Author's Note: Every time I post one of these chapters, I keep thinking… "There's no way I'm gonna break the word count after this one." The last two went further into the 9k word count, and I thought that would end up being the limit. This one's only gone and hit the 10k mark, easily making this the longest chapter that I've ever written. (Hooray for milestones!)
Also, I apologise in advance if one of the sections doesn't look so neat in this chapter, in preparation for the potential compfic sequel to this I want to try and add some confessionals into this. You'll see what I mean when it comes up in the chapter.
You'll also see a couple of more 'retcons' that I'm adding to this season, more so just for a little more interconnectivity between the two seasons, after all if something was never explained or explained poorly, then it should be okay to work more connections in as long as it doesn't contradict the original material.
That being said, I do have an important question about the whole 'canon compliant' part of this fic, which I have addressed at the end of this chapter. For now however, I hope you guys enjoy the latest chapter.
Reviews
Guest: Basically I'd written 'Not So Scary After All' back when we only had season one to go off, and back then a lot of people thought Primien was gonna be the season two ship, so I had a couple chapters where Damien and Priya showed some attraction to the other (mostly Damien). But obviously then Prileb happened, so this is more a throwaway line to explain why it changed.
So yeah pretty much Damien confessed in between seasons to Priya, but she realised she doesn't like him in the way she thought, but they're still good friends, and the reason why Lauren knows is because of her 'Normal Girl' shenanigans. That being said, if there was one thing I'd have broken the 'canon compliant' rule for, it'd be to replace Prileb with Primien.
As for your other question, the two people who can take on Lauren in a fight are Priya and Axel. Priya because of the training and Axel… well Lauren and Axel already fought in 'Not So Scary After All'.
MatiasND: The thing is with Chris is that ironically he'd have to help find Lauren, because he's still on thin ice with the whole Lawsuit from last season. But since no one knows that they ain't gonna tell him at all, but honestly the worst thing Chris can probably do is send Ezekiel back to the mainland.
Things are gonna get worse with Lauren unfortunately… both with her attempts at sabotage and her mental health…
Chapter Six
It had long since turned to night on the island, and everyone of the ten remaining contestants were back in the cabins, eating food in the Mess Hall or were otherwise preoccupied back at the campgrounds.
With the sixth contestant voted off the island and the episode for the day wrapped up, Chris and Chef had long since departed back to their trailers, and with no interns around the campsite either, it had left the confessional completely exposed…
The door was currently open, and inside the sounds of tampering could be heard with the confessionals camera. The camera was currently covered up by something so that whoever would end up reviewing the footage to edit for the episodes wouldn't be able to see them.
Not that Lauren was going to keep any footage of her from after the first day… she wouldn't allow herself to be exposed because some interns or possibly Chef Hatchet actually did their jobs for a change.
She smirked with satisfaction as she yanked free the wire that MK had used last season to connect the camera to her phone so she could download all of the confessionals onto her phone. It was a sneaky tactic that, for the thief had ultimately failed to pay off due to her overconfidence…
But the Scary Girl wasn't planning on revealing anything to anyone…
"Oh my… and MK made it out to be so hard when she bragged about it at the resort last season…" Lauren giggled creepily, her smirk unwavering. "But if even little ol' Lauren could do it after watching her 'friend' do it a few times… maybe she's not so special after all."
It also helped that she'd managed to pick up on several of the more underhanded tactics that several of the others did, things that Lauren had… 'researched' in between seasons in her quest to become normal…
After all several of the others had been quite strategic and underhanded last season, why wouldn't a 'Normal Girl' like Lauren have tried to do the same thing had she stayed longer. It wasn't like she would've been scary doing so… right?
She plugged the wire into her phone, and smiled widely in sadistic glee as she started to scroll through the videos recorded by the confessional over the last few hours. She'd download them all anyway so she'd have a complete idea of what had been going on on the island whilst she had been gone, but for now she decided to stick with the day that had just gone…
She needed the ideas for how she was going to proceed from here after all, especially once she found that immunity idol…
"What to do… what to do…" Lauren mused quietly, a small creepy smile on her face as she scrolled through some of them. "Oh there's just so many to choose from!" She grinned as she kept scrolling, seeing so many to choose from.
She thought for a few more moments then shrugged, just heading back up towards the most recently recorded confessionals, seeing the still images of the people that had recorded them.
"Oh well… I've got all night, I can wait for all of the potential gossiping and slander from the others! I wanna see who got voted off!" Lauren cackled as she tapped on a random video, the confessional beginning to play.
—CONFESSIONAL: ZEE—
"Caleb is just a big flirt machine…" Zee spoke nervously, groaning softly as he slouched over. "Aww man… Priya won't be happy when she figures it out…"
—CONFESSIONAL END—
Lauren blinked, confused for a moment as this wasn't what she was expecting, then her expression flickered for a moment between her usual crazed smile, to pure rage, to fear, then finally to a deviously gleeful expression.
"So I'm not the only person who knows about these two…" Lauren smirked, but then her expression fell slightly. "Too bad it's all revolving around 'Mr. Nice Guy'..." Lauren almost growled, still slightly pissed off with Caleb after his earlier comments with Priya when searching for the Idol.
Caleb didn't know it yet, but he was quickly joining Julia and Ripper on the top of Lauren's 'hitlist' for people to eliminate for her revenge, not that the others weren't on it, but they were the top priority…
"He's such an asshole for that… sure I wasn't supposed to hear it, but strict parents are still better than downright abusive ones…" Lauren grumbled angrily, the shock had since worn off so she wasn't in danger of another panic attack over it, but she was damn well sure about making sure he felt the same pain if he crossed the line again…
Lauren sighed softly, before her signature smile appeared on her face once more. "Well… this whole 'relationship drama' just got a whole lot more interesting, but I've got all night to find out more…" She reasoned to herself, before going slightly further up with the confessionals, actually finding the votes this time.
"Now let's see what happened here?" She giggled again, before pressing play on the first one, beginning to watch through each confessional one by one.
