THE CAPITAL FILES: THE 500TH HUNGER GAMES. - Chapter 7 - Stalkerlizardinyourhouse - Hunger Games Series (2024)

Chapter Text

DAY 22

“Eve, go back to sleep.” Sable says groggily. She was meant to be keeping watch, but she was doing a mediocre job at best “You need sleep.” Bull was still asleep, right next to Sable as usual. He was also meant to be on watch.

Eve looks at Sable with wide eyes. “I can hear him.” She whispers. “Sable, I can hear all of them.” Sable sighs and reaches out to pull Eve to sleep on her other side. “Sable, somethings wrong. Somebody’s here.”

Sable strokes Eve’s hair. “Sweetie, go back to sleep. It’s ok.” as Eve continues to whisper things, Sable sighs. “We’ll scope out the arena again, ok? But in the morning though. Trust me, I’m not letting anything hurt you right now.”

She looks around the group and sighs. “Eve, it’s probably nearly morning. (it was 5:24 AM) Why don’t you wake Falcon and me and Bull will go get breakfast, ok?” She shakes Bull. “Up we get! Kids need feeding, bitches need bleeding. Come on!”

Sable tugs on Bulls arm, yanking him out of the makeshift bed they were sleeping on. Bull didn’t even open his eyes, but allows himself to be dragged off by Sable, taking a long sharp knife with him.

“Maybe we’ll get a goat.” Sable continues dragging Bull through the dark. “Careful, water.” Bull finally is forced to open his eyes as he crosses a river.

He stops on the other side and frowns. “Do- do you smell smoke?”

Sable stops and frowns. “Huh. We’re checking it out?” She pulls on Bulls arm. “Can you see where it’s coming from?”

Bull frowns, looking around. “That way. I think.” He frowns, looking at the sky above him. “Can we leave?” he glances at Sable. “Look, I know you want to stay. It’s in your nature. But the games have one winner, and you’ll just die holding onto everyone.”

“What about the Careers?” Sable asks. She avoids her brother's gaze, instead trying to follow the fire.

Bull scoffs, and stretches, swatting a mosquito away from him. “They’re nothing to us, Sable. Name one person in this arena who stands a chance.”

“Against the pair of us?” Sable asks. Bull nods and she grins. “Nobody. Nobody. If I was alone, maybe…” she trails off for a second. “Maybe Falcon? If he got a jump on me? Probably not though, I’d still win.” The pair is silent for a minute before Sable smiles and sighs. “Yeah, I don’t think anybody could. The pair of us, we’re set.” She looks at Bull and frowns. “Only one winner.”

“Only one winner.” Bull echos. “We don’t- do we need to talk about it?”

Sable sighs. “I’d rather we didn’t. Can’t we just agree that Dallas will send you a coin, I take heads, you take tails and we flip it. Loser kills themselves.”

“Sounds just perfect.” After a minute, Bull reaches out to take his sister's hand, the pair walking silently together towards the fire. “Oh, are they stupid?” The twins from ten had walked straight towards the Career group.

The four tributes were all asleep. Invidicus was supposed to be on watch, and, against all training, had started a fire, then even more stupidly, fallen asleep.

Sable frowns. “I thought the Willis girl was meant to be smart?” She looks at Bull. “Trap?”

Bull frowns. “Let’s get the pack towards them. And hurry.”

As they enter the jog towards the rest of the District ten alliance, Sable laughs. “I mean, if we kill them off, the game’s really over!”

Bull nods. “I mean, without tributes like that, the gamemakers would just shove us towards everyone else. It will be over within a week!” Something in the back of Sable's eyes dies out in that moment and she stops talking until she reaches the group again.

Ruby groans. “Well f*ck Invidicus Willis, because they’re dead meat!”

“Not necessarily.” Flickerman says. He glances at the screen. “If they see the ten pack coming, they could probably outrun them, Invidicus especially. He’s really fast, Achilles told me he does track at school. Elizabeth however, I’m a little worried for her.”

