass on Dustin's hand, and threw me in the walls." She slowly explained, glancing at Dustin's injured hand and the bruises on her arm every now and then. "Then all of a sudden, Ulysses shouted the word 'die' and just pounced on him like some kind of maniac beast… I… no offense to you, Ulysses and I understand that you were purely drunk that time but that look of fury in you is just so… disgustingly horrifying."

Ulysses scowled a bit at the agent's remark but not for too long and let it slide since he didn't know. And of course, he had no control over himself during that peak of the time so he decided to keep his mouth shut or else, he would jump into a second dispute like Maya and Dustin.

Arturo nodded and gave off another sigh of frustration, as he couldn't help but feel as if something was missing. "Did you get any more info about Mr. Shutape's intentions before his passing?"

"I… no." Ulysses hung his head in shame, thinking that he ended him right there, right now, and too soon. "I… argh, I shouldn't have killed him!" He shouted.

The raise of his voice caused himself to kneel onto the floor and began beating himself up by giving himself hard blows and punches… something similar to what he had pulled off with Hah earlier.

"STOP IT!" Mara cried and tried to get ahold of himself but Ulysses quickly gave her a hard punch on the mouth. This caused her lips to become swollen from the damage taken and also even bled a little. She gave up and quickly ran out of the room without even excusing herself.

Maya gasped and noticed the sudden move he made, so she grabbed his shoulders. "Hey, you stop that right there!" She yelled out to Ulysses but to no avail as he pushed her off to the side. Even Dustin and Eden tried to stop him, but the former only got his hand even more injured and the latter fell off to the side due to another strong push that the bulky intern gave.

Arturo quickly turned off the recording before he shouted.

"I ALREADY HAD SAID ENOUGH! DO YOU WANT TO TAKE THIS EVEN FURTHER!?"

At this rate, the bulky intern had stopped beating himself (and the others) up.

"I do not know if I have gathered information that would be enough but I will stop here before things get out of hand. Please, keep hold of yourselves together." He strictly said before quickly sauntering out of the room.

---

Recording Studio

He decided to enter back into the recording studio, assuming that Misha and Antoinette have already left. As he stepped into the said room, his assumptions were correct. The two girls have indeed already left and the only person seated on one of the chairs in the room was Evelyn.

"I assume that you have dismissed them already?"

"I did, sir. They were already calm enough to leave, they even thanked you sir for bringing everyone back together despite all of this happening." Evelyn answered with a nod.

"I'm glad." Arturo sighed as he pulled out the recorder. "Because the previous interview was… extremely off. I would actually like to request you to gather up the hosts so that we could see their side of the incident."

Evelyn quickly stood up and dusted her pants. "Yes sir, will do. Expect me to be back in about fifteen minutes."

"Very well."

As soon as Evelyn left, Arturo took the time to replay the recordings that he had recorded, the most recent one somehow bothering him since it even recorded the… disputes of some sorts as well as the fight.

It had been almost ten minutes since Evelyn left, but he wasn't annoyed at her. He even kept on repeating that part over and over again to try and get a clue of how and why a certain intern was acting like that. Maybe traumatic status? A mental disorder? He shrugged.

"Sir?"

His train of thought came quickly into a halt as he heard Evelyn's voice from behind. He immediately looked back to her with a look that wanted answers.

"They have requested that the interview be held in the clinic because of one's current condition."

Arturo nearly smacked himself on the forehead. "Oh, I almost forgot about that. Very well then, let's go."

The two left and made their way for the clinic.

When they got there, the first thing that they laid their eyes on was that Topher was on a hospital bed getting his leg treated. The rest of the hosts were sitting on the chairs nearby to keep him in company.

"Good morning everyone, we are here to interrogate about the incident." Evelyn greeted everyone as she took the initiative to speak up for the meanwhile.

Arturo eyed at them one by one. "But however, due to the circumstances, I think it's best if we interrogate only one of you as one is in a… not exactly critical, but not in a good condition. Maybe two if you would count Ms. Delamonca's neck injury."

"I'll do it." Chef quickly raised a hand to volunteer himself. Blaineley was about to do so as well but she let Chef do it instead. Don on the other hand, didn't really want to do it.

"Very well, Chef Hatchet." Arturo said politely as they all pulled out a chair to sit on while Arturo began the recording. "This interview will be recorded for future references. Now, since I believe that the core of the incident is where you were at along with your fellow co-hosts, may you please elaborate on what had happened on your side?"

"Well, first of all, I apologize if I may talk all over the place." Chef cleared his throat before starting his answer. "But mostly we were just ready to host the next challenge when Hah suddenly shows up right when Blaineley was about to look for Brea and Hah blurts everything from having robots outside to locking up Brea in the basement with a bomb. Then he held her at gunpoint but Topher took the bullet instead. After that, the stage somehow caught on fire because of the shattered electricity in the stage lights so we had to make a run for it, especially since there was a time limit on the bomb. Soon, we found out that some of the judges are dead and then it only made matters worse when the bomb actually exploded."

Arturo quickly stopped the recording, noticing how Chef looked uncomfortable each sentence passing by through his speech. "Thank you for elaborating, Chef Hatchet. I apologize if this interrogation made you feel a bit uncomfortable."

"Nah, it's good. I guess we'll be able to pass this eventually."

"That's good to hear." Arturo nodded, politely dismissing himself out of the room. He sighed as he fumbled around the recorder.

"Something the matter, sir?" Evelyn asked.

"I feel like we might have to interrogate one certain fellow again." the soldier said as he jutted his chin. "His answers were pretty off, but at the same time I wouldn't blame him if he doesn't want to."

"Should I bring him over at the recording studio for a second session of interrogation?"

"Yes. Yes, you may."

---

It didn't take long before the last interview would happen. Arturo jutted his chin in thought. He didn't know whether or not he should continue this interview, honestly. Evelyn was holding a clipboard and a pen to take down any notes needed, but is it necessary since only about a little of information has been revealed? And not to mention, the person being interviewed looked down, remembering everything that had just happened; even the memory was vivid enough to make it look real.

"Were you present during the time of Han Dela Rosa's death?" Arturo asked, reading by the clipboard Evelyn was holding.

Therion could barely even speak up. The visual pictures of the happenings burned his head like a bonfire in the middle of a campsite.

"Death… time… present… UGH!" Therion grunted as he clutched his head in pain. "All of it… all of it is just so gruesome! Like… like… we all know he deserved it, but… ugh…"

But something seemed… off.

"Wait…" Therion breathed in and out to regain his composure. "Who is Han Dela Rosa?"

Arturo cleared his throat. The former soldier managed to sit up from his armchair to look at Therion in the eyes. "Dela Rosa. He is the man whom Mr. Ulysses Smith had beaten up to death."

Therion was confused. "What? But… that can't be! His name is… his name is really pathetic… like Hah Shutape or something… but that can't seriously can't be it! Because then…"

Arturo raised an eyebrow. "Because then… what exactly?"

"He would be related to Rosa Dela Rosa." The gamer answered. "The head cameraman since the first season. It… this just makes no sense!"

He nearly slammed his head on the table in front of him, thoughts racing around his head. He felt like he would go crazy at this moment, and it would be the end of him if he did.

Arturo sighed and shook his head at this point. " I have not exactly told anyone yet that that is actually his birth name. You could be mistaken, however. Since Dela Rosa a fairly common surname."

"But what if that's the case though?" Therion asked, getting even more confused to the point where his head began to hurt. "Ugh… if you'll excuse me, I need to rest up for a moment."

"Very well, Mr. Suarez. You may be dismissed." Arturo nodded in understanding as he shut off the recorder, understanding that everyone had to rest up for the day.

---

Day 20, 8:00 AM

---

Director's Room

Knock knock!

"Come in." Don politely spoke, urging whoever was knocking behind the door to come in. The host didn't have anything much to do for the start of the day as he was reading some books to distract himself from the mess that had just happened, but he feared that whoever is knocking from the door will deliver him some news regarding the things that had just happened recently, which wasn't of help at all.

The door opened, revealing Therion looking… not so well. He had huge eye bags under his eyes from a lack of sleep. His hair was a complete mess. His face even looked puffed up. Perhaps that interview with Arturo the previous night did not help him either.

"...Oh dear, are you alright?" Don asked with concern on his face as Therion sat on a nearby chair.

"No." The gamer shook his head. "Ever since THAT happened, I haven't been getting any sleep. God… all of this is just so cruel and my mind has been all over the place these past few days!"

Don became even more worried that all of this has made a huge impact with the contestants left. "Uh… so… is there anything I could do to help?"

Therion shook his head. "No."

The host raised an eyebrow at the contestant's answer, not liking the path where this is going.

"I quit. But please… don't let anyone else know about this unless they ask."

This statement brought Don into a state of shock… well, almost. To him, it was completely understandable. It would be quite difficult for them to risk their mental health all for… whatever prize was on the line.

He hung his mouth open for ten good seconds before clearing his throat. "Well, that is understandable. I understand that your thoughts are in a train of frenzy right now, so I won't stop you."

Therion had a sigh of relief escape from his lips. "Just… please, again, don't let anyone know unless they ask."

Don slowly nodded at the teenager's wish. "Very well then…"

The gamer gave him a nod of approval, before quietly making his way out of the room, closing the door behind him.

This left Don alone in the room. He opened the drawer, and found a few files inside regarding the incident. How convenient, he thought. He then grabbed one file with a name on the top right corner: Han Dela Rosa, professionally known as Hah Shutape. He widened his eyes in horror and decided to put the file back inside the drawer, hoping no one else would see the file because there is a possibility that he could have been a relative of a certain cameraman who they have trusted for so long.

End of episode.

---

TOP 13 MERGED CONTESTANTS: Antoinette, Beatrice, Carter, Colin, Gordon, Lyle, May, Misha, Pierre, Rival, Ryder, Sami, Vanessa

---

ELIMINATION TABLE

30th: Mairead Charlotte Kavanagh (Code: MS5), The Preppy Socialite [4-4 tied vote; double elimination]

29th: ELV (Code: B4), The Emotionless One [4-4 tied vote; double elimination]

28th: Kimberly Hobbs (Code: S5), The Dreamer [3-3-2 tied vote; double elimination]

27th: Alexander Knight (Code: T1), The Wannabe Joker [3-3-2 tied vote; double elimination]

26th: Arabelle Meerer (Code: A1), The Big Ol' Meanie [Whole Rest]

25th: Nash Bobby Kent Jr. (Code: MT4), The Southern Cowboy [Whole Rest]

24th: Janice Alexandra Marlick (Code: S1), The Classy Dancer [Whole Rest/5-1 vote]

23rd: Oliver Greene (Code: T5), The Flirty Bad Boy [Time Signature]

~ Returned to the game: Lyle Ray ~

22nd: Adala Harris (Code: MS3), The Intense Improviser [Injury]

21st: Gabe Johnson (Code: B5), The Easy-Goer [10-0 vote]

20th: Robert Reeves (Code: MS5), The No Longer Displeased Idiot [Quit]

19th: Toxa Pexine (Code: S3), The Heartbreaking Punk [9-1 vote]

18th: Zackary Sanchez (Code: T3), The Loyal Helper [Time Signature]

~ Returned to the game: Antoinette Mirasol ~

17th: Arreis Smith (Code: A5), The Totally-Not-Sierra-In-Disguise [Challenge Placement]

16th: Sybil Van Tropé (Code: A4), The Intimidating Ingenue [Medical Concern]

15th: Miranda Lawrence (Code: A3), The Chilled Rebel [7-6 vote/Quarter Note]

14th: Therion Suarez (Code: MT3), The Introverted Gamer [Quit/Mental Health Concern]