—CONFESSIONAL: ZEE—
Zee sighed again as he leaned against the wall. "Well… that whole cheating thing from this morning really bummed me out, and maybe Julia's telling the truth but… oh I dunno man!"
Zee hunched over again, head in his hands as he got more and more stressed. "I guess she could be right… I'm voting for Bowie…"
—CONFESSIONAL: WAYNE & RAJ—
Both Hockey Bros sat together, looking quite smug as they looked at each other, then towards the camera.
"Well, Bowie didn't win immunity which kinda sucked…" Raj began, slightly deflating before perking up again with a smirk. "But on the bright side, neither did Julia or MK!"
"So Bowie asked me and Rajie to help him finally get rid of Jules!" Wayne grinned, hitting his chest with pride.
Raj just rolled his eyes playfully at Wayne's enthusiasm before pointing at the camera with a smirk on his face. "Shouldn't have cheated Julia…"
—CONFESSIONAL: MK—
MK was sat clutching her face, her face having been injured from having to fight a bear during the last challenge as a punishment for all of the cheating.
"Ohh my face… this rots…" MK groaned, before glancing at the camera. "Julia said she has a plan to get rid of Bowie… for both of our sakes, let's hope her plan works for a change…" She grinned with a small smirk and the slightest blush on her face, before groaning again from the pain.
—CONFESSIONAL: CALEB—
Caleb sat looking quite confident in himself.
"This alliance with Priya is going so smoothly, and who knows what it could turn into…" Caleb smiled to himself for a moment, before addressing the camera coolly once more, albeit with a small glare. "I'm not too sure about Julia's claims regarding the cheating… but between what Bowie did to me last season, and the whole thing with trying to ruin Priya and Millie's friendship, I'm not against going along with it!"
His glare hardened for a moment with a small smirk appearing on his face. "Nothing personal Bowie, you're just too big of a threat."
—CONFESSIONAL: RIPPER & AXEL—
Both Ripper and Axel were just passionately making out in the confessional for a few moments, before separating reluctantly.
"I won't tolerate cheats, so MK is going down…" Axel growled softly, before glaring at Ripper. "Right… Ripper?"
Ripper nodded nervously, a little scared to tell her that he had known about it and didn't stop them once. "Right… yeah… of course babe!"
Axel smirked. "Good…"
She pounced on him and they began making out again.
—CONFESSIONAL END—
Lauren had to stop watching the confessionals for a few moments, blinking before doing a double take at what she'd just witnessed.
"Seriously… what the hell went on while I was gone for… that to happen?" Lauren muttered quietly, shocked out of her scary persona for a second, before shaking her head. "Ugh… never mind…"
She smiled again and tried her best to ignore that last confessional, continuing to watch the rest of the votes.
—CONFESSIONAL: DAMIEN—
Damien looked excited as he sat down in the confessional.
"Man, I still can't believe that I won the last challenge." He smiled, genuinely shocked at his own achievement. "Maybe I am better than I thought I was…"
He then frowned slightly. "Anyway… Julia told us that Bowie was the person behind the whole cheating thing. I'm not sure if I believe her… but I remember what happened last season with Bowie."
Damien glared. "That was NOT cool of you! But then… we might not get another chance to split up the other two…"
He sighs. "I'm voting for MK… we've gotta split her and Julia up, otherwise they'll just pick us off"
—CONFESSIONAL: BOWIE—
Bowie looked a little nervous as he sat down in the confessional, but then put on a confident smirk as he looked into the camera.
"So I didn't win the challenge… on the plus side, neither did Julia." He put his hands on his hips and laughed.
"Surely the others remember how much of a threat she was last season…" He finished, and just before the camera cut out his expression fell back into that nervous one.
—CONFESSIONAL: PRIYA—
Priya looked giddy as she sat in the confessional, playing with the flower that Caleb had planted in her hair.
She giggled again, before speaking happily. "Caleb is soo sweet! I really can't wait to be able to confess to him!" She squealed again, before pausing and blushing in shock. "Confess that I totally do NOT like him!"
She slapped her forehead hard. "Gah! This is exactly what my parents warned me about with this show!"
She shook her head and addressed the camera. "Oh! The vote. Um… well I'm not too sure about Julia's claims… but…" Priya suddenly glared harshly at the camera. "Don't think I haven't forgotten about last season Bowie! Julia may be a heartless person, but at least she didn't try and ruin my friendship with Millie! You're so going down!"
—CONFESSIONAL: JULIA & MK—
MK was back in the confessional, however this time she was sat on the right side of the confessional, with a smug looking Julia sat to her left, albeit Julia's face was marked with a busted up nose.
Not that the influencer seemed to care that much, staring smugly into the camera as MK looked at her whilst resisting the urge to clutch her face again.
"I told the Rat Faces it was Bowie's idea to cheat with the intern costume…" Julia proclaimed smugly as MK stared into the camera.
"I can't feel my face…" MK muttered towards it before groaning softly, clutching her injuries once more, not noticing the brief look of concern on Julia's face before she regained her composure and smirked at the camera.
"Sure I didn't get Axel's vote… but between our votes, and the four other Rat Faces votes. We have six total, more than enough to send Bowie packing!" Julia proclaimed before chuckling to herself. "And even then, I doubt Bowie, the two Hockey losers, Ripper and Axel have all voted for the same person. So I think we have leeway!"
MK just groaned again, but gave her a thumbs up. "You're right, you did get better at strategizing during the break between seasons…"
"I know… I'm the best…" Julia smirked, holding a hand to her chest in a mixture of confidence and genuine appreciation for MK's compliment.
—CONFESSIONAL END—
Lauren finally stopped the confessionals, a small smirk on her face as she processed everything that she had just watched.
"So another one of my 'precious' former teammates have finally been sent home have they…" Lauren giggled creepily to herself. "Good… Bowie was such a jerk, and after I tried being so nice to him when he picked me to be on his team." She giggled again, unaware that it was only because she had been creeping him out when she was trying to be a 'Normal Girl'.
A ping went off on her phone shortly afterwards, indicating that all of the videos had finished downloading onto Lauren's phone. She smirked gleefully, using the phone to delete the recordings of her infiltrating the camera, altering the footage of the last several minutes to show a repeated loop of an empty confessional, before setting the 'live recording' to restart once the video ended in the next few minutes.
It gave her just enough time to unplug her phone and reconnect the wires she'd disconnected in order to hijack the confessional, and she finally tore off the piece of paper that she'd used to block off the camera before closing the door, just as the 'live footage' of the confessional kicked back in.
Lauren gleefully skipped back into the forest, she was happy with her new discoveries, and she was going to take great enjoyment in watching through everything else. Most importantly, how Zee knew about this apparent secret that involves Caleb and Priya…
And how she would end up twisting it to her advantage…
*Around an hour earlier*
"Ugh… finally… any longer and I swear my hand was gonna get cramped up…" Bowie muttered in annoyance and slight pain, nursing his wrist that had been clamped by the Drone of Despair as he was brought along to the Playa Des Losers following his sudden elimination.
Not that he could blame any of the others who had voted him off, he knew he was a viable threat, especially after almost winning the previous season and after everything he had done across both seasons.
That being said, it didn't make him any less annoyed about the fact that he had lost, and the fact that Julia and MK were both right there alongside him just ready and waiting to be voted off…
It didn't make sense as to how he was picked over them? Sure he still had people angry at him for the whole 'trying to tear apart Millie and Priya's friendship' thing from the finale last season, but that was just strategy to him, he wouldn't have done it if there wasn't a legitimate chance that the girls wouldn't have just ganged up on him during that lava challenge.
And he'd technically done nothing wrong this season? Well… there was the whole 'cheating' thing, but that was Julia and MK's idea in the first place, he only allowed it to happen, and even then surely between Julia, MK and even Ripper, there were plenty of problematic contestants that Bowie was sure would go before him.
He ignored the fact that he had willingly allowed the cheating during the glass panels challenge just because Wayne and Raj wouldn't notice. Nor the fact that he had allowed the cheating in the other two challenges until Raj had gotten too upset over it…
Bowie sighed softly as he began the walk up to the resort's entrance, slightly confused by the lack of the other contestants around. While he wasn't around the resort last season due to making it to the end, didn't Raj say that everyone came out to greet the eliminated contestant each night?
"You'd think after all of the breaches in security that they'd enforce at least some rules?" Bowie muttered to himself, pulling the tissue out of his pocket that Raj had given him as a distraction.
"Oh Raj… you better win this stupid competition for us…" Bowie said sadly as he held the snot covered tissue, thankful that it had dried up before it could potentially get all over his clothes. It was a disgusting gift to remember his boyfriend by whilst he was still competing, but it was a gift from Raj, so Bowie would treasure it regardless…
"Actually… If Raj doesn't win… I hope at least the other lovable idiot wins…" He continued, now briefly thinking about the other Hockey Bro. Bowie wasn't nearly as close to Wayne as either of them were to Raj, however Wayne had been one of the only contestants to stick by him after the whole 'Millie and Priya' incident, so he'd be damned if he didn't at least give Wayne some support for the competition. Even if when it came down to it he'd choose Raj over Wayne every single time in the finale.
As Bowie got closer to the front doors, he could hear the sounds of laughter and chatter from within the doors. He narrowed his eyes with a small smirk as he stepped up, pushing both doors wide open and strutting inside as though he owned the place.
"Your king has…" He started to greet, glancing around at what he thought would only be the other four eliminated contestants at the resort, Lauren obviously being the absentee due to her current MIA status. His greeting however trailed off, and his eyes could only widen in surprise at not one, but TWO of the older contestants just casually sat on the couches with the other four.
"Oh, hey Bowie." Ezekiel greeted back, waving at him from his position sitting next to Emma. With Millie and Chase sat on the opposite couch, Owen taking up his own on the third next to Zeke and Emma with a grumpy looking Nichelle sat opposite him.
"WHAT!" Emma looked over in shock, immediately rushing over to Bowie and grabbing the hand not holding Raj's… present…
"Y-Your team voted YOU off! When Julia was right there!" Emma continued shouting, leading him over to sit next to her and Ezekiel on the couch.
Bowie sighed as he sat down, looking around at everyone before his eyes landed on the two first gen contestants.
"Before I explain… Can someone tell me why these two are here?" Bowie asked, pointing at Ezekiel and Owen.
"The big guy's apparently a judge for tomorrow's challenge… and Scary Girl's boyfriend is, well… here for Scary Girl…" Nichelle grumbled out, pointing at Owen and then Ezekiel, the latter of which just nodded in agreement as the former ate some more food from his bag.
"Huh… so it's really that bad now huh?" Bowie responded, before glancing at the Prairie Boy once more. "Does that mean she's around here somewhere? Or should I text Raj to keep an eye out during tomorrow's challenge?"
"I mean… I can relay a message if it helps?" Owen offered, smiling happily just at the thought of catching up with all of the others, knowing that he'd have to play it off as not having met any of them whilst on camera. "At the very least I can get an idea of if she's around the main island…"
"God I hope so… as much as I'd not want to risk encountering Chris, better him than the mutants in the 'Fun Zone'…" Ezekiel shuddered, not wanting to risk an encounter with anything in that part of Boney Island.
"Can we get back to the interesting part, I wanna hear how Bowie got kicked off." Chase dismissed Ezekiel's concerns, smiling at Bowie like they were old friends, not noticing how annoyed both Bowie and Emma were at the mere interruption.
Bowie sighed. "Fine…" He muttered, rolling his eyes as he began to explain. "Well for starters the teams had already merged…"
"WHAT!" All four of the other eliminated contestants in the room shouted at once, even Nichelle had spoken up here, the fact that the merge was so early had lit a fire in her eyes.
"Are you kidding me! After only five of us had been kicked off!" Nichelle shouted angrily, and no one could tell whether she was angry at Bowie or herself. "So if I hadn't fallen for that fake contract that was left on my bed! I'd have made the merge!"
"Hey, at least you're not the only person who failed twice from our cast." Chase grinned, unaware of how annoyed Nichelle was getting. "You get to share that honour with our resident Scary Girl after all."