Ruby nods and frowns. “It’s always just typical that the person to blame has the best chance of getting out alive. He’d probably run all the way back to the other Careers and start talking about how they were ambushed by District ten.”

“Careers?” The rest of the District ten pack was up in a heartbeat. Angus looks at Sable. “But we didn’t see the others? It’s the strongest part of the Career pack?”

“I would add Bentley to that, but yeah. We think the other’s could be hiding.” She glances at Brandy before sighing. “Ok, hear me out on this. Bull, I want you to lead Angus, Falcon, Cassidy and Briar to attack them now. Eve and Circe, I want you to hang around in earshot, but not where the Careers can see you. If things go wrong, Circe, you come running for me and Eve, you get involved. I want to be a little further away, just in case they try to make a run for it. I’ll have Brandy with me, I don’t know if I want to leave her on the battlefield.”

She squeezes the little girl's hand and Brandy nods gratefully at her. “You can’t protect me forever though.” The kid says.

“Don’t talk about it, ok?” Angus tells her. “We can do that. Do you want us to kill them then and there, or just secure them?”

Sable hesitates before talking again. “Secure them. I- I want to talk to them. Because if they’re secured, it means they’ve split from the pack and nobody is coming. I want to know where the rest of the pack is.”

Bull moves forward and gestures for everybody to follow him. “Come on. We’re going. Hopefully to end the sh*tshow”

The camera changes to the mentor room, where the District two female mentors were arguing. “It’s not worth it.” Calista says wearily. “I don’t want to do it. I mean, where the hell did you even find the sponsors for this?”

“It’s not worth it to keep our tribute alive?” Alexandra “Xandra” Byrne (Victor of the 486th) says. She scoffs. “Calista, that’s the point of being mentors, we keep our tributes alive. Give me that.” She reaches for the card and Calista doesn’t move, staring blankly at the screen.

Xandra was a quieter victor, but known to be quite vicious. It was a shock to many that she didn’t volunteer for Domita in the duel, but maybe she knew that Domita would say no. She was a very brutal tribute who had been such a horror in her games that it put many capital members off. Last year she had been put on two years of leave in the training academy, after an incident where she had broken a student’s arm because they talked back. People didn’t like Domita because she was spiteful and crude. People don’t like Xandra because they know what she’s capable of. She keeps her distance and others tend to be grateful for that.

Now, she stares at Calista. “Domita Mickinny did not die for this. Don’t ask where I got the money or who I got the money from, just fix our tribute so I can leave. Tell her she’s being an idiot!”

Bulla Gardner (Victor of the 457th) sighs and moves to Calista. “Come on, give her the stuff. Because she’s not going to survive a second without it.”

Calista sighs. “Well?” Xandra questions. “Look, give me the goddamn card. It doesn’t matter where I got the money, all that matters is that there’s money on Elizabeth’s card, and we can stop her from dying. That’s what you’re doing if you say no, you’re choosing to kill the tribute.”

Calista silently punches some keys and the sponsor gift starts flying down. “ I’m just saying that a 3.9 million dollar sponsor gift now means that this is the last she’s getting. We won’t be able to get the funds again.” She sighs. “Alexandra, 3.2 million dollars. What sponsor would show up and just give you that much on her?”

Xandra scoffs. “None of your business.” she hesitates for a second before glancing between Bulla and Calista. “Never mind, I’ll bring it up later.”

Elizabeth gets knocked around the head by the sponsor gift, and she sighs in frustration, angrily hitting Invidicus. “You idiot, stay on watch! How hard is it to stay awake for less than three hours?”

“Sorry.” Invidicus sadly stares out into the darkness. Elizabeth ignores him as she opens the sponsor gift. A null sense of confusion seems to cross her face as she shows the box to Invidicus. Her brother doesn’t look and she sighs, speaking to herself.

“Pain meds, to hide the pain in my leg, not fix it.” Elizabeth says. She turns the strangely large box of them over in her hands. “Of course, there's a lot of them. If I scale the sponsor guide to this, I’d say this costs something between 3.8-4.2 million. If they just sent me something to fix it enough to run on, it would have been unattainable. In the fifteen millions probably. It’s been done before, our record holder being sent a 45 million dollar sponsor gift, but not something they would easily come across.”

She glances at Invidicus, who wasn’t really paying attention again, and looks back at the box, smiling widely. “Oh, this was Bulla Gardner’s idea. Maybe not announced by her, but you know what you were doing. Tenzophiz pills. I’ll be careful.”

She deliberately moves past Invidicus to reach a certain water bottle, taking the water to swallow the first pill. This does catch Invidicus’s attention, though he doesn’t act on it.

“If she runs on a broken foot, it’s still going to be bad on the foot, regardless of whether or not she has pain meds.” Ruby says. She smiles though. “I do want to see this part though.”

20 minutes later, The District ten group appears, shrouded by darkness to look at the Careers. “Three of them.” Whispers Angus. “She’s got a gift.” He looked at the box on the ground, but said pills were already inside Elizabeth’s coat. Instead, the group focuses on what she’s holding: Baby Midus.

“The f*ck is that?” Falcon says. From their position, they couldn’t tell that it was a baby, all they could see was that Elizabeth was being very cautious as she held something shrouded in blankets. Invidicus was the only one standing, but none of them had their weapons on them, and Nolan was passed out on the ground.

“Bull.” Angus says. “Can I go for the one standing? He killed my father.”

Bull nods. “You take him, Falcon, I want you to secure smurf boy. And the girl’s injured, look at her. I want Cassidy and Briar to get their weapons. Dangerous job, but you’re here, danger’s everywhere. I’ll grab the genius and take that thing from her. Angus, you lead. Remember, secure don’t kill. Sable will probably let you kill him though.”

Angus’s hand tightens on his knife, before he lunges out towards Invidicus.

Invidicus shouts in panic, causing Elizabeth to scamper to her feet and kick Nolan. The two eldest Willis children try to dive for the weapons, but Cassidy gets there first, and Angus yanks Invidicus back.

Nolan does wake up, and the second he seems to register something happening, Falcon already had him. “You move, you’re dead.” Falcon spits in his ear. Nolan looks to the knife that shone in the darkness, and with a depressingly sad ‘oh.’ that made even Falcon frown, Nolan just stands there.

Elizabeth begins to try and back away, but Bull comes up near her. “What you got there?” he taunts. “A little bundle of success? Give.”

“No!” Elizabeth ducks under his first swing. “Don’t hurt him!”

Bull goes to take his knife out, but by some measure of panic and surprise, Invidicus, kicking Angus off of him, leaps to grab Bull around the waist, yanking him backwards. “Lizzy, Run! Run, Run!”

She doesn’t even look back, bolting out of the clearing.

“Oh, sh*t!” Both Eve and Circe begin chasing Elizabeth down, trying to keep her in sight. Eve glances around as Elizabeth begins to gain ground on them. “Circe, get the horse.”

“Those things are wild!” Circe yells at her. “Wild and satanic! I can’t-” she glances back to the clearing, where Bull and Angus (They had left Falcon, Briar and Cassidy to keep the other Careers where they are) were emerging. “Angus, get a horse!”

Eve nods. “We need to herd her towards Sable.” she stoops to pick up a rock from the ground, and hurls it towards Elizabeth, barely missing her head.

For five minutes, Elizabeth steadily pulls away from the group, taking looping circles around the area, jumping through wooded areas. For a second, it looked like she debated scaling a big cliff, but without the use of her hands, there would be no way. She hesitates on the idea of dropping Midus, but decides against it, continuing with her straight path. She turns around in curiosity turned alarm at the sounds of Angus’s shouts and the noises of an angry animal.

The horse did not like Angus, but we’re all pretty sure Angus didn’t like the horse either. Desperately trying to get the man off of its back, the horse bolted towards Elizabeth. It became clear that Angus did indeed know what he was doing, but definitely wasn’t having fun as he was sent barrelling 45 mph down the rocky terrain.

Elizabeth Willis was fast, but not 45 mph fast. She was forced to opt to go down towards the slippery rocks of the muddy river that had claimed multiple lives in the 498th games. Horse couldn’t follow, but her three pursuers could. She couldn’t run any further. As they drew near, she turned around, looking for something, anything that could get her out alive, and the only thing she was met with was the sneer of Sable Robbins.

“Wil-”

Sable was cut off before she could begin a monologue or taunt as Elizabeth grabs her with a free arm. “Please Sable! Don’t let them hurt the baby! Don’t let him hurt the baby!”

Bull finally appears, grabbing Elizabeth away from his sister and yanking her back up the slope, where Eve, Circe, and Angus (who had leapt off the horse to a tree and down again with surprisingly minimal injuries) were waiting. Sable, with Brandy, began to make their way towards the group.

Bull yanks Midus out of Elizabeth’s arms and throws her to the ground, looking at the child. “A baby?” his eyes light up as she sees Midus’s little jacket. “Midus!”

“Don’t hurt the baby!” Elizabeth was sobbing now. “Please, don’t hurt the baby! Don’t hurt the baby!”

Bull smirks and looks at Eve. “Give me a knife. A little one for a little tribute.” Eve doesn’t question nor hesitate as she passes over the knife, before Sable steps in.

“Give me that.” she yanks Midus out of Bulls arms, cradling the child. “It’s a little baby.” she states in wonder. “Back to Falcon, all of us. Bring the Career.”

Elizabeth reaches towards Midus again, but Sable continues tightly holding the baby, stroking his hair as she keeps moving. Bull and Eve exchange a glance and it looks like Elizabeth smiles for a second before Angus grabs one arm, Circe the other, and she’s dragged back to the group.

“It was the baby.” Bull says, striding back in the clearing. “They didn’t give you trouble?”

Falcon shakes his head. “Smurf boy didn’t.” he looks into Nolan's brown eyes. “This one’s broken. As for the other one, he tried. Look at how well that went for him.”

Invidicus’s jacket was off, and a nasty looking cut was in his arm. He looks at Elizabeth in sorrow. Angus throws Elizabeth to the ground, and moves over to the weapons. “So what now? We kill them?”

“Wait.” Elizabeth says, pulling herself up. “The baby- you can’t kill the baby.”

“I can though.” Bull tells her. “I’ll squish it with my shoe.” He glances at Sable, who was rocking Midus back and forth and frowns. “Come on, let me cull it.”

“It’s not an it.” Elizabeth says, trying to make eye contact with Sable. “It’s a baby. You will have no sponsor, nobody wants the baby murderer to be the victor.”

“I don’t need sponsors,” Bull says, pacing around to pick up a throwing knife and twirl it in his hand. “And if the gamemakers want to punish me for playing their game, so be it.”

“Sable.” Elizabeth says. “Sable, look. That baby is valuable. You can kill me. You can burn me at the stake like a witch, but don’t hurt Midus. I know you don’t want to hurt him, you’re not an evil person. Somebody needs to keep that baby alive.”

Sable glances over at Bull. “What if we keep the baby? Kill the others and keep the baby.”

“Sable, no. not in a thousand years.” Bull tells her. He sighs and moves back to her side. “Look, this is one thing I won’t agree with you on. Because that thing is not worth dying for. Because if we make the exception to keep it alive now, you’re never going to let go of the thing.”

Sable rocks the baby back and forth. “Well she’s right though.” Sable says quietly, looking at Midus’s little eyelashes. “We can’t leave the baby to die.” Bull glances around and the rest of the pack that, however begrudgingly, seems to agree with Sable.

“We can’t kill a baby.” Briar says. “But we’re not keeping the thing. Why don’t they just tell us where the rest of the Careers are, we kill them, then we leave the baby to be discovered by Mohawk man.”

“Over my dead body.” Invidicus, who Falcon was watching intently, yells out. He pulls himself to his feet and looks at Nolan then Elizabeth. “We’re not telling them where the pack is.”

“Then it will be over your dead body.” Falcon snaps, yanking Invidicus back. “You split from the pack, we know it. Where are they!”

“Falcon!” Sable says suddenly. “Falcon, take the siblings. I want everybody to get it out of them where the pack is, no matter the cost. All of you actually. Briar, hold the baby.” She hands Midus to Briar and looks at Bull. “You too. All of you. I want to talk to Smurf boy. I have a couple of questions.” At Bull's look of protest, she shakes her head. “He’s the easiest to talk to, he’ll say some stuff the others won’t. He won’t attack me. We’ll be just around the corner. Up!” Nolan pulls himself to his feet and follows Sable, hands above his head in surrender.

Falcon looks down at Invidicus. “This is really Sable’s forte, feel lucky she isn’t here. Eve, heat up some blades for me.”

Sable pulls Nolan off, just slightly out of earshot. “What happened to Hermes?” Sable asks him. There was a brief moment of Nolans hesitation before Sable sits down on a rock and drags him next to her on her left, her left hand reaching around to hold his throat gently. “I can hurt you and you know it, we’re doing this the nice way.”

“You can definitely hurt me.” Nolan says. “I think you’re going to win.”

“That’s not what I f*cking asked.” Sable says, her nails pressing slightly into his skin. “Hermes. What happened to Hermes?”

Nolan takes a deep breath and sighs, but halfway through he begins to laugh. “I’m so sorry, I have no idea how I’m still alive anymore!”

Sable watches him for a second before ruefully smiling and joining in the laughter. “If it helps, I don’t know how you are either!”

Nolan looks at her. “Look, can we please not kill the baby?” Sable sighs, standing up, and Nolan follows. “Look, Sable. Look at her leg. It’s going to kill her if she keeps walking on it. Give her the baby, she’ll walk back to the Career pack and die, and the baby will be safe. No dead baby, and a dead me, Invidicus and Elizabeth.”

“Nolan.” Sable tells him, dragging both tributes to their feet. “What. Happened. To. Hermes.”

Nolan stumbles backward out of her grip, looking at the taller, stronger tribute in front of him. “Yeah ok. There’s an arena, big spider mutts. But you don’t want to go there.” Sable glances at him and smiles slightly in amusem*nt as Nolan had found his way onto a rock, so he could stand taller than her.

“Does this make you feel better? More like a man?” Sable reaches over to him and pins him up against the rockface. “You’re so high up.” she says mockingly.

Nolan’s face flushes deep red and he whimpers slightly as he tries to pull himself free. “Okay, okay, you win. You terrify me. Let go now please.”

Sable teasingly squeezes his throat tighter. “No, I like you where you can’t run away. You’re forced to look at me like this. Where’s this arena? What’s in it? Tell me everything.”

Nolan gasps for air. “Ok. OK. Start going back towards the city arena. I think you need to pass the city, volcanos, trenches- just keep going that way until you reach this boarded up arena. It’s the next one after that. There’s a big pit, and it’s horrifying. He took hours to die. It’s like the place has toxic-”

“Purple.” Sable says. “I thought the smart one looked off.” she stares at Nolan. “I just thought we had hit her too much. It’s very slight.” She drops the battle axe on the ground, and brushes Nolan’s hair out of his eyes. “I told you to look at me.” Nolan brings himself to meet her gaze. “Good boy.”

“Please just put me down.” Nolan repeats again. “Not only does this hurt my neck, it makes me not want to tell you things. I get it, I’m a Career, but I’m not going to hurt you.”

“Just say it gets you going.” Sable rolls her eyes, but does drop him, and the pair look at each other. It was no look of friendship, rather an unstable balance that neither seemed to want to break. Sable sighs. “And you couldn’t hurt me if you wanted to. Come on, tell me everything about his death.”

Nolan sighs. “Well it all began when Blaze got stung by a bee…”

Briar flinches as Invidicus screams. She was sitting back with Brandy as Falcon, Eve and Angus attempted to get information out of Invidicus. The Career held up well, but his skin was blistering. Bull was overseeing the entire thing, casting glances to where Sable went off, and Cassidy was heating up more knives, the girl showing brutal happiness to see the man who killed their father being harmed. Elizabeth just stood there on her own, staring forward in silence.

“It’s horrible.” Briar looks to see Circe standing near her. “Briar, it’s horrible. He’s just protecting his family.”

“The family he chose to split away from?” Briar dismisses. “It’s the Robbins way of life, hurt them more. It sounds horrible, he sounds horrible! But this is tame compared to the things I’ve seen the twins do to their victims.”

Circe looks away as Invidicus’s pained eyes meet hers, begging her to stop the rest of the group. “I’m not made for the ‘Robbins way.’ I guess. He’s Angus’s age. Practically Talon’s age.”

“Don’t bring Talon into this.” Briar whispers. “Circe, please don’t. The man killed your father, don’t be sorry for him. He deserves it.”

“Your father killed his father.” Circe says. “And his mother killed your mother. And Sable killed Emerald and Urban killed Talon. When does it end? We’ll kill Invidicus and Valerie will kill me. Then Eve kills Valerie so Ferrari kills Eve?”

Briar bounces Midus and sighs. “We’re fighting because we’re scared, Circe. We’re scared of what the Careers could do to us. They’re fighting us because they’re scared of what we could do to them. It’s animal nature. Underneath our smiles, we’re just animals.”

“Where the hell are they!” Angus shakes Invidicus, slapping him across the face.

“Over my dead body! Over my dead f*cking body!” Invidicus glares towards them. “Trust me, whatever you do, I’ve witnessed worse. And if a child can handle it, I can too.”

“Angus.” Bull says. He was holding a bucket of water. “They don’t hold up well in water. You waterboard 95% of the population, they’ll spill within the fourth round. Unless they’re trained, they won’t hold an hour.”

Invidicus smiles mockingly. “Good thing I’m a peacekeeper then. Because I won’t tell you sh*t. You can-”

Falcon grabs him around the back of his head and shoves him down. “If he doesn’t break soon, we’ll chop his dick off.” Eve laughs and Falcon grins. “Yeah, our man isn’t going to hold up well when the family jewels are in danger.”

“What about her?” Cassidy gestures to Elizabeth.

Bull smiles. “Spare. If he happens to break during torture.”

The other Careers were up and moving, heading towards the hotel. “I hope we find them.” Mercedes says. She wasn’t looking so good, but not in the way Elizabeth didn’t look good. She looked exhausted, like no amount of sleep could give her the energy she needed. Still, she soldered on.

They were on foot today, Bentley claiming that if they took a car, it would be easier for somebody to hear them. Currently, they were sitting outside a convenience store, waiting for Valerie and Nero to fill up water. Bentley moves to straighten Mercedes’s pigtails. “We will.” She tells her. “Trust me, we will. And we’ll yell at them for not coming back. Nolan wouldn’t leave us.”

Urban sighs, angrily tossing his hairspray can. “Empty. Valerie, get me more hair spray!”

Valerie waves Nero off to find hairspray, and Nero comes back with a can. “It’s disgusting.” Nero says. “13 years expired.”

Valerie turns to look at him and smiles. “Is that stuff flammable?” Nero drops everything to run back and get three more, albeit travel sized cans. Valerie takes one and pockets it, before turning back to the fridge. “You know how I can tell someone’s been in here? They left the door open to the beer fridge.”

“Ten?” Nero asks, looking at the alcohol. “Nobody else in their right mind would be drinking, let alone the amount missing.” Valerie raises an eyebrow and slowly reaches into the fridge, grabbing a bottle. Nero raises an eyebrow and Valerie scoffs.

“What?” she asks. “It’s not like mom’s here to tell us no. I steal dad’s beer all the time! Besides, It’s not like I'm planning to get drunk now, it’s for when I feel like I’m dying. If I’m gonna die, I’m not doing it sober.”

Nero hesitates before reaching into the fridge himself. In the convenience store, there were big opaque water bottles, the kind that keep things cold. They had grabbed eight, the other three meaning to be for the three missing Careers.

Valerie grins at him, tossing him one of the spare bottles. “Come on, one for beer, one for water. The essentials for life.”

Nero glