Like always, the episode opened up with Chris stepping out onto the dock. "Last time! On Total Drama Island…" He trailed off, letting some of the recap play out.

"The remaining fifteen campers were forced to deal with the hundred of wolves that had accidentally been left on the island. For once, the teams had to work individually to guarantee safety, as only two people would be safe from elimination."

"All the campers had to do was find a wolf that had a totem around their neck representing their team, and bring it back to the campfire."

"Some people had it easy, like Bella and Enima, who managed to find both totems with relative ease." It cut to a scene of just that.

"While others… not so much." It cut to a scene of Eleanor, Jared, and Talia being hunted down by wolves.

"In the end, our two winners were Bella, and Xi, who managed to steal the win away from Robin at the last moment." It cut to Xi returning with the totem.

"However, when it came time to vote, the Screaming Gophers ended it off with a tie, forcing Marisa and Eleanor to fight for their chance to stay on the island." It cut to Marisa fighting off a wolf.

"In the end, Eleanor and Enima were the two campers sent home that night." Chris took a few steps further onto the dock.

"This time, have I finally gotten rid of the wolves? Why was Marisa even targeted in the first place, and how does Xi continue to get lucky? These questions and more, shall be answered this time, on Total! Drama! ISLAND!" Cut.

Forest Entrance

Similar to how Arianna was in the last episode, Xi found himself standing at the edge of the forest, crossing his arms. With him, he was holding the basket Eleanor had given him for berry picking.

After a while of silence, he finally let out a single word… "Why?"

Confessional: Xi

"It's not like I particularly liked berry picking. It was mostly a waste of time." He still had his arms crossed. "Then, why do I feel saddened that I can't do anything today?" Strange world, it was.

As Xi began to pick berries, he would be greeted by someone else. "What are you doing here alone?"

Before he heard the voice speak up, he was certain it would have been Arianna here to mock him. But instead, he found that it was Jared. "Who's to say… Maybe I was just used to this being in my daily routine that it feels weird not being able to do it."

Looking down at him for a few seconds, the cadet eventually joined him. "Then allow me to help… I quite enjoyed that one time I joined."

Xi wasn't about to shoo him off, given now felt like the best time to talk about what happened. "I'm assuming you heard the same as I did, given that our votes were the same."

"I heard it from Talia." Jared nodded his head along. "Marisa tried to el-" Realising his words were a bit off, he corrected himself. "Marisa eliminated Eleanor."

That's exactly what Xi heard from Eleanor. "Eleanor told me the same as well. I did my best to try and avoid it, but it seems one of my allies has gone behind my back."

Stopping for a moment, Jared let out a sigh before looking over at him. "And who would that be?"

Confessional: Jared

"I'm not exactly privy of who other people's allies are, but it seems that whoever Xi found himself with wants to hinder him." But that was the least important part. "Not to mention they also voted Eleanor off, so something has to be done about that."

Gripping onto a branch tightly, Jared's frown intensified. "Then we'll just have to avenge her and take Marisa out."

A thought that had definitely crossed Xi's mind, but… "There's a problem with that… We lost the number advantage."

That fact couldn't be denied, and Jared knew that. "Maybe we can try and pull something…" Even then, he knew better.

Thinking for a moment, Xi glanced off to the side.

Confessional: Xi

He seemed to be deep in thought, contemplating something. "There is one thing I can try, but it has a rather low success rate. It involves that guardian angel of mine…" Even then, what were the odds of something like that working out?

Standing up, Xi looked over at Jared. "Give me time, and I'm sure I should be able to come up with an idea. I have one last card up my sleeve."

Looking at him for a few seconds, the cadet didn't have much choice but to trust him. "Then I leave it in your hands."

For now, Xi was done berry picking… He had other things to worry about now…

Cafeteria

Barging into the cafeteria, Marisa looked around frantically, seeing who was around. Luckily, the exact three people she wanted were there. "Guys." She sat down at the table with her team, minus Jared, Talia, and Xi. "We have problems."

"I know!" Robin slammed his hand on the table. "We're out of salt."

Ignoring him completely, Marisa turned her attention over to her teammates that would actually care. "I found out why I received votes."

Scratching the back of her head, Catrina hadn't put too much thought into it. "I found that weird, but I just thought it was an alliance target."

"Well, it was." But that part wasn't important. "I know who orchestrated it."

Rolling her eyes, Arianna already knew the answer, and didn't feel like beating around the bush. "Just tell us what you did to annoy Xi."

"It wasn't Xi…"

Immediately, the smug aura Arianna had dissipated. "What… What do you mean it wasn't him?"

"Apparently Talia wants me eliminated." Marisa crossed her arms, digging a hole into the table with her eyes.

Robin glanced over at the trio, but otherwise, he didn't bother with anything else. Sounded like a boring conversation.

Arianna raised an eyebrow. "Why would she…? You haven't exactly done anything to her."

"Is it because you're friends with me?" It was the only reason Catrina could think of. Besides that, it didn't really make any sense.

"I… I don't know." Marisa frowned, crossing her arms. "Either way, I don't think we can keep going with this plan here unless we deal with her."

"What?" Arianna offered a rather sweet smile, but her eyes had a different aura to them.

Confessional: Arianna

"So what? Just because she almost went home, she wants to switch targets completely? I swear, I'm dealing with fucking idiots!" She held her head in her hands.

Now this! This was something Catrina was on board for. "Hell yeah!" She slammed her fist on the table. "Finally, an excuse to get rid of her!"

"Wait wait!" Arianna still wanted to salvage this. "What about Xi?"

"What about him?" Marisa was far too gone in this new idea to even humour the idea for Xi anymore. "We already have the number advantage, so does it really matter?"

Shaking her head, Arianna was finding this conversation increasingly more difficult to actually hold. "Yes… It matters. We're done to only thirteen people left. If I had to take a guess, the merge will happen once we've cut the campers in half."

"That sounds illegal." Catrina pointed out, taking this the complete wrong way.

"I'm so proud of you." Robin finally joined back in, recognising his type of humour, despite Catrina being 100% serious.

Not even wanting to offer any correction, Arianna continued. "At this rate, we only have two challenges left before the merge, then it becomes a problem when we involve the other team." She sent a glance towards what they were doing. "I'm not exactly sure they'd help us with our problems, given they have their own."

Glancing to the side, Marisa frowned. "Yeah, but if we get rid of Talia now, it's likely we won't be targeted in the merge right away. If we go for Xi, there's a large chance Talia still wants me out."

Confessional: Arianna

"Is she really-" Once again holding the urge from screaming, she took a deep breath. "She doesn't seem to realise that getting Talia out will only put a target on her back anyways. Marisa's kind of screwed no matter what she does, and I'd rather have Xi out of the picture instead."

Still, causing such a scene wasn't exactly ideal, so Arianna decided to just step down. "Alright, I think you know what's best." She offered the best smile she could muster at this point.

"Hell yeah!" Catrina was pretty happy about how things turned out. "We'll teach her a lesson for trying to mess with us!"

…

…

…

As for the Killer Bass side of things, the team had been reduced to only six people… And some of them weren't even there.

Bella was resting her head on her hand, idling tapping her fork into her food.

"Bella?" Nila tilted her head to the side. "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah…" And yet, she continued to poke her food.

Once again, it was time for Nila to become a therapist. "I know that to not be true."

Letting out a rather loud sigh, Bella's head slowly slid down her arm, until she was resting it on the table. "It feels like every time I make an ally, they are doomed to go home."

"Right. It is a shame that Enima was the one to go home." Nila couldn't help but frown. Despite her nature, she was far more reliable than someone like David. "I am sorry that it turned out like this."

"It's not your fault." Still, Bella didn't know whose fault it was. She didn't even keep track of the votes. For all she knew, it could have been Nila's fault. "Did you vote for her?"

For a moment, Nila had to look around the table to make sure that David and Jeremy weren't here. "I did not. I view her as a good teammate. Instead, my vote went to David."

Confessional: Bella

"If Nila is telling the truth…" She trailed off, realising how dumb of a statement that is. "Because Nila never really lies, I can conclude we're the only three people to have voted for David… Which meant that Historia and Mindy are not to be trusted."

Realising that they weren't the only people at the table, Nila looked over at Mindy. "Who did you vote for?"

"Oh? Me?" Looking around at Bella, before turning back to the soldier, she shrugged. "I voted for David as well, never really trusted the guy." She let out a yawn."

Not really feeling the need to hide her own vote, Historia shrugged. "You already know I voted out Enima. Didn't really like her."

Well, Nila supposed she couldn't exactly control Historia's vote. "That is alright, but that did ruin an opportunity."

Rolling her eyes, she didn't really care. "Whatever, if you want David out that much, we always have other opportunities." There was no reason to make a big deal out of this, especially since Historia did win in the end.

Confessional: Bella

"Alright, I'd like to make an amendment to my statement. Historia can be trusted, since she was honest with her choice." Long pause. "Mindy is a liar." She said that with such a sweet smile on her face.

Hearing all of this, Mindy couldn't help but hum to herself. "Well, we're down to six people left, so I'm sure the next vote will be messy." That would be fun. "Not to mention I believe we're going to be losing teams soon."

"I would assume so." Historia tilted her head to the side. "I was under the impression that the merge would happen when there's only ten of us left. It seems like a nice number, so."

Shaking her head, Nila spoke up. "I do not believe we should be thinking about the merge quite yet. After all, we are still a team working together. So let us continue to think as a team."

Frowning slightly, Mindy couldn't help but disagree.

Confessional: Mindy

"Like I said last time, Nila isn't meant for the merge. She's a good person, but she's far too strong to want to take far. Besides, her strategy is lacking, so I can see her getting targeted quite early."

Dock

It had been a while since Jeremy could enjoy himself naturally, so he found himself standing at the dock, with his surfboard in hand. However, he hadn't quite gotten into the water yet, on account of something massive in the water.

The yacht had returned, which could only mean something challenge related was about to happen.

"What's this doing here…?" Talia, despite being on the other team, decided to approach it.

Smiling in her direction, Jeremy shrugged. "I'm not quite sure, but I assume that it's related to the next challenge."

"He better not be taking us off the island because of the wolves. He told us he dealt with them after the last challenge…" Talia crossed her arms.

"Yeah… But can you really trust any of the words he says?" Jeremy let out a small laugh.

As the two spoke, suddenly, the yacht began to move closer to the dock. Once it was positioned correctly, the ramp lowered, and Chris soon stepped off.

However, he hadn't been expecting two campers to be waiting for him. "What are you doing here?"

Raising his surfboard, Jeremy had an easy answer. "Surfing. The more important question is what are you doing?"

"Getting the next challenge ready." Speaking of which… "It's ready." He pulled out his megaphone, and began yelling into it. "Campers! Please gather at the dock!"

Despite the fact that nobody would reasonably be able to hear him- And they're all here now.

Looking at the yacht, Arianna let out a small sigh.

Confessional: Arianna

"Honestly, I'm not sure if seeing the yacht is a good thing or not. He's not just going to drop us off on another island, is he?"

Upper Deck

Now that the remaining thirteen campers were gathered on the upper deck, it was time to wait for Chris to announce just what the challenge was.

"Any guesses?" Nila was getting bored of just waiting around, so she wanted to initiate conversations with the other campers.

The only person to humour her was David, who had walked up to the edge of the deck. "Well, this is weird."

"Hmm?" Nila followed him to get a better look. It didn't take long for her to realise what he meant. "Are these… Seats?"

"Whatever Chris is planning…" David trailed off with a shrug. "It involves us sitting over the ocean, so it can't be any fun."

"What are you talking about?" Jeremy clearly had a different opinion. "That sounds fun to me. The ocean is a great thing."

It was Mindy's turn to look over the edge. "I'm more worried about the rails that lead into the water."

Soon, the small smile David had faded away. "He isn't going to drop us into the ocean, is he?"

"I don't think Chris is that bad." Jared crossed his arms, allowing the Screaming Gophers to join in.

Marisa let out a small sigh, shaking her head. "As much as I'd want to believe that too, this is Chris we're talking about. He literally just made us run into a forest to find some wolves only a few days ago. He literally unleashed a starved wolf on Eleanor and I."

Hearing her speak, Jared crossed his arms, looking the other way.

"Really-"

Confessional: Marisa

"I really need to get to the bottom of this. I can't have half of my team ignoring me." She began to write in her journal. "But where do I even begin?"

Soon, Chris appeared in front of everyone. "Welcome campers. With each day, you all find yourself one step closer to the end of the season. For this challenge-"

"So, are the wolves dealt with?" Talia felt like they should get that one out of the way now.

Bella nodded her head along. "Yeah… I thought you said you'd dealt with them."

"You better have…" Xi crossed his arms. "You removed the signs from the forest."

Looking at all the campers, Chris could have answered honestly…

Instead he just continued with what he was saying. "We're only a few episodes away from the merge, so I decided we should spend this challenge on the yacht."

"Does anyone else hate the word yacht?" Jeremy crossed his arms, letting out a sigh. "Yacht is such a dumb word. If I was a writer, I'd hate to have to write the word yacht over and over again. Thank god I don't have to write the word yacht."

Chris looked at him for a few seconds. "Are you… Are you done-"

"Yacht."

Alright, ignoring Jeremy.

"We're going to be something completely different for this challenge." Chris continued on. "As you may have noticed, we have seats placed on the side of the yacht." Really was an awful word. Who even made it?

"Yeah, we noticed." Jared crossed his arms. "We'll be sitting over the edge, right?"

"Correct! On both sides of the yacht, there are sets of seats. One for each team." As Chris approached the bow of the boat, he took his spot at a podium. "Screaming Gophers on the left, and Killer Bass on the right."

"Are you sure this is even safe?" Marisa looked at one of the seats. "This won't just drop us in, right?"

"Not yet, no." Reassuring.

Letting out a sigh, Marisa got into her seat.

Hearing that, Historia was a bit unsure. "What does this challenger entail anyway?"

"Just get in your seat, and I'll explain it." Chris was growing increasingly more annoyed.'

"..." After a bit, Historia got into her seat.

Confessional: Historia

"I guess I can't exactly skip out on this challenge, huh." She crossed her arms, a bit annoyed. "And here I was hoping…"

Once everyone was settled in, a screen rose out from the ground behind Chris. "Welcome to a game show!"

"Oh?" That definitely caught Arianna's attention. "What kind of gameshow?" This could prove to be fun.

"A quiz game show."

The minute excitement visible on Arianna's face quickly faded away. "And here I thought it would be something actually interesting."

However, someone else didn't share the same mentality.

Confessional: Historia

"Wait, we actually have to use our brains for once?" Now to hope it wasn't just random trivia she had no way of knowing.

"How this is going to work is, each time will take turn answering a question. If they get the question wrong, then they will be dunked into the water, and eliminated-"

"Hey!" Catrina called out. "Not to point out the obvious, but doesn't that seem a bit unfair."

Robin nodded his head. "Yes, I agree. We should dunk Catrina now so the teams are even."

"W-What?" If she could move, she would have taken a step back. "That's not what I meant!"

Chris understood the point that was being made. "Yes, while the Screaming Gophers have more people, the only way to counterbalance this, was to have them go first."

"That still does not seem very fair." Nila let out a sigh, but she wasn't too worried, given that they had Historia on the team!

"So wait…" Bella just wanted something to be specified. "So once the person is chosen, only they can answer the question?"

"Not necessarily. There is a way a teammate can come to the aid." Chris delivered with a smile. "If you're struggling, a teammate can jump in to try and solve the answer for you. However… If they are wrong, then both campers will be eliminated from the challenge. It's not recommended that you do it if you're uncertain."

"What about stealing?" Xi crossed his arms.

Not to answer that question, Chris turned to look at him. "Each question, you have five minutes to solve. If by four minutes, the other team hasn't made an attempt, you can try and steal it."

"What benefit does that offer us?" Talia raised an eyebrow. "Because I assume if we try to steal and fail, we're out."

"Stealing the answer doesn't just eliminate the other player, it also forces them to answer the next question, risking another elimination for them."

"Oh?" Robin hummed out, seemingly enjoying that answer a bit.

Confessional: Xi

"Hmm… A lot of risk vs reward in this challenge…" This was definitely something different than all the other challenges they've done. "Now, I wouldn't say I'm the most academically gifted, but I don't think I'll be struggling during this challenge as much as some of the others."

Still, there was room for more questions. "How is the person who must answer selected?" Jared felt the need to ask that.

"I'm glad you asked." For the first time, Chris acknowledged the screen behind him. "On this screen, you'll be able to see who gets selected, via this roulette wheel." To demonstrate, Chris pressed a button, allowing someone to randomly be selected.

Slowly by slowly… The wheel slowed down until it landed on… Jared.

"Ah…" Of course it would land on him first of all people. "This is just an example."

"Yes, it sure is." Chris flashed his iconic smile! Before slowly pulling out a card. "For the first question of the challenge…"

Letting out an annoyed sigh, Jared rested his head back in the chair.

Confessional: Jared

"Not that I've ever performed poorly in school before… After all, I'm a diligent student. However, that's only because I'm offered the time to properly prepare for tests, that way I can make sure I know the material." Long pause. "... I don't know what any of these questions will be…"

"What… is the capital of Finland?"

Hearing the question, Jared found himself at a loss for words. "Um… Well…"

Confessional: Jared

"I thought these questions were going to be things people knew. I've never really put much consideration into Finland." Long pause. "That… That doesn't make me a bad person, right?"

On the screen, a five minute timer started, telling him he better think of an answer quickly.

"Am I allowed to consult with the rest of my team?" That was Jared's only way out of this.

Grinning at him, Chris slowly shook his head. "Nope. If they want to help, the only way they can do so is by stating the answer themselves."

Suddenly, Talia blurted out the answer. "Helsinki."

"Wait-" Jared panicked momentarily. "What are you-"

"Correct!" Chris threw that card away, right over the edge of the boat, probably polluting the ocean or something.

Talia only looked at Jared for a few seconds before turning to look back at Chris.

Confessional: Talia

"I wasn't going to let Jared be the first one out, so I decided to help him as much as I could." A small smile appeared on her face. "Besides, I get high grades in school, so most of these questions should be a breeze." She said that as if fucking Helsinki was going to be easy.

"With that, Jared survives his first question… Despite not doing anything!" Which meant… It was time for the Killer Bass.

Chris pressed a button on his remote, causing the wheel on screen to spin again.

While the wheel was spinning, Jared looked over at Talia, a small smile on his face. "Thank you… You didn't need to do that."

She didn't bother responding to it.

Slowly, the wheel stopped, landing on Bella.

Confessional: Bella

She was humming to herself. "I'm pretty confident in myself. I think I'll be a good help for the team today…" Slowly she trailed off. "If anything related to my field pops up, that is. If there's any history related things, I might be out of my element."

"What is the tallest mountain located in North America?"

"Oh!" Bella had been expecting an entirely different type of question, but this was much more to her speed. "That would be Denali, also known as Mount McKinley. It's located in Alaska-" Static- Wait this isn't a confessional.

"That's enough, we just needed the name." Chris didn't feel like he wanted a lecture on a mountain in the middle of nowhere Alaska.

Given that Bella answered correctly, it was flipped back over towards the Screaming Gophers.

"That was very good, Bella." Nila wanted to be encouraging.

"N-no! It's nothing! These things are easy." She hummed out. She was a big fan of geography.

As the wheel spun, it soon landed on… Jared again.

"How is this not rigged?" He tipped his hat down a bit, leaving a frown as the only visible part of his face. Would he need to be saved by Talia again?

"Jared, what is the eleventh element on the periodic table?"

"Oh!" Maybe he actually knew this one. He did have to study it briefly, but that was an early number, so maybe-

"Sodium." Talia decided to jump in and save him anyways.

Confessional: Talia

"Maybe this is thank you for all the times he's gone out of his way for me." She was thinking back to when they were stuck on Boney Island. "Not… Not that I need to thank him or anything." She felt the need to thank him a lot.

"Correct again! Jared is safe for a second time, despite not actually answering anything."

Now his pride was hurt.

Confessional: Jared

"I appreciate it, given that I would have gotten that wrong, but I feel like I'll owe her if she keeps doing this. Nevermind that, I already owe her." Jared please.

Jared was going to say something else, but Talia responded first. "Don't worry about it, I'm not doing it for you." A very obvious lie. "I just don't want to lose the challenge.."

He wanted to counter that, but instead chose to remain silent as he watched the wheel spin.

With the next wheel spin, it finally landed on Mindy, who seemed more than content to be chosen. "Oh? Perfect, I was getting bored." She'd do her regular leaning forward pose, but the chair made it difficult to do so.

"Mindy, what is the most expensive painting that was ever sold."

"Oooo~" She cooed. "Tricky question there, most people would have been caught in that trap."

Confessional: Mindy

"While the Mona Lisa is technically the most expensive painting, it was never sold. Which makes…" She had to trail off to think of the actual answer.

"That would be the Salvator Mundi." Mindy hummed out, tilting her head to the side. "These questions feel targeted."

Tipping his hat down, Jared shook his head. "They don't seem that way to me."

"That would be correct!" Chris was really hoping someone would fall for the trap, but of course Mindy had to be the one to get that question.

Pressing the button on his remote, the wheel began to spin again.

"I thought Enima would know something like that." Bella glanced over at her.

Mindy shrugged. "Why would she be the only one? I'm an artist as well. Of course I'd be interested in paintings…"

Tilting his head to the side, David couldn't help but have a smug expression on his face. "Isn't the reason you know because you want to steal it?"

"H-hey!" Mindy wasn't ready for that to be out to the world.

Confessional: Mindy

"Only David really knows about my tendencies." Even if she did it blatantly in the other challenge. "If I see something neat, I have the urge to take it. But hey, it normally works out for me in the end, that's how I got this alliance with him in the first place."

The next wheel spin landed on Xi.

"Finally…" He was getting bored of having to watch everyone else answer questions. "What do you have for me today, Chris?"

"Xi, your question is…" Flipping to the next notecard, Chris read out the question. "What year was the Eiffel Tower completed?"

"Easy." Xi didn't really have to spend much time thinking. "1889." Some of the other questions had worried him a bit, but if there were going to be a few like these snuck in, he wouldn't have a problem.

Confessional: Xi

"I'm glad that the other team has to wait before they can steal, or else it'd make some of these questions scarier." His reflexes weren't the best so he was worried someone else would have a sneaky idea.

"Correct!" Chris called out, allowing the wheel to spin again.

Rubbing the back of her head, Catrina let out a sigh. "Honestly, unless there's something music related, I think I'm going to be a bust this challenge." And even if there was something musical related, she'd have to hope it was in the genre she knew.

As the wheel slowed down, it landed on Jeremy this time.

"Jeremy!" Chris was eager to see how this one would go, given what he's seen of Jeremy so far. "What species on this planet is considered to be immortal?"

"Really? That's an easy one." Jeremy out here knowing immortal species. "Immortal jellyfish."

Um, don't give the water related question to the surfer, idiot.

"Ah right." Bella hummed out. "Those do exist. Although, they are only considered immortal because they can regenerate their cells. They can still be killed by predato-"

"Moving on." Chris didn't want to listen to this boring stuff any longer than he needed to.

Time to spin the wheel!

Bella still found it odd. "I didn't think you'd know something like that."

Jeremy shrugged. "Hey, just because I surf in my free time, doesn't mean that it will be the profession I want."

Confessional: Jeremy

"Honestly, my dream job would probably be related to being a marine biologist. It keeps me close to the water, and it sounds like a lot of fun."

As the wheel slowed down, it landed on Arianna this time.

"Ugh…" She groaned under her breath. She didn't really want to have to answer anything, especially if she could avoid it. However, she also didn't want to seem useless.

"Arianna, it's time for your question."

Hopefully it would be something she knew…

"What was considered to be Shakespeare's first play?" This really was just the fuck Jared episode, huh?

Scoffing a bit, Arianan shook her head. "Easy. It's believed it was Henry IV. The first part, of course." Because why the hell would they start on the second one?

"Correct." Moving onto the Killer Bass, Chris spun the wheel again.

Rolling his eyes, David shook his head. "Of course, give the theatre question to the theatre nerd."

"That's what I'm saying." Jared crossed his arms, before turning to look at Arianna. "Not that I wanted you to fail the question."

"Yeah…" She was going to pretend to ignore that.

Finally, the wheel landed on David.

Seeing his face appear on screen, he let out a small laugh. "Alright, I was starting to wonder when it'd be my turn."

"David, what country has the fourth most people in it."

Letting out a laugh, he slowly shook his head. "That's really all my question is?"

Confessional: David

"I'll tell you what the answer isn't. Canada. Nobody lives here. I wouldn't be surprised if we don't even make the top fifty."

Confessional: Historia

"Canada is currently ranked 36th in the world for population." … "Don't ask me why I shared this information."

David had to think for a moment, given he wasn't entirely sure. He knew which two it wasn't, given they were ranked first and second… But was America third? He would have to assume so… But what was fourth?

Luckily, someone came to his rescue. "Indonesia."

Freezing up a bit, it didn't take long for David to realise that it wasn't someone from his team who answered the question. Instead, it was Talia. "You…"

Giving him a look of minor disdain, she only shrugged. "You were taking too long, so I figured I would steal it from you."

"This means David is the first one eliminated from the challenge!" Finally, Chris was getting bored of everyone getting the answers right.

With the simple push of a button, David was sent into the waters below.

Confessional: Historia

"You know… In hindsight I could have saved him, since I knew the answer, but he seemed pretty confident, so I decided to let him solve it."

After a few seconds, Nila spoke up. "How long before he comes back up?"

"Come back up?" Chris raised an eyebrow. "I just ejected his chair off the side of the boat. He'll have to swim to shore now."

"H-hey!" Historia narrowed her eyes. "None of that was specified in the rules! You just said we were going to get dunked."

"And you will!" See, nothing wrong here when you use Chris logic.

Confessional: David

He was currently drenched, and a frown occupied most of his visible face. "This fucking blows… But at least it gives me time away from everyone else." Something he much appreciated.

But, enough about that, it was time to return to the game. "Since the Screaming Gophers managed to steal the answer, the Killer Bass will be forced to go again."

With another wheel spin, it landed on Bella again.

Seeing her own face, she let out a small sigh. "That's already the second time…"

Jared crossed his arms. "I was chosen twice within the first three spins, so I don't think anyone else really has the right to complain."

That was fair. Letting out another small sigh, Bella turned to look over at Chris. "What's my question?"

"Oh, this one isn't a kind one." Chris said with a smile on his face. "What was the longest battle during World War 2?"

"H-huh?" Bella froze up a bit.

Confessional: Bella

"That's like one of my weakest subjects… I don't know anything about history. Science and Geography is what I'm good at…"

Despite her not knowing, someone else took the initiative to answer the question… "The Battle of the Atlantic." It was Historia coming to her rescue.

"Historia is correct!" Chris announced, making it the first useful thing she did all season…

In episode eleven.

Girl's got a bad track record.

"T-thank you…" Bella mumbled out.

Confessional: Historia

"This is the type of challenge I've been waiting for since we started. I don't care about the survival aspect, I want to be able to use my studies."

"Don't mention it… It's just something that I did a lot of research for at school." Historia tried to reason.

Confessional: Historia

"Alright, technically that was a lie. I didn't need to research it for school, but I just felt the need to do it in my own time. It's just fun to learn about human history."

Next, the wheel landed on Catrina.

Upon seeing that, her expression shifted over towards a grimace. "Why's it gotta be me?"

"The wheel decides all." Jeremy offered with a smile.

Scratching the back of her head, Catrina let out an annoyed groan. "Whatever, just lay it on me."

"Which country was the last one to join NATO?"

Despite the others taking a lot of time to come up with their answer, Catrina just blurted the thing first that came to mind. "I don't know… Germany?"

After a few seconds, that would be followed by the sound of her screaming as she was lowered into the water below.

Confessional: Historia

"Dumb bitch."

"The score is now six to five, with the Screaming Gophers still leading, now let's see who's going up next for the Killer Bass." Chris said, pressing the button again.

Slowly, the wheel came to a halt, landing on Nila.

"Um…" Well now she was entirely unsure.

"Nila!" Chris took out his next card. "It's time for your question. On the planet Venus, how long is a day?"

After hearing the question, Nila felt a bit lost at the moment.

Confessional: Nila

"Perhaps I should have been improving my academics while training Historia, instead of just focusing on her." She leaned forward slightly. "But that is alright, she will answer this for me, right?"

Confessional: Historia

"Yeah, I wanted to help out, but I didn't know the answer to this question…"

"Um…" Nila was sure a day was a day. "May I ask what exactly you mean?"

Chris was going to be generous, only because he knew she wouldn't get the answer. "How long does it take the planet Venus to rotate?"

Oh! Well…

Looking expectantly at Historia, Nila was waiting for an answer to come out of her mouth. However, after enough time had passed, she realised that not even she knew.

Confessional: Nila

"I could have just not answered anything, however time was running out, and I did not want the other team to steal the answer. So I decided the best course of action was to throw my question."

"Twenty two hours?" Nila was so far off that it was sad.

As soon as Nila wasted her answer, Xi let out an audible sound of annoyance. However, he didn't say anything else, instead choosing to cross his arms.

"Ooooh, the answer was actually two hundred and forty three days."

After a few seconds of silence, mostly with Nila trying to process how that was the answer, she felt herself being dropped into the water.

"The Killer Bass aren't doing too well, given that they've already lost a third of their members."

Waving his hand dismissively, Jeremy let out a laugh. "Don't worry, it's nothing but the smart people left."

"You're smart?" Mindy tilted her head to the side, a bit shocked to hear that.

Jeremy didn't feel like humouring that with a response.

Now, it was back over to the Screaming Gophers, as it landed on Arianna.

Her again? Not that she could really complain. Still… that did increase her chances of getting out.

"Arianna, your question is simple. It's just a math question." Chris looked at his next card.

Math? That was mostly easy. The only problem is that she had to risk someone stealing the answer from her. However, looking at the people remaining, they didn't seem to be good at math. "Give it to me."

On the screen behind Chris, a formula appeared. "You just need to solve this."

The equation in question was 32-6(4x5-6/3)4(3/6-5).

Oh, that wasn't that bad. The only problem was doing the mental math in her head, but Arianna was more than confident that she could actually pull it off.

However, when Arianna finally figured out the answer, just as she was about to speak it out… Someone else spoke up.

"Negative four hundred and four, and half."

Who- Who the hell- It wasn't someone from Arianna's team-

Jeremy…

"Huh?" Arianna didn't have any time to react, as she felt her seat drop down into the water below.

Confessional: Arianna

She hadn't bothered changing out of soaked clothes. Instead, she gave the camera a glare. "That piece of shit is dead… Fucking dead. Do you hear me-" Static.

Letting out a small laugh, Jeremy tilted his head. "Hey, that was fun. I should do it again."

"Jeremy is able to make some ground to catch up to the Screaming Gophers, but will they be able to keep up the momentum?"
As the wheel spun again, it landed on Xi.

"Hmm…" His eyes moved over to Jeremy, who was only humming to himself.

Confessional: Xi

"I haven't had the misfortune of interacting with Jeremy since he kicked me off the surfboard. However, it seems I've underestimated him again. He solved that formula rather quickly, after all. I won't make the same mistake that Arianna did."

"Xi, your question is… What was the deadliest hurricane to ever hit the states?"

Alright, now why the hell would he know anything about hurricanes for a country he also didn't really care about. "These questions don't really seem fair half the time." However, it was unlikely anyone else really knew the answer to this too, so Xi felt like he might be able to take his time on this one.

Hurricane Katrina popped in his mind, but he knew that it probably wasn't going to be the answer, so it had to be something else. But it would have needed to be something sooner than that, since that was the only one recently that felt like it did numbers.

As time ticked away, Xi hadn't been paying attention to the clock, similar to what happened with Arianna.

And, just like with Arianna, it played out almost the same exact way. With Jeremy calling out the answer. "Wasn't it the Great Galveston Hurricane?" He crossed his arms when he said that.

"You would be correct, it took roughly eight thousand lives at the beginning of the nineteen hundreds."

Realising what this meant, Xi tried to hold onto the side of the dock. "Wait-" He tried to protest, but he was dunked into the water, irrelevant of him trying to hold on.

Confessional: Jeremy

"Tee-hee."

"Wow, this game is fun." Jeremy is surprisingly good at this.

"And with no hesitation, Jeremy has managed to tie up both teams, leaving them with four members each, which forces the Screaming Gophers to go for a third time in a row."

This time, the wheel landed on Robin.

Confessional: Marisa

"Oh thank god, we needed a break. I know Jeremy is smart, but I know Robin is smarter. We're about to send it back to them."

Pulling out a card, Chris began to read. "In what-"

"Four." Robin answered without any hesitation.

This caught him off guard, causing him to take a few seconds. "I didn't even ask the question. Are you sure you want to lock that answer in?"

"Of course not." Long pause. "I'll lock in seven-" Robin fell into the water.

Confessional: Marisa

"What the hell was that?" She gripped onto her sunhat, covering most of her face with it. "What was he even thinking!?"

Confessional: Robin

"Hmm… Maybe the answer was six…"

"While Robin failed… Because the other team wasn't able to steal, that means that it switches back over towards the Killer Bass." Chris turned to look at their team.

"Ah." Jeremy nodded his head along. "I understand now… That was his plan all along. To make sure I couldn't steal."

"I… Don't think it was that at all…" Historia shook her head with a sigh.

As the wheel finally finished spinning, it landed on Jeremy.

"But I already answered two questions…" He let out a sigh, but he was still pretty confident with answering whatever Chris might ask him.

"Jeremy. Your question is the following… Which strike happened in Newfoundland during 1958?"

For once though, the confident smile that Jeremy would normally have quickly faded away. "Oh, now that's a question." Which probably meant he didn't know the answer.

Something that was great for Marisa, since she did know the answer. She just needed to wait for the time to run out.

And run out it did, because after the allotted time was done, Jeremy still hadn't answered yet. "Chris, I have the answer." She probably shouldn't have announced it like that, since Jeremy could have thrown it if he wanted to prevent them from stealing. "The answer is the Newfoundland Loggers' Strike."

"That would be correct, yes."

Confessional: Marisa

"Jeremy was out of his element with that one. I actually did report on that last year in school." Alright, nerd.

When Jeremy was sent plummeting below, he somehow avoided getting wet completely, given he never actually strapped himself in.

Mostly because Chris didn't even bother checking.

Confessional: Jeremy

"Before the challenge started, I stashed away my surfboard next to the yacht. In case something like this was going to happen." He had literally no way of knowing this was going to happen.

Landing perfectly on his surfboard, Jeremy began to move away from the yacht, perfectly dry.

And that's because Jeremy is perfect and can do no wrong.

Now both teams only have three people left, leaving it with the final six.

"Killer Bass, you are up again." Chris called out as he spun the wheel, landing it on Bella this time.

Taking a deep breath, she nodded her head along. "Right…" She had this.

"Bella, your question this time is… During what period did triceratops live?"

Confessional: Bella

"I'm an expert on animals! … That has lived within the last couple of millennia… I'm not really much of an expert on dinosaurs. I know the time periods, but I'm not that great at actually picking out which one is right…"

Deciding that she might as well just throw an answer, Bella took a deep breath. "Was it the Cretaceous period?" She almost wanted to answer a different one, but she knew she had to stay strong with her original idea.

Chris looked over at her, not saying anything.

For a moment, despite Bella's confidence, she held her breath in as Chris held on tightly to the remote.

"... Correct." He turned to look over at the other team. "It's now up to you."

As the wheel spun again, it soon landed on Marisa.

"I just solved…" Ah… It wasn't a big deal. She knew a wide variety of things, so she felt confident in her chances.

"Marisa, during the years of 1920-1933, what was happening in America?"

Oh, thank God it was an easy one. Letting out a relieved sigh, a smile appeared on her face. "Alcohol probation." Luckily she knew a few things or two from all she had researched during her time at school.

"I would have gotten that one…" Historia mumbled out, crossing her arms. Oh well! Couldn't steal them all, especially not with an easy question like that.

"Correct!" Chris pressed the button on his remote. "At any point, another one of you can drop in the water."

As the wheel grinded to a halt, it landed on Mindy, who hadn't needed to answer a question in forever. "Aww, I was hoping you wouldn't remember I was here." Then she could win with ease.

"Mindy, your question is… What year was Manitoba founded?" Look at me, asking questions about Canada. Haha.

Humming to herself, Mindy thought for a moment. "Wasn't it like 1872 or something?"

Slowly, Historia turned to look at her, a bit of anger visible in her eyes, but she didn't say anything beyond that.

However, despite her confidence, Mindy was dropped from the side of the boat, landing in the water.

Lowering the remote, Chris shook his head. "Off by only two years… What a shame." Still, he couldn't help but grin.

Back to the Screaming Gophers. With another spin of the wheel, it landed on Marisa.

"Seriously?" She narrowed her eyes. "I'm not the only one here!" She darted her eyes over towards Jared and Talia, who didn't seem to mind this in the slightest.

"Go on, answer the question." Talia taunted.

Biting her thumb, Marisa turned back towards Chris. "What's… What's the question?"

"Marisa, during world war one, which boat did the Germans try to impersonate?"

What the hell! She didn't know this. "Huh… It's…" She was going to be out no matter what, right?

That thought did occupy her mind, but she still wanted to at least try and figure out the answer. Just think long and hard… She felt like she heard of this one person, but…

As time ticked away, she must have been too deep in thought to even realise that her safety period was over, and now someone could steal…

Which Historia did just that when the time allowed her to. "The RMS Carmania, a British ship."

Yeah, there was no way Marisa was going to get that, she should have just thrown so that her team didn't have to go again…

For once, Historia had her old smugness in her voice as she answered the question correctly. "Sorry, but this is our challenge this time." It was down to just her and Bella, so they had to pull all the weight they could.

Marisa didn't even get the chance to say anything before her chair was dropped from the deck, sent plummeting into the water below.

"That leaves us with two people from each team." Chris looked over at the Screaming Gophers. "Talia and Jared…" The latter who hasn't actually answered a question yet.

Turning his attention over towards the Killer Bass, he continued. "And lastly, Bella and Historia." Both girls have pulled their weight so far. "At any moment, this challenge can end."

Since Historia managed to steal the question, it meant that the Screaming Gophers were forced to go up now.

After spinning for a while, it eventually landed on Jared again.

Confessional: Jared

"I've never seen a wheel be so biased against me." Completely ignoring whatever the hell Marisa had to do only moments ago.

"Jared." Chris called out, switching over towards the next card. "What was the most expensive spice during the spice trade?"

Confessional: Jared

"I'm starting to believe Chris hates me now…" He trailed off. "I haven't even done anything wrong yet."

"Chris, you have to stop asking me these questions. Who in their right mind would-" Before Jared could finish his sentence, he was cut off by someone.

"Saffron." Once again, Talia was forced to come to his rescue.

Confessional: Talia

"You've already seen that I can cook. Because of that, I ended up doing a lot of research on what spices are good and whatnot." Long pause. "And then I went down a few rabbit holes."

"Talia is correct!" Chris called out with a grin on his face. "Jared, consider yourself lucky."

Letting out a sigh, he shook his head, looking over at her. "I'm sorry you have to keep doing this. It might just be better to cut me loose, so you don't have to worry about me."

"Nonsense." Talia didn't even bother looking over at him. Instead, focusing her attention on the other team. "If there's something you'd know that I wouldn't, I would need your help."

"Killer Bass, you're up next!" Chris spun the wheel. This time, it landed on Bella.

Taking a deep breath, she nodded her head. "Alright… I've got this."

"Bella, your question is… When was the current flag of Ontario adopted?"

Now, Bella was good at a lot of things… History just wasn't one of them.

But do you want to know who WAS good at history? That's right! Historia (name unrelated). Once again, she decided to answer a question that wasn't her own. "That would have been during 1965." Pretty recent, all things considered.

Now Chris was getting a bit annoyed that they continued to get these questions wrong. He wants to dunk someone in the water again soon. "Correct…"

Confessional: Bella

"Thank God for Historia… I thought I was a goner there."

Confessional: Historia

Almost as if fueled by an intense fire, she narrowed her eyes. "No way am I letting those two lovebirds win this challenge. Bella and I pretty much cover each other's bases. Anything relating to school, I'll know, and anything relating to nature, she'll know."

"Switching back over to the Screaming Gophers!" This time the wheel showed Jared some mercy, by landing on Talia instead.

"Oh, do I actually get to answer a question for myself?" Now if she messed this one up, it would be embarrassing.

"Talia, your question is this… When was the first major film noir released?"

"..." She tilted her head to the side. "It was 1941, I believe."

Confessional: Talia

"My father is a huge nerd for movies like that. So I've definitely had the pleasure to see them." She didn't really seem to mind. "They were pretty good for their time, and it's what made me enjoy detective-like media." Not that she'd ever want to be one, that is.

Maybe this was also why she was close with Jared.

The world may never know.

"Correct!" Guess Talia was just really good at this sort of thing. "Back to the Killer Bass!"

Letting out a small sigh or relief, she turned to look at Jared, a small smile on her face.

This caused him to smile back at her. It was nice to see her actually showing more than just an annoyed expression.

Finally, the wheel landed on Historia, who was praying it was a question she could actually answer. While she was confident that Bella could help out, she didn't want to risk Talia coming in for the steal at the last second.

"Historia, your question is… What animal does this scientific name refer to… Lontra canadensis."

"Huh…" It was very clear that she had no idea what the fuck that meant.

As quickly as she could, Bella blurted out the answer. "River otter!"

Confessional: Bella

"What? Talia has been answering questions pretty regularly. I didn't want to risk something like that happening to Historia, leaving me alone. Besides, I really like otters."

"Correct!" Chris turned his attention back over towards the Screaming Gophers. "Neither team wants to let the other gain an inch, meaning we have a fierce fight on our hands. Let's spin that wheel again."

And to the surprise of absolutely no one, it landed on Jared again.

"Are you-" The cadet narrowed his eyes.

"Now Jared, this challenge is all about answering questions. Something I see you've failed to do at this point in time. Now might be the time to start doing so."

"There's not much I can do if you ask me questions about things I don't know." He crossed his arms.
Ignoring his complaint entirely, Chris continued on with the challenge. "Jared, your question is… What mineral is known as fool's gold?"

Yeah, once again, Jared had no idea, so he decided to pull ol' reliable. That's right, he looked over at Talia, waiting for her to give him the answer.

Except…

For once, Talia seemed a bit nervous.

"Do… do you not know the answer?" Jared had begun to rely a bit too much on her.

Quickly shaking her head, Talia bit her nail. "Just… Just give me a minute. I know I should know this." But for now, she was drawing a blank.

"Oh, we might have the advantage soon." Bella hummed out, looking at the other side.

Historia shook her head, narrowing her eyes. "It's not like them losing Jared is a big deal, he hasn't really done anything this challenge."

"And you haven't done anything in any challenge." Talia was quick to counter her, coming to Jared's aid.

And yet… She still couldn't think of an answer.

Time was running out, and from the looks of it, Historia seemed ready to steal at any moment.

Confessional: Talia

"The only story I know pertaining to this was about a king discovering his crown wasn't fully made of gold…" But that was the only idea she had. "If I don't do something, Jared will get taken out, and then I'll have to answer the next question anyways."

Taking a deep breath, Talia could only use the one story she had a guide. "Fool's…" But that wasn't truly answering the question, was it? The crown was made of both gold and silver… But it's not like she could really do anything else. "Fool's gold was made of gold and silver…"

There was a long silence, before…

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In an instant, both the remaining campers plummeted down into the water below, leaving only Bella and Historia on the boat.

"Sorry, it was actually Pyrite." But Historia knew exactly what story Talia was thinking of, since she did research on the same thing.

Bella went to stand up in her chair, but she was still strapped in, so she just raised her hands in the air. "Historia! We did it!"

She wasn't one to cheer, but maybe for this one moment, she'd follow suit. "Finally." Still, it was hard to hide her happy face.

"Congratulations to the Killer Bass! Which means you won't have to vote someone off tonight."

Now that victory was theirs, Bella tried to remove the strap that kept them to the chair. "Chris, how do you remove this?"

"Oh, that comes off automatically when it hits the water." He smiled at them, as if the implications weren't very easy to pick up.

"Wait, you don't mean-" Historia had begun to say before both girls were then sent plummeting in the water right after.

Confessional: Talia

"Honestly, I should have just let him take the hit." She crossed her arms, a frown on her face. "I wasn't confident in my answer, and the risk was too high…" And yet, she still felt some urge to try and save him. "So why did I…" Talia trailed off, biting her nail.

Beach

Talia and Jared finally washed up on shore, both of their clothes drenched.

"Ugh…" Talia seemed ticked off as she wringed out her clothes to get most of the water out. "Chris could have at least told us to change into our swimsuits…"

"No kidding." Jared had to remove his hat. He was going to do the same thing, but he stopped. "You… I'm sorry I brought you down."

Frowning slightly, Talia marched right up to him. "Don't be sorry. That was my fault. I just didn't want you to be dunked in the water."

Despite his hat still being soaked, Jared quickly put it on, just so he could tip it down and hide his expression.

"Jared, take off the hat." Talia deadpanned, reaching up to grab it for herself. "We should get changed before we get a cold."

Things could have been left like that, but Jared wanted to ask something. "Talia."

That stopped her in her tracks, and she didn't like the tone he used. "What is it?" Not because it was rude or anything, but because it might not be a conversation she was ready for the time being.

"You're awfully caring all of a sudden." Jared frowned slightly. "At the start, you'd turn me away at any opportunity you had. And yet, now you're risking yourself just to try and save me. It almost feels like the tables have turned."

Quickly darting her eyes to the side, Talia wasn't sure exactly how to answer. "I'm just treating you how I'd treat any friends."

But that didn't seem like the truth at all.

"You treated Eleanor pretty differently." Jared pointed out. This felt like a different emotion entirely.

Pouting slightly, Talia placed both hands on her hips. "What of it?" There was a slight change in her voice, and facial expression. Almost like she was blushing slightly. "Does…. Does that really matter?"

Tipping his hat down again, a small grin appeared on Jared's face. "You seem a bit flustered there."

Now Talia was covering her face out of embarrassment. "Can we not focus on this, please?"

Deciding pushing her anymore would be causing issues, Jared nodded his head. "Very well… Let's get changed."

Confessional: Jared

"I'm not sure if this means she likes me, or if I'm reading the room completely wrong, and she's embarrassed that I would ever think that…"

Confessional: Talia

"Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" It was the former, it seems, as she was a mess in the confessional as well.

Now that those two were gone, enough time had passed for both Bella and Historia to also wash up on shore.

"God… Why does victory feel so awful?" Historia tried to get the water out of her hair. "Doesn't Chris know how expensive this outfit is?"

Meanwhile, Bella didn't really seem to mind. Instead, she was resting her head on the sand, looking at the evening night sky. "You have other things, so it's fine…"

True, but that didn't mean Historia wasn't allowed to complain. As she was about to walk away, she noticed Bella relaxing. "What are you even doing?"

"Just taking a break. Mostly surprised that I'm still here at this point." If only Christopher and Enima were still here, then things would be better.

Looking down at her for a few seconds, Historia glanced the other way. "I ask myself that question every day too." It took this long for her to help, and while the feeling had felt great at first, she knew the feeling wouldn't last.

Instead of leaving Bella alone, she sat down next to her, watching the waves. "It's rather peaceful at this time of day. Normally, when I go out to look at the beaches, other people are there."

Smiling slightly, Bella let out a small laugh. "Well, we don't have to worry about eliminating anyone tonight, so how about we relax a bit?"

A rare smile appeared on Historia's face. "Yeah… Let's just relax."

However, before they had a chance to fully relax, Jeremy finally made it onto the beach. "Did we win?"

"Um… Yeah…" Bella looked over at him. "Have you been on the water the entire time?"

Nodding his head along, Jeremy planted his surfboard in the sand. "I stashed my surfboard near the yacht, so I could go retrieve it after. Luckily for me, I ended up landing right beside it."

Ah… to have almost no worries except surfing.

"Good… Good for you." Bella offered him her best smile, before lying down again. She wanted to go back to relaxing now.

Cafeteria

Great.

Now it was time to panic. "I'm telling you." Marisa was walking back and forth. She was able to meet with the rest of her alliance because they all fucking sucked at the challenge.

"I think you worry too much." Robin didn't really have any interest in the conversation, so he tuned it out almost immediately.

"And I think you're losing sight of our actual target." Arianna seemed to want to be against Marisa's idea.

Catrina, on the other hand, was the only person who was actively defending her friend. "This could be a good opportunity!"

Oh, the things Arianna could say if she wasn't bound by a strategy. "I just think we should spend a little more time thinking about this. How did you find this out anyways?"

"That's- That's not important." Marisa couldn't just admit that she was seeing confessionals. That wouldn't fly with anyone here.

Catrina slammed her fist onto the table, hoping to get everyone's attention.

Not only did she not really need to do this, it fucking hurt.

Wiping her hand to alleviate the pain, Catrina continued. "It doesn't really matter who we target, especially since we're going to have a majority anyways. Even if we consider the merge."

Confessional: Arianna

Letting out a scream, Arianna pulled on her hair slightly. "Those fucking idiots. That's not what this is even about. I can't even go against it, especially if Marisa and Catrina are dead set on it." Taking a deep breath, she was forced to collect herself. "You know what, if you can't fucking beat them, join them." Then a long pause. "And then beat them after, because they're morons."

Taking another deep breath, Arianna sat down at the table. "Fine… I'll go with what your idea is. But only this time. Then after that, we should really be focusing on the one person that matters. The one person who could easily build up a counter force against us."

Finally, Marisa succeeded, smiling at her. "Thank you for seeing it like this…" One step closer to being safe.

Now she just had to make sure nobody betrayed her at the ceremony tonight…

Elimination Ceremony

Honestly, a losing streak felt more akin to the Killer Bass. But that was three challenges in a row that the Screaming Gophers had technically lost.

And now, they were about to drop down to only six members left.

As the seven campers sat down on the stumps, they awaited Chris to arrive.

After a few more seconds, the host made his presence known. "Screaming Gophers…" He trailed off, a plate of marshmallows in his hands. "When this game started, you seemed to be the stronger of the two teams. You were leading the game for a while. And now, you've lost more times than the Killer Bass have." By technically, really.

"It seems our team isn't able to cooperate like it was once able to." Xi crossed his arms, a frown on his face.

Catrina crossed her arms. "Honestly, I just blame the nature of the challenges." Given that she wasn't very bright, of course she'd think of that in relation to today's challenge.

"It's not like we have to cooperate for much longer…" Talia trailed off, knowing the merge was just around the corner.

"I suppose not. With each ceremony, we are one step closer to merging the two teams." Picking up the first marshmallow, Chris looked back at the campers. "However, one of you seven will not be there to experience."

Or more than that, depending if they lost again.

"The first marshmallow of the night goes to… Jared."

The cadet caught it, although he had a small frown on his face. He was a bit nervous about how things would turn out.

Reaching over for the second marshmallow, Chris moved it around a bit before tossing it to the second person. "Arianna."

Good. That at least meant Xi didn't want to try anything today.

Speaking of which… "Xi." The third marshmallow was thrown his way.

That only left three marshmallows on the plate, and four campers left. "Catrina, Marisa, Robin, and Talia. The four of you have failed to receive a marshmallow so far."

Looking around, Marisa let out a small sigh. She had a feeling things would turn out like this again…

"Catrina, you were pretty useless at this challenge, failing to even answer one question right…"

Pressing her headphones against her ears, she shook her head. "Hey! Maybe if you asked the music question sooner, I could have done something about that!"

Moving onto the next person, Chris focused on Marisa. "As for you, this is the second time in a row that you find yourself feeling pretty low. You were smart, but you got a bit confident on an answer, and ended up costing yourself a loss you didn't even need."

"Alright, I do admit that was a bit reckless…" Marisa didn't really have any other excuses.

"Robin." Well, honestly, there was a lot to be said here. "Despite how you normally are, it almost feels like you intentionally took a loss in the challenge today."

"I have no idea what you are talking about." Seems he would deny it. "But I thought the rest of the team had it handled, given we have some pretty smart people on our team."

"And lastly, Talia." Chris turned to her. "Honestly, I'm surprised it even took this long to get to this point. Besides Jared and Eleanor, you didn't really treat other people nicely on your team."

Crossing her arms, she frowned slightly. "Is that inherently a problem? Nobody else really reached out to me, so why bother?"

Picking up the fourth marshmallow, Chris looked around a bit, before handing it out. "Catrina."

She got it, relieved for her own safety, but still a bit worried about Marisa.

"The next one goes to… Robin."

He didn't even bother to catch it, he wasn't interested in it today.

Which only left one marshmallow… Either Marisa or Talia was going home…

"The last marshmallow of the night GOES to…"

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"Marisa."

"Bull-" Jared knew this was an outcome that could happen, but he wanted to hold his tongue in. He knew the math did not benefit any of them, especially since they lost Eleanor last time. It was now 4-3… So… It made sense. And yet, he didn't want to accept it.

Despite Talia's normal personality, she didn't seem as ticked off as Jared was.

Sure, she wanted to berate the others, but she didn't want to make a scene. Keeping her eyes closed, Talia stood up, holding her hands close to herself. "I'll be taking my leave now."

Quickly, Jared stood up. "Wait!" He didn't just want her to walk on her own, but she was already off.

Before leaving, however, he sent a glare towards the rest of the team.

Dock

As Talia was making her way towards the dock, she couldn't help but frown a bit. She felt like she hadn't exactly done something wrong. Was this because of Xi? It was hard to tell…

Confessional: Talia

"I wasn't exactly ready to go quite yet. Honestly, this felt the weirdest time for me to go…" She adjusted a strand of hair out of her face. "I honestly thought I'd probably be either one of the first people gone, or I'd make it far." Even she knew her attitude was a problem. "Going now just feels… anticlimactic, honestly."

"Talia!" Of course, she wouldn't be able to go home without hearing Jared one last time.

Turning to face him, she tried her best to keep a neutral expression. "What do you want?"

Slowly doing when he finally reached her, Jared found himself at a loss for words. "I…" He wanted to speak about avenging her elimination, but he knew enough that she wouldn't appreciate it.

Seeing the look in his eyes, Talia let out a small sigh. Except it was mostly a happy one. "Look, Jared. I'm not there to stop you from doing anything. Whatever you think you need to do, do it."

Looks like revenge was back on the table, boys. "I… Thank you, Talia." Jared tipped his hat down. "I know I've probably caused you some problems while I was here."

"Don't give me that, you've saved me enough times for it to not matter." Now Talia was having hard time keeping eye contact, given she was rarely ever sincere in a positive way.

After a few seconds, she reached into her pocket, pulling out a piece of paper. "Honestly, half of me saw the roles here reversed, with you getting taken down before me." She handed him the paper. "So I had prepared this in case you went home, but…"

At first, Jared didn't seem to understand what the paper was. However, once he opened it, he froze up slightly.

Numbers.

"U-uh…" Quickly, Jared tipped his hat down to hide his expression.

Cute, was a thought that occupied Talia's mind. "Good luck out there." She waved him off, getting onto the boat. "Thank you for… Making my time less miserable than it could have been…"

"I'll win this whole thing." Jared nodded his head along, placing the number inside his hat. Why not in his pocket?

Because fuck yo-

Jared watched the boat leave with Talia on it.

As he did that, Chris stepped onto the dock, ready to give his episode closer. "And that concludes another episode of Total Drama Island!"

"Chris, do you mind?" Jared crossed his arms, frowning slightly. "I'm having a moment here."

Chris no care. "With us moving down to only twelve campers left, it's anyone's game at this point. And for the first time ever since episode two, the Killer Bass will start off the episode with the same amount of people on their team as the Screaming Gophers. Will that last? Will Jared ever successfully be able to get revenge? And did Historia do the only useful thing she'll ever do this season? Find out next time! On Total! Drama! ISLAND!"

Votes

Talia: 4

Marisa: 3

Voting Confessionals

Arianna

"As much as I believe this is the stupidest fucking decision ever, I have no choice but to go along with it." She crossed her arms, an annoyed expression very apparent on her face. "I don't want to risk losing an ally again. So my vote will be for Talia."

Catrina

"Hell yeah!" She raised her fist in the air. "This is what I'm talking about. Finally, getting rid of someone who hates me! Goodbye Talia!" This was a stark contrast to the last one.

Jared

He had his arms crossed. "I'm probably going to vote the same way I did last time. Marisa got Eleanor eliminated last time, so I think I have to vote for her again." However, something was nagging at his brain. "I'm just worried we won't have the numbers… I hope Xi can pull through…"

Marisa

"Above all, my safety is the most important thing." She was writing in her journal. "I'm so close to some truth, I can feel it. But to get to that point, I'll have to make sure I eliminate the person who wants me gone. Which means I have to send a vote towards Talia.

Robin

He was reading a rather interesting book, called the art of war or something like that. "This seems like an easy vote. I might have gotten a vote on me because of my lacklustre performance." Pause, before he let out a small laugh. "No I didn't, the team is divided elsewhere. Marisa seems to know something she shouldn't, so I'll go with her wishes and vote for Talia."

Talia

"I'm not really sure if we can get her voted off… Last time we were barely able to tie. Whatever, if I can't get her out, it doesn't really matter to me, because they'll probably just vote Xi out, which works in my favour anyways. They'd have no reason to vote me out."

Xi

"I'm worried about a repeat of the last time I was up for elimination… It's likely that they just shoot me down now. They have the numbers after all, and they're all seemingly led by Marisa. I thought Arianna might have been the one running the show. How misguided of me, she's never once been running the show. She just likes to believe she is. My vote is for Marisa."

Campers Remaining: 12

Screaming Gophers:

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Arianna Rodriguez: The Popular Girl

Catrina Rwuicks: The Outgoing DJ

Jared Caertas: The Law Abiding Cadet

Marisa Campbell: The Excited Journalist

Robin Fuego: The Snarky Tactician

Xi Loung: The Manipulative Psychologist

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Killer Bass

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Bella Fiore: The Quiet Nature Lover

David Talon: The Shady Guy

Historia Lenz: The Unbearable Scholar

Jeremy Cloud: The Fearless Surfer

Mindy Misuto: The Mischievous Artist

Nila Darabond: The Soft Military Trainee

Eliminated: Jenna, Matthew, Ashton, Josef, Cameron, Christopher, Jack, Eleanor, Enima, Talia

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Screaming Gophers (Girls)

Things were getting far worse than what they started as. That was twice in a row that Marisa found herself being targeted for almost no reason. Had she done something to warrant it?

"It just doesn't make any sense…" She mumbled out, stomping into her cabin.

However, from the looks of it, both Arianna and Catrina were out at the moment.

And more importantly, there was something on her bed. "This is…" Walking over to examine it, Marisa confirmed what she already knew…

The last two tapes. Belonging to Talia and Robin.

Letting out a small sigh, Marisa picked them up. She already knew what she would find on them, given there wasn't really any chance for a different outcome. "Still… I should still see what's on these."

?

Stepping through the window like every other time she had done it before, Marisa moved over towards the tape player, both tapes in hands.

Nothing would change… Marisa kept telling herself as she looked at the two tapes. "Let's just confirm Talia, should we?"

Obviously, there was an attempt from her to remove Marisa, which meant she should have been one of the people helping to eliminate Cameron.

Once the tape was in, Marisa hit play.

Talia

"I don't really care what Jared says, I don't think his idea is that good. Catrina's recklessness cost us the challenge." She crossed her arms, an angry frown on her face. "If she didn't try and get revenge, we would have won the challenge for all of us. And for that reason, I'm going to be voting her out."

Marisa spent a few seconds staring at the screen. Almost as if to process the information that she had received. "Huh…?" Was the only thing she could bring herself to say.

No… Clearly she heard wrong.

Rewinding the video, Marisa hit play again.

Talia

"I don't really care what Jared says, I don't think his idea is that good. Catrina's recklessness cost us the challenge." She crossed her arms, an angry frown on her face. "If she didn't try and get revenge, we would have won the challenge for all of us. And for that reason, I'm going to be voting her out."

However… Nothing changed. Talia still said she voted for Catrina, and not Cameron…

Then… What?

"This doesn't make any…" If that was the case, then Catrina would have four votes right now. And she didn't tie with Cameron, so that means she couldn't have received another vote.

And yet… Cameron was the person who went home anyways…

Slowly, Marisa's eyes drifted over towards the final tape.

Robin.

Hastily, she removed the tape, replacing Talia's with Robin's before slamming her finger onto the play button.

Robin

Not even paying attention to the camera, Robin was currently reading the book. "I have an interesting choice to make. From the looks of it, Xi and Jared must have picked up on the alliance we have. Which means we'll become a target if we let things continue as they are." Closing the book with a rather heavy slam, Robin let the book fall to the ground. "I'll prioritise my safety first, and vote off Cameron."

What…

The…

"Fuck…?" Marisa verbalised that last part.

This entire time she had been working with Robin, and he was the reason that Cameron had gone home.

For what reason?

Even with the reason he stated, Marisa found it hard to believe.

Standing up, Marisa turned towards the window…

Where the hell is he?

Screaming Gophers (Guys)

Without even thinking, Marisa slammed open the door to the guys side, almost causing Jared to lunge at her.

"What the hell are you doing!?" Jared took a step back defensively. "You can't just barge in-"

"Where's Robin?" Marisa didn't care about his privacy at the moment.

Sputtering over his own words, Jared had to take a moment to collect himself. "Last I heard, he was going towards the dock to read…"

Perfect.

A secluded place.

"Thank you!" With that, Marisa had left.

"H-Hey! You never apologised!" Jared didn't even have time to be mad at her for the vote.

Docks

As Marisa ran towards the dock, she quickly found that Jared was right.

Robin was standing by the edge of the dock, reading a book as he looked over at the view of the ocean.

Once she had gotten close enough, Marisa took a moment to catch her breath before screaming out. "Robin!"

Lowering his book, he turned to look at him. "Hmm? What is it, Marisa?"

Her expression shifted to a mixture of anger and betrayal as she looked on towards him. "You… Why did you do it?"

"Hmm?" Robin has done a lot since he got here. "You'll have to narrow it down a bit."

"You got Cameron voted off!" Marisa pointed at him.

Oh?

How did she…? Had he been right the entire time?

Slowly, a smile formed on Robin's face. "Oh? It took you a while to figure that out." His eyes went back to his book. "Do you have a problem with my decision as a player?"

"Do I- Yes! Yes I do!" How could he not view it the way she did? "He was our ally, so why would you vote him off?"

"I thought I explained it in my confessional pretty well." Robin didn't bother to look at her as he gave her a rehash of his explanation. "Jared and Xi were going to be targeting us. Especially if we let the alliance bond anymore."

"You have no proof of that-"

"I might not have proof now, but I did back then." Robin closed his book, tilting his head to the side. "Back when we were playing cards on the beach, we were being watched. I bet you didn't even notice."

"W-well…" No… Marisa hadn't.

It's as Robin had expected. No one else really paid attention to their surroundings around here. "They were plotting against us, so I thought to keep our group safe by cutting the head of the dragon."

Was this really the way to go about it? "There had to be other reasons. Why keep it a secret?"

"Obviously, because you'd crucify me." Robin shrugged, opening his book again. "I thought about taking it to the grave. However, it feels like it was sort of pointless, given that Jack went ahead and got himself lost."

Right, out of the original alliance of four, only these two were still around. However, Marisa had definitely made more allies as time went on.

"I felt a little bad having to ask Chris to just auto eliminate him."

For a few seconds, the words Robin spoke didn't quite register.

This felt like when she watched the Talia confessional. "What?" Marisa blinked a few times.

Lowering his book slightly, Robin shook his head. "Don't pretend like you didn't hear me. When Jack went missing, I asked Chris if we could just make it an auto elimination for Jack."

"Why… Huh?" Was Marisa hearing any of this properly?

Robin shrugged. "Because if we kept him around, we would have lost two people going forward. And because I needed to keep Xi around."

Confessional: Marisa

"I feel like I'm losing my mind here! What the hell is he talking about?" She wanted to pull her hair out.

Understanding that Marisa looked a bit lost, Robin let out a sigh. "I kept Xi around because he'll be too distracted by Arianna. Given that she voted out Eleanor."

Letting the gears quickly turn in her head, it finally clued into Marisa's head what was going on. "Wait, but voting out Eleanor was your idea."

"That it was." Robin flipped his book to the next page. "I did it for three reasons actually. The first was just as I mentioned; to turn Xi against Arianna. The second reason was to make Xi lose an ally. And the last reason… To get Talia to target you."

"What…?" Marisa was being hit with new information at a rapid rate. "Why would-"

Before she could be confused for much longer, Robin spoke up again. "Because what happened next would be very telling. To set it up, I spoke with Eleanor."

"May I have a word with you?" A voice called out to Eleanor.

"Oh?" Turning to look at who it was, a smile appeared on her face. "Oh! Robin! Yes, what is it?"

Glancing to the side, Robin took a deep breath. "I've come with a warning."

Given that it didn't sound good, Eleanor's smile quickly faded away. "What's… What's wrong?"

"Someone is aiming to get you voted out." Robin would just say it plainly. "And I feel like we've bonded during the last two challenges, so I was sending out this warning to you."

Hearing that, Eleanor seemed a bit confused. "What? Why would anyone want to vote me out?" However, she still believed his words. "Do you know who it is?"

Looking around, acting nervous, Robin took a step towards her. "Only if you promise not to mention I'm the one who told you."

Clapping her hands, Eleanor offered him a sincere smile. "Don't you worry! I won't tell anyone."

Good.

"Marisa seems to want you out. I'm not sure why, but I think she's doing it because you're allies with Xi."

Hearing that, a small frown appeared on Eleanor's face. "What…? She'd want to eliminate me because of that?"

Offering a sincere smile, Robin tilted his head to the side. "But don't worry, I don't wish to vote like she does."

At least Robin was on her side. "T-Thank you… But… What should we do about her?"

"Well, personally, if someone wanted me gone, I'd vote them off instead. I suggest you bring it up to Talia that Marisa wants you gone, as well as Xi. They clearly want to cripple your alliance, so wouldn't it be the best to fight back?"

All Eleanor was hearing were good ideas, especially since she trusted Robin a lot. "Y-Yeah! I'll vote for her then. I'll mention it to Xi too." However, an odd feeling was creeping at the back of her head.

A feeling she couldn't quite get rid of. "You wouldn't vote for me… Right?"

Looking at her, Robin didn't seem to give a straight answer. "Eleanor, please… I would only vote for you if I had a really good reason. No reason to worry, alright?"

Not noticing his lack of an actual answer, Eleanor nodded along. "Thank you, Robin…" She needed to tell Talia as soon as possible.

"Why did you tell her that?" Marisa was flabbergasted at what Robin was telling her. "She told the others and put a target on my back!"

"You were never in any danger." Robin shrugged, a smile on his face.

"I… I almost got voted out. It was a tie!" Marisa narrowed her eyes, taking a step towards him.

Shaking his head, Robin closed his book again. "You would think, but I already verified with Chris about it."

Ah, Chris was still here. This was perfect. Robin had a question to ask him. "Chris." He stepped out of the portion of the woods.

Not really expecting anyone to approach him, Chris raised an eyebrow. "Can I help you?"

Stroking his chin, Robin nodded. "Yes. I wanted to ask you some questions."

"If it's about the challenge, I've already told you everything I needed to tell you."

"No…" Robin glanced away. "It's not about the challenge. It's about the game as a whole."

Now that caught Chris' attention. "Oh?"

A faint smile appeared on Robin's face. "In the event of a tied vote, what exactly happens?"

Seems that the gear in the tacticians head was spinning, and who was Chris to stop that from happening. "In the event of a tie, there would be a revote, unless only two people got votes. In which case we'd skip that phase and move right onto a tiebreaker challenge."

"Fascinating…" Robin nodded his head along, his faint smile slowly growing. "And what sort of challenge would that be?"

"Normally just a smaller version of what the challenge for the episode was. I don't want to have to think of extra challenges."

That's all the information Robin needed to know. "Thanks."

"Not to mention…" Robin continued. "Didn't you only win the tiebreaker challenge because of me?"

Freezing for a moment, Marisa had to recall the exact events that led to her victory.

Being in a bit of panic, Marisa wasn't exactly sure how to handle this situation. She wanted to save Eleanor, but there wasn't much she could do to save her at the moment. Especially with a wolf that looked this hungry.

That is… Until she remembered something from earlier…

Marisa was about to leave too, but Robin stopped her. "Before you go, take this." He pulled out a piece of the meat that he had stolen from Chef.

"Um… Why are you giving me this?" Marisa raised an eyebrow.

Shrugging, Robin didn't offer an explanation. "It would probably be for the best. In case I fail to appease the wolf, you could try it again if it manages to escape."

Smiling slightly, Marisa nodded her head. "Well, if somehow you fail, I'll be the one to win immunity." Of course, she didn't want to stick around for too long, given she'd probably ruin Robin's plan, so she moved away, leaving him alone with his thoughts.

And she hadn't exactly returned the meat she was given, which meant… She still had a way to save Eleanor.

"Hey!" Marisa called out, removing the meat from… Wherever… (Her bag will forever be ruined now)

For a moment, that seemed to distract the wolf. Enough that Eleanor could take the totem away from the wolf-

Robin wasn't exactly wrong… That's exactly why she won in the first place… "So… What?" Still, it was all so confusing. "Then why put the target on me anyways? And this entire plan relied on us targeting Eleanor anyways."

Shrugging, he didn't really want to give a good explanation. "We were going to vote for someone regardless, so there was no point in throwing the challenge. I still did anyway, though."

"You… Threw?" Marisa blinked a few times. How was Robin continuously able to give information that took her right out?

Letting out a small chuckle, Robin shook his head. "Sure did. Gave the totem right to Xi."

"Wait-" Holy shit, he had to have done that-

"It's fine, Robin is going to win." Arianna seemed pretty cocky when she said that. "Last I saw him, he was in the cave, and he cornered the wolf."

"Then we just vote Xi off." This was easy for Marisa. She'd have to relay that information to Catrina.

However, when Robin walked out of the woods, he very much didn't have the totem.

"Robin, you can stop hiding it." Marisa knew how he was, so she expected him to pull something like that-

Quickly, Robin turned all his pockets inside out, dropping at least two books when he did it. Then, he bit his thumb. "Change of plans, guys. Xi managed to get the upper hand on me, and now he has the totem."

"What!?" Arianna almost lost her cool completely, but she still had to remain in character. "How did you let that happen?"

"Then what? You just gave him the totem?" Marisa was trying to make fun of him.

A grin on his face, Robin nodded his head. "As a matter of fact, yes. I did."

As Robin reached over for the totem around the sleeping wolf, he heard the sounds of someone stepping into the cave. "Oh, you."

Xi was standing in the entryway to the cave, his eyes locked on the totem. "Step aside. I need this more than you do."

Removing the totem from the wolf, Robin stood up. "I suppose you do. After the last challenge, you were on the verge of going home. Luckily you had a saviour."

Crossing his arms, a frown appeared on Xi's face. "I can assure you I know less than you do about that. But I'm not going to risk going home, especially so someone who isn't at risk can be saved."
"You would be right about knowing less than I do." Robin took a few steps towards Xi, before tossing him the totem.

Xi almost dropped it to the ground, given he wasn't expecting to just be handed it. "What are you doing?"

Stepping past him, Robin patted him on the shoulder. "Must be embarrassing to have to be saved twice by the same person."

Hearing that, Xi clued in immediately to what he meant. "What… What do you gain from doing this?"

"Hopefully an ally." Robin tilted his head to the side. "Besides, keeping you around is more fun, after all." Without explaining further, he walked out of the cave, leaving Xi alone.

The more Robin explained to Marisa, the less overall she seemed to understand.

Sure, saving Xi could have been a strategic move, but at that point there would have been no point in throwing her under the bus. "You had already secured your safety with that move… Why go as far as to almost cause my elimination?"

Instead, Robin answered her question with another question. "Honestly, I'm a bit shocked Talia went home today… Why did that happen?"

Knowing that he wasn't asking that for the hell of it, Marisa caved in. "What? Why wouldn't I vote her off? She was targeting me."

Tilting his head to the side, Robin had to hold back letting out a small chuckle. "It's still weird, especially since you were so gung ho about Xi. But, I digress…" He had another point he wanted to bring up. "Yes, Talia may have been targeting you… But that leaves a bigger question…"

Lowering his book again, he stared deeply into her eyes. "How did you know that?"

How? That was an easy question for Marisa. "I know because-" That was until she felt her entire heart skip a beat, and it soon became apparent just what kind of hole she was digging for herself.

His words from earlier all became too clear…

"I thought I explained it in my confessional pretty well." Robin didn't bother to look at her as he gave her a rehash of his explanation.

Taking a step back, Marisa knew she had been had. "Wait…"

"You know, because you saw her confessional, didn't you?" Robin closed his book, now having a more intense look on his face. One step forward to counter her one step back.

"W-Well it wasn't by choice!" Marisa didn't know how to even get out of this situation. If Robin found out about what she had been doing in the back.

"It's exactly how you found out I voted for Cameron, isn't it?" Another step forward.

How did he even figure this out? "What makes you so certain about any of this? You did all of this before any confirmation!"

"I had a suspicion for a while. Honestly, ever since you had been hanging around Catrina a little too much."

"Well…" Truth be told, Marisa had no explanation for that either. It sort of happened because of Cartina's confessional. "Why does it matter to you anyways?"

"Do you remember what you said on the beach during the water sports challenge?" Robin glanced down at his book again.

"Not… Really?" It had been over a week since that happened, why would she remember something like that?

"You told me…" Robin trailed off, offering his explanation.

Marisa frowned. "Exactly. They are trying to win through any method. I think Jeremy did something similar earlier when he kicked Xi."

Robin shrugged. "Then I say we play their games."

"No!" Marisa quickly called out. "We aren't like that. Besides, we still have the player advantage, so we don't need to stoop to their level."

"You were very against sabotaging, claiming it to be unfair." Robin flipped through the pages of his books. "And I can respect that as a decision."

Where was he going with this?

Closing the book rather loudly, a small frown appeared on his face. "And yet, you'd go ahead and do something like this?"

Another step back from Marisa. "W-What does it matter?"

Tossing the book to the side, right off the dock, Robin shook his head. "I abhor cheaters above all else… And you are ruining the integrity of the game."

Scoffing a bit, Marisa frowned. "Don't act like you're any different, you've willingly tried to sabotage-"

"Do not compare the two. Sabotaging is in an entirely different field than cheating. Chris welcomes the former, but… How do you think he'd feel about the latter? How do you think anyone would feel about you checking the confessionals?"

"I…" Marisa was at a loss of words…

She hadn't even considered what she was doing, all because she wanted to get to the bottom of why Cameron had gone home.

"Who's doing it?" Robin finally asked.

"Huh?" That caught her by surprise. "What… What do you mean?"

Frowning slightly, Robin glanced off to the side. "You're better than this. I know you wouldn't do this on your own accords. Who got you to do this?"

Oh… "I… Honestly I don't know. The masked figure from the talent show is the person who gave me the tapes. They're also the person who warned me about Talia."

"Of course…" Something Robin didn't care about. Had he cared about the masked figure before, he would have figured it out by now. However, he would continue to not care about this. "Then, let's make a proposal."

"What kind…?" Marisa was going to choose to be sceptical about all of this. At this point, anything Robin wanted couldn't be a good thing.

"Five days." He crossed his arms, a small smile forming on his face. "You have five days to expose the identity of the masked figure, and I will get off your back. After all, you are still an ally, and you've been fighting hard to win."

"... And what if I can't do it in those five days?" Marisa knew there was going to be a catch.

Glancing to the side, Robin didn't even want to look her in the eyes when he said this next part. "Then it's simple… You'll be eliminated at the next possible ceremony."

"You think you can turn the entire team against me?" At best, it would be a tied vote, and she knew she could win against someone like Xi.

"You're probably thinking you have enough allies, don't you think." Robin placed his hands in his pockets. "But let's be real here, do you think Arianna would still side with you if she knew you saw her confessionals?"

Once again, Marisa could hear the sound of her own heart beating. "W-wait…"

"Obviously, she'd rather protect her true nature, so she'd cut you loose at the first opportunity she gets."

From the looks of it, there really wasn't any way Marisa could get out of this. She could try and talk to Arianna, but that had such a slow success rate…

It's either she revealed the masked figure's identity, or she went home.

"Five days…" Robin said again, walking past her. "I'm confident you'll be able to do it. I don't really want to have to send you home, but I simply can't look the other way when it comes to cheating."

A few more steps later, and Marisa would find herself alone on the dock.

She finally discovered why Cameron went home, and it left her with a multitude of problems… And she only had five days to deal with them…

How the hell was she going to pull this off…?