"SHUT IT CHASE!" Both Nichelle and Ezekiel glared at him, the former not appreciating the reminder of both of her early exits whilst the latter took offence at the verbal jab towards the absent Lauren.
Bowie glanced at them for a moment, then smirked as he realised a certain piece of information that the former star would be so angry to hear about.
"About that Nichelle… I know who put that contract there." He said almost mockingly, watching as her face snapped over to him, her anger giving away to curiosity for a moment.
"Who did it?" Nichelle responded, her expression darkening as a small grin made its way onto her face. "Who's ass am I gonna kick once I get my hands on them?"
Bowie smirked in return. "Well a certain blonde that we both disliked bragged this morning about tricking a certain member of the opposite team into quitting."
Nichelle's eyes narrowed as she stood up. "Julia! I knew she had something to do with it!" She shouted angrily. "Was this because I insulted her yesterday morning!"
Bowie shrugged. "Something like that… she's a little petty like that, you know. She probably took me out for the same reason tonight."
"So wait… Julia won the challenge then? And everyone other than you and probably the Hockey Bros voted you off?" Emma asked, making the assumption that Julia must have won the challenge, especially considering that was her only way of survival during their previous season.
Bowie's eye twitched for a moment at the memory of who actually won the challenge, and sighed. "Surprisingly… No. The challenge was essentially a tournament on the lake, we were split into pairs and had to knock each other off canoes. The last person left was the winner, and I unfortunately lost in the final round…" He explained, sounding slightly bitter.
"Okay, so if it wasn't Julia… Priya?" Millie guessed.
"Nah surely it was Axel? Girl's built for challenges like this." Nichelle responded, a small smile making its way onto her face.
"But Caleb's so muscular? Surely he'd have wiped the floor with everyone." Chase added.
Ezekiel thought for a moment, then added his own guess. "Maybe one of the Hockey Bros eh?"
Owen just shrugged. "I dunno… Ripper maybe?"
Bowie just sighed as they listed off every candidate that they thought would have bested him in the challenge, then grumbled to himself, the truth being infinitely more embarrassing than any of those guesses.
"Damien…" He muttered, none of them hearing him at first.
"What was that bro?" Chase questioned, a small smirk on his face.
"It was Damien… somehow he beat Zee, Julia and myself to win immunity." Bowie explained, still in shock himself from the results of the challenge.
"Wait! WHAT!" Everyone else replied in shock, apart from Owen who just shrugged, knowing Damien the least so this didn't sound so surprising to him.
"Huh… actually I can kinda see it?" Ezekiel muttered to himself with a small smile.
"I can't… but maybe if he did something like with the raptors last season?" Millie responded, a little more on the fence about the revelation of Damien winning the last challenge.
"So… how did he win it?" Emma asked.
"Honestly… a mixture of overconfidence from me and Julia, and Damien just flailing around and screaming." Bowie admitted.
"O-Oh… y-yeah… I kinda see how he won now…" Millie deflated slightly, having hoped that maybe Damien had been able to recover enough from the whole 'slide incident' that he wouldn't be so afraid of everything.
"Yeah… maybe I should train him up after the season ends…" Nichelle mused to herself, wanting to repay the act that Axel did for her after her season one elimination by helping her friend Damien overcome some of his fears.
"So… how'd you get voted off then if Julia was also not immune?" Emma asked.
"Well I know myself, Wayne and Raj all voted for Julia, Julia and MK will have voted for me, and Axel will have likely voted for MK considering MK got caught cheating in the challenges." Bowie explained.
"I KNEW IT!" Emma snapped, looking extremely pissed off, and despite not being directed at Bowie she still glared at him, knowing that of the three eliminated Skunk Butt members he was the only one who could've possibly been involved in the cheating. Chase had only sabotaged himself this season and Lauren had been voted off too early for any sort of cheating shenanigans.
"Yeah… that's another thing I forgot to mention." Bowie admitted somewhat sheepishly, not wanting to admit that he'd allowed them to cheat in those challenges, and even took part in it himself. "MK and Julia had been cheating in the challenges by having MK infiltrate meetings dressed as an intern. So uh… Millie, Emma, Nichelle… your eliminations are all partially their fault…"
This only made Emma and Nichelle angrier, whilst Millie just sighed, she didn't exactly deserve to stay in the game anyway after what had happened with Damien and the four point slide.
"Well… at least that explains the rotten luck our team seemed to have…" Millie rationalised.
"But that still doesn't explain the votes eh? You've explained six of them, but what about the others?" Ezekiel asked, trying to figure it out for himself.
"Well… Ripper will have voted with his girlfriend…" Bowie began, before being cut off.
"WHAT!" Everyone else shouted, apart from Nichelle who groaned knowingly.
Bowie just looked confused at Nichelle. "You didn't tell them about Ripper and Axel?"
Nichelle just shrugged in response. "Honestly, between believing that I'd been given a new series of films to start in, and the revelation afterwards that I'd been lied to… it slipped my mind."
"Ripper… and Axel? But wait? Didn't they hate each other?" Ezekiel questioned, from what he remembered about their interactions from the resort last season, Ripper had been the only person Axel hated more than both himself and Lauren after that fight.
"They did, but apparently all it takes is to write a cheesy poem and it melted the ice around Axel's heart." Bowie responded, unsure himself as to how Ripper had managed to pull it off.
Nichelle however visibly gagged. "Ugh, don't remind me… I was actually there for that and it sucked! My cousins in the second grade and SHE could write a better love poem than Ripper…"
"Aww come on guys, he can't have been THAT bad…" Chase jumped in, trying to defend his best friend on the island.
"Trust me Chase… it was that bad." Nichelle replied dryly. "You'll see what I mean when the episode eventually airs. And Emma, be glad you missed it, it happened right after you left…"
Emma raised an eyebrow in confusion at that, but didn't question it further. Instead she looked back at Bowie, wanting to hear what happened to get him eliminated.
"We done… okay! As I was saying, Ripper will have voted MK alongside Axel. Which means at least two of Priya, Damien, Caleb and Zee had to have voted for me, with none of them voting Julia or MK." Bowie revealed. "But honestly I think they just saw the chance to get rid of me and took it, especially considering they were still mad at me for what happened with the notebook."
"Odds on Julia somehow convincing them?" Nichelle grumbled.
Bowie sighed. "High… they're surprisingly high considering everyone should know how much of a snake she is?"
Ezekiel yawned, then nodded in agreement. "She really is like the second coming of Heather eh."
Emma smirked in response. "I dunno Zeke… Wasn't Heather actually good at strategizing sometimes? All Julia could do last season was win challenges, Bowie was the actual strategist last season whilst none of Julia's plans actually worked out, she's closer to Courtney or Mal than anything else…"
They all shared a laugh once more at this, until Ezekiel yawned again, getting up and stretching slightly.
"Something wrong Homeschool?" Bowie asked him, raising an eyebrow since it wasn't THAT late into the evening.
"Tired… mostly…" Ezekiel yawned again. "I slept at the docks last night… think I need an actual bed eh?"
He'd leave out the part where he'd spent a considerable amount of the day after having caught up with the others cleaning up the debris Lauren had left behind in her… no… their room.
"Fair enough…" Bowie shrugged.
"See you tomorrow Zeke!" Emma waved politely as Ezekiel smiled and waved goodbye back at everyone else, and he quickly ascended the stairs to the residential wing. Leaving the other six occupants of the resort to their own devices.
Ezekiel yawned softly once more as he walked into the now mostly cleaned up room, some of the destroyed furniture now being replaced by the bags that he had brought to the resort with him, the vase that had been on the bedside table before being replaced by the decorated skull that Ezekiel had brought with him back to the island.
For once, Ezekiel's thoughts weren't clouded by worry for where his girlfriend would be, although they were definitely still there. Instead he just drifted off into a dreamless sleep, the skull being his only company…
*The next morning*
Lauren peeked out from the bushes, staring off past the beach into the lake, where she could see a small wooden barge in the middle of the lake that, like with the iceberg the other day, hadn't been there the last time she had looked out across the lake.
"Is that for the next challenge?" Lauren blinked slowly, before smirking sadistically holding out a bag full of 'goodies' that she'd… acquired… from the craft and services tent on the way to the beach. "Interesting… Let's see what we can find… and maybe… what we can add!"
She noticed one of the boats still yet to be moved over to join the other boats at the barge, despite the lack of people actually on the small wooden platform. She grinned once more, glancing around at the surrounding area in order to see if anyone else was in the vicinity.
When it turned out that there wasn't, Lauren hoisted the bag of 'goodies' onto her back with no hesitation and booked it for the boat. Jumping in and dumping the bag onto the boat, barely paying attention to the other bags that were already sitting in the boat.
She started the engine quickly, and took off for the wooden platform, making it there in less than a minute. She made sure to park it similarly to the other boats in case anyone passed by the beach, just so it'd look a little less suspicious, and she quickly hopped off the boat and onto the wooden platform with what she thought was her bag of 'goodies'.
Just when she was about to dump everything onto the ground however, that was when she noticed that it was actually a bag of flour, and not the items she had brought with her.
"What the?" She questioned, throwing the bag to one side and glancing back at the boat where, alongside the bag that she had brought with her was a bunch of other bags containing different food ingredients.
"It's all food ingredients… aww…" Lauren sulked for a moment, kicking one of the bags of flour that were already scattered around the platform.
"So I came all this way with a bag of weapons for what's going to be a cooking challenge? Lame…" She sighed to herself. "And here I thought they were doing something fun! Like a Hunger Games challenge!" She smirked, but then sighed, quickly dumping the other bags, including her bag onto the platform.
Maybe she was wrong and that some of the bags did have traps in them, but to her dismay, only the stuff she had brought was actually dangerous…
"Darn… well… I suppose I could just leave this pointy little trident here? No one would actually use it right?" She giggled, placing it somewhere discreet, but not too hidden, wanting more so to give off the illusion that there was more to this barge than meets the eye.
She also left a couple of other… surprises, before finally pulling out the last bag, a bow and arrow.
She sighed quietly, the archery kit reminding her of Ezekiel once more, knowing how he'd started to attempt to pick up on his skills once more after he'd finally been able to go home after last season, before shaking her head in an attempt to shake off those thoughts once more.
"Surely no one would use this either… I'll just leave it in the bag…" She tossed the bag with the bow into the pile of bags, before sitting down for a moment.
It was still early into the morning when she had arrived here, so there would be plenty of time for her to search for the immunity idol today, even before the other contestants would be out looking for it.
So Lauren decided to take a small breather before heading back onto the island, wanting to mentally go over some of the plans brewing in her head regarding the other contestants, after having spent a couple of hours going through the confessionals that she had downloaded onto her phone the previous night.
And frankly, she was both shocked and pleased with some of the things that she had discovered in regards to a certain 'couple' that was brewing up. Priya loved Caleb? But Caleb seemed to be using her just for an alliance?
The more Lauren heard about their situationship, the more she hated it. She wasn't about to be the person who tried to tell Priya who she could or couldn't date, but all the signs seemed to be there for him just blatantly using her…
And the worst part of it all… Zee seemed to know both sides, and the poor guy was now stuck in between both of them, struggling to keep a secret in regards to this. On one hand, not wanting to tell Caleb that Priya was obviously crushing on him, and on the other, not wanting to tell Priya that Caleb was just using her.
Admittedly, some of the last confessionals did start to paint a slightly different picture about Caleb's half of the story, but in Lauren's eyes it was irrelevant. He was using her 'friend', and it only served to put Caleb further up Lauren's hitlist…
Something she was going to be so happy to put into action the next chance she got…
During her 'research' in between seasons, Lauren had discovered a lot of different things about the other contestants from her cast, things that they would prefer to keep a secret from everyone else.
Every. Single. One.
Even Chris and Chef weren't immune to this, having been told their stuff specifically by Ezekiel in an attempt to spite his ex-tormentors, albeit Ezekiel did seem to feel a little guilty when it came to Chef's calf implants.
Although she had to admit, she'd not expected some of the dark secrets that he'd revealed to her about Chris, especially regarding that mutant flytrap that she faintly recalled seeing once back when her and Ezekiel had gone on their little adventure into 'The Fun Zone' back when they were just getting to know each other.
She never recalled seeing a plant that vaguely looked like Chris in the Fun Zone, but she trusted Ezekiel's word for it, and it was only proven right when they had ended up rewatching Total Drama All Stars in between seasons, but even for someone as disturbed and as crazy as her, doing things like 'that' to a plant was just way too far…
Chris was somehow even more of a freak than what people made HER out to be… although Lauren rationalised it as Chris being a different type of 'freak' compared to her. She was just scary and sometimes crazy, he was… well… Chris…
Lauren shook her head in order to take her mind off that particular thought, and refocused her attention back on the original trail of thought she had, that being how she was going to utilise these secrets.
Whilst she already knew about Zee's bad reputation when it came to keeping secrets from her time stalking him in between seasons, she had never actually seen it being applied to a situation until now. So seeing him in his confessions actively looking stressed out at the mere thought of having to protect the truth about Caleb's 'feelings' towards Priya was making her excited.
She knew how to not only get rid of Caleb… but how to get revenge on everyone else on the island…
All she had to do was take a gamble in regards to herself, and reveal herself to Zee when he was alone. Then tell him all these secrets that she'd found out about the others before he could reveal to the others that she was on the island…
No one would believe it if he said it after he revealed all of their secrets after all, they'd just think that he was trying to cover his tracks after embarrassing everyone on international TV…
Before Lauren could scheme any further, she noticed movement coming from the beach, seeing three interns moving what looked to be cooking appliances onto the beach, presumably for the ingredients that were currently on the wooden barge with her.
She took advantage of the fact that none of them had noticed her, and dived into the water, beginning to swim back towards the island whilst keeping her distance from where the interns were.
Besides… she had an immunity idol to find before she moved on with any of her other plans… although if she managed to catch Zee alone as she did so, that wouldn't be a bad thing either.
*Around the same time*
"So uh… what exactly is your plan for this whole 'Lauren situation'?" Owen asked Ezekiel, as all seven of the resort's occupants were sitting in the resort's dining area, having just finished their breakfasts for the most part.
The sole exception to this being Owen himself, who still had a rather large stack of pancakes doused in maple syrup, all still waiting to be devoured by the big guy. Owen stabbed into them with his fork, the syrup sticking them together enough in order to be all picked up at the same time, and the entire stack was quickly engulfed in one huge bite.
A majority of the newer cast, namely Bowie and Millie shuddered, not having gotten used to the larger man's eating habits.
"Ugh, and I thought Ripper was bad…" Bowie muttered quietly to himself.
"This is almost as gross as the time Axel brought that squirrel meat into camp…" Millie agreed, much to Chase's discomfort.
"Oh god don't remind me!" Chase whimpered slightly, his stomach churning at the mere reminder of that day, how Zee and Lauren had managed to eat that he'd never know…
Ezekiel seemed to be the only person completely unfazed, and just replied to Owen's question like nothing had happened.
"Well, once you've been taken to the island, I think I'm gonna try and explore this entire island, just to make sure that Lauren isn't just playing mind games on us and is just in the nearby forest." Ezekiel explained his plan.
"And if she isn't?" Nichelle asked him.
Ezekiel seemed to deflate slightly at this, and sighed sadly. "...then I might need to find a boat or something to get to Boney Island… or even the main island if it turns out she's there…"
Owen swallowed the stack of pancakes that he had been chewing on, then turned to the Prairie Boy with a concerned look on his face.
"Hey Zeke? Are you sure you don't want me to call Izzy to see if she and the others could help you find her?" Owen asked softly, knowing that at the very least Izzy and Dawn would want to help out their friends, especially Dawn since it was looking more and more clear that at least one of the couple was breaking down mentally over this.
Ezekiel closed his tired eyes for a moment and shook his head, a soft smile on his face as he opened his eyes to look at Owen.
"I appreciate the offer Owen… but I can't accept it…" Ezekiel replied slowly, the look in his eyes getting slightly sadder. "I don't wanna risk Chris taking it out on everyone if he finds out that I'm back here… plus… I think I'd be the only person she'd listen to anyway…"
Most of the others exchanged confused but concerned looks at each other, but Bowie instead pondered on this, and quickly voiced his opinion on the matter.
"Because the rest of us shunned her for her attempt at being 'normal'? She probably isn't too happy with any of us, even though it was the whole 'stalking' thing that got her booted." Bowie reasoned, looking at Ezekiel with a small frown.
"I mean… if the room she'd trashed is any indication, then she's at the very least furious with herself." Millie added, remembering how damaged the room was before Ezekiel had arrived, at least now that he was using the room, it meant that the damage that had been done by Lauren had been cleared up. There were things missing that couldn't be replaced, however at least the hotel room was now liveable, and it wasn't like Ezekiel spent much time there other than to sleep or to shower.
Ezekiel just sat there and listened for a moment as the others kept bringing things up that indicated Lauren's current mental state when it came to the cast, and soon enough he had to intervene.
"Look! I get it… she's upset, she's probably pissed off, and I know that to some degree it's getting slightly concerning for everyone involved…" Ezekiel said, before sighing. "But… I need to be the one to help her… you guys don't know her the way I do… and she may not appreciate it if say, Millie or Emma found her and spilled things that could make things worse…"
"You mean… about her home life?" Emma asked nervously. "Or about the 'normal' stuff?"
"Both I suppose…" Ezekiel admitted softly, a sad look in his eyes. "You guys weren't supposed to find out about the situation with her parents until she was ready… and the whole 'becoming normal' thing was just the consequences of that…"
Ezekiel sighed again before continuing. "I'm just worried that the longer she's missing, the worse she's gonna get… But to be honest, there's an almost irrational thought that keeps creeping into my mind, one that's making me more worried than I should be."
The last part was the most concerning, and for a moment no one wanted to be the person who asked the question. But eventually, one of them did.
"What do you mean?" Owen asked softly, having an idea as to what this would be about. There was only one other case of something like this happening after all.
Ezekiel looked up at the others, a dark look in his saddened eyes. "I'm worried that, if things get bad enough, she could become something like I had become back on the plane…"
Everyone else gasped, having seen at least images of what Ezekiel had been like when he was feral, and for most of them they'd seen how deteriorated his appearance had been the last time he was at the resort. Even Bowie and Millie who'd only seen Ezekiel's feral state in person when the cure to his mutation was already beginning to heal his battered body knew of the sorry state that Ezekiel had been left in for years.
"I know it's stupid… plus for all we know she could come back today and be totally fine… but…" Ezekiel sighed again, tears forming in the corners of his eyes. "What if she doesn't come back… even after the show ends… a small part of me keeps thinking that, when we eventually find her… she'll have become the same monster that I was…"
Everyone was shocked into silence by the admission that Ezekiel had about his worst fears, to the point where even the snarky people in the group like Chase and Bowie were stunned.
The worst part was, no one could exactly blame him for feeling like this… the events of World Tour had deeply scarred Ezekiel, all because he'd refused to leave when he should have, wanting retribution for his early elimination, and now here he was almost five years later, with the exact same events seemingly unfolding with the person he cared the most about.
There were of course different circumstances, but the issue remained the same, Lauren was isolated with thoughts of revenge consuming her mind, likely living amongst the animals in order to avoid being found by Chris or anyone else on the island, and that was assuming that Lauren was on that island…
"I just wish she'd call back, you know…" Ezekiel continued quietly, his tears now streaming slowly down his face. "I'm so scared right now… and I'd do anything just to hear that creepily adorable laugh of hers…"
This comment made some of the others exchange nervous glances, knowing that Scary Girl's laugh was anything but adorable in their honest opinions. But no one was exactly gonna make the snarky response to that when they knew that Ezekiel was clearly going through a rough time with her disappearance.
The only person who seemed to not care about his comment was Emma, who just gently started rubbing Ezekiel's back comfortingly, trying to silently reassure him that things were going to end up fine, that Lauren would be found before anything awful happened.
It was in the middle of this moment that Owen's phone started to go off, and he took one look at it before he got up slowly, glancing towards the exit of the dining room.
"Well… looks like they're almost here for me…" He chuckled, still concerned about Ezekiel but knowing that he couldn't allow that to show on his face when he made his way to the island. "I'll uh… probably be back before whoever gets voted off next will be?"
"Good luck Owen! Say hi to the others for us!" Emma waved with her free hand, still trying to soothe the sobbing Ezekiel with the other one.
"And try to make sure that Wayne and Raj don't hurt each other in my absence." Bowie snarked, although the soft smile on his face indicated a more warm opinion of the Hockey Bros, his boyfriend in particular.
Owen just chuckled again in response as he walked towards the door, stopping just as he was opening it to leave. "I will guys… and Ezekiel?"
Ezekiel looked up slowly at him, noticing the soft smile on Owen's face. "Y-Yeah…?"
Owen grinned and nodded at him. "We'll make sure she's okay if we see her… okay?"
Ezekiel stared for a moment, then nodded softly, a weak smile on his face. "R-Right…"
Owen nodded again, saying his goodbyes to the others, before walking out of the dining room. He walked through the hallways until he found himself back in the main entrance to the resort, where the same intern that had brought Owen and Ezekiel to the resort was standing by the doors waiting for him.
The intern looked up when he heard the giant approaching and sighed in slight relief. "Oh good, you're here earlier than I thought."
Owen smiled and nodded, and the pair headed towards the boat parked on the dock, where another intern could be seen keeping the engine running.
"We're gonna be driving you to the beach where the challenge will be starting soon… I'm supposed to be debriefing you on what to do to 'introduce yourself on the cameras'..." The intern rolled his eyes at the last part, clearly thinking it was some sort of joke by Chris.
"So uh… waiting for a signal and making an entrance for the cameras?" Owen guessed as they made it to the dock.
"Exactly!" The intern smiled. "Basically you just wait off camera further down the beach until you hear the signal about the 'special guest', and you run towards them whilst doing your own thing."
Owen thought for a moment, then grinned and nodded. "I can do that."
"Perfect, makes my job a lot easier…" The intern grinned, glad that Owen picked up on it quickly.
The pair made it to the boat as the second intern, a female one, smiled and waved at Owen as they boarded. The moment everyone was secured, and the hatch was closed, the boat set off for the main island.
Owen's official return to the show was almost ready…
"Come on… where is it!" Lauren muttered to herself, searching through another tree.
Ever since she'd made her way back to land, she'd retreated back into the forest in order to try and find that elusive immunity idol. But no matter how hard she looked, the Scary Girl was just unable to find it…
Not that she wasn't the only person on the island currently out in the woods searching for it, even if she was the only one who wasn't currently still competing for the million dollars. But Lauren had seen a few of the others out in the woods already.
She nearly had a close call already with Axel, who whilst searching for the immunity idol with Ripper was also showing him how to hunt for food. And whilst most of their other moments that Lauren had witnessed were kinda gross in Lauren's eyes…
For a moment, seeing Ripper genuinely take an interest in Axel's hobbies…
It was kinda sweet to her, even reminding her of how Ezekiel had taken an interest in her lifestyle even though they were basically opposites…
That being said, Lauren still made sure to leave swiftly before any of those said disgusting moments could rear their head in front of her, she needed some form of innocence to stay in her mind when it came to Axel and Ripper, otherwise she'd only be reminded of the 'ick' whenever she'd try to scare one of them in the future.
Lauren hadn't seen Damien, Zee or the Hockey Bros yet, however from what she had seen in the confessionals that she'd downloaded, the Hockey Bros were probably off doing their own thing.
And she had only briefly heard both Priya and Caleb, peeking up from the top of a tree just in time to see Caleb fall off a cliff because of a snapped branch, with Priya screaming his name and diving off the cliff in order to try and catch him.
She'd also caught sight of Julia and MK in the distance in a nearby clearing, and whilst she had only briefly heard a couple of the comments that the pair had made during their own search for the idol, the comments she did hear only added fuel to the theory that Lauren had assumed based off the confessionals that she'd watched.
Julia and MK had mutual crushes on each other… but neither of them realised it…
"Why? Because you like me?" Lauren remembered MK saying sarcastically, a sly smirk on the thief's face.
And she definitely remembered and took some satisfaction on the flustered and the look of almost disbelief on Julia's face in response. "What!? No uh… no that is…"
"YOU DO!" MK looked a little too happy, albeit she didn't seem to realise it either. "You do like me! #BFF!" MK had laughed at the time, but Lauren could almost smell the suppressed scent of the closet on both of the girls.
She'd know… because she'd been in both of their closets after all… it was hard for her to not do research on either of them without infiltrating their private sanctuaries, it wasn't like she hadn't done that with literally her entire cast…
Plus… between that, and the 'If MK's brain drove a cool car, I'd date it' comment that Julia had made in the confessional… Lauren would be shocked if neither girl was at least bisexual, but she was certain that it was the case, the two clearly had a secret liking for the other person that not even they had noticed yet.
As these thoughts kept swelling around Lauren's mind, for a moment she was reminded of her own current relationship, and those regrets once again started to appear. Was Ezekiel okay? Does he know about what she's doing? Does he care…?
Lauren sighed, and forced both her humorous thoughts about the potential MK/Julia relationship drama, and the more serious thoughts about her own relationship with Ezekiel out of her head, and began searching for the immunity idol with more vigour.
It was only around ten minutes, and around a dozen trees later, when Lauren began to hear the sounds of someone else in the distance.
She began to jump between the trees, closing in on a small pathway through the forest, staying out of view of whoever it was that was walking through the forest.
Lauren smirked slightly as Damien came into view doing what she could only think was the dumbest, most dorkiest attempt at a confident strut that she had ever seen in person. The only thing that topped this was seeing the replays of Ezekiel's first season, and how that Cody person had made himself look like a fool in an awkward attempt at trying to hit on the various girls in his cast…
She suppressed a creepy giggle as he kept strutting along, striking finger guns at nearby squirrels that he was passing on the pathway. She almost couldn't believe the sight, and she even took her phone out in order to record the ridiculous sight as potential blackmail material for once the game was over…
Well… in the event that she'd still be friends with any of them after this was over…
She groaned softly at the sobering thoughts, but persisted with the recording of her future material, watching as he kept the strut going as he approached the set of trees that she was hiding in.
"Ha! I'm so getting the hang of this place." Damien smiled confidently, his fears having completely vanished for the moment as he was still riding the high of his win during the previous day's challenge.
She watched with a sinister look on her face as she noticed that he was paying absolutely no attention to what was in front of him, making it all the more satisfying when Damien would inevitably face-plant on the log that he was approaching.
"Big challenge win under my belt! Sun is shining!" Damien continued, posing with every sentence, and bringing the finger guns back for his next sentence, making the inevitable face-plant even funnier in Lauren's eyes. "Nothing's gonna bring me down!" He said right as his foot caught on the log, sending him screaming and tumbling to the ground and landing in a heap next to the opening in the log.
Lauren bit her tongue hard in order to contain her laughter, not wanting to be caught just because she took a bit of delight in hearing Damien scream once more. She watched as he clutched his knee in pain before looking into the log, and her face turned from delight at his screams to shock as she overheard his next words…
"Hold up!" He shouted in surprise as he reached into the log, and to Lauren's surprise, pulled out the same immunity idol that Chris had shown everyone the previous day. "The immunity idol!"
Stars were practically in Damien's eyes as he held it up to his face, completely in awe at how his luck on the island had completely turned around in the last twenty-four hours.
"With this little baby in my back pocket! I could go all the way!" He gushed as he held it close to him. "Now I don't have to be scared of anything!" He grinned again before the sound of a horn coming from the loudspeakers spooked him, making Damien scream again and almost drop the idol.
The sound of the horn had also almost made Lauren yelp in surprise, however she had managed to just about keep her composure, her eyes not leaving the idol that was currently in Damien's hands.
"...starting now…" Damien said once more, panting from fright as he caught the idol, clutching it to his face as he spoke, just as the loudspeaker activated once more.
"Challenge Time! Campers to the beach in five minutes!" Chris spoke from the speaker, a smug tone in his voice as he did before the loudspeaker cut off once more.
Damien panted for another couple moments, before holding the Idol close to him once more, a look of brief panic in his eyes.
"O-Okay… I'll just… drop you off someplace safe on the way to the beach… I'm not risking anyone stealing it mid challenge…" He said to himself once more, before taking off in the direction of the cabins, not noticing the Scary Girl directly above him watching him depart with the idol.
Lauren smirked, it wasn't the most ideal thing in the world, but if there was anyone that she was glad to have found the idol, it was Damien…
After all, he was one of, if not the person she'd stalked the MOST during her 'research', she knew exactly what he was going to do with that idol…
And if it wasn't going to be in the cabins well… she'd just have to catch him out at some point in the near future in order to steal the idol from under his nose…
"Sorry in advance Damien…" Lauren cackled to herself as she watched him run through the forest, a creepy grin on her face as she slowly began to follow him from above the trees. "But it looks like I'm gonna have to spoil your luck…"
End Chapter
Author's Note: Right, I do have one important question in regards to how the rest of this fic will proceed from here. I'm somewhat struggling to figure out how Lauren is actually going to sabotage the game from here, especially as she'll want to take a more active role as her composure breaks and she hits her lowest point.
I've spoken to a friend in the Total Drama Writers discord, and they said that perhaps altering a couple minor things in the episodes to suit the changes with Lauren being there would help. The challenges and elimination order would remain the same, and the last thing I'd wanna do is to do an entire rewrite of the season just to slot in Lauren and Ezekiel. There are plenty of other amazing fanfics both already out there or in progress that have their own spin or even completely rewrite season two of the reboot.
But I'll leave it up to you guys as to how I proceed with the rest of season two, particularly since we're getting into the bad part of the season. Should I stick to canon as best as I can? Or do I change small parts of the episodes in order to give Lauren more to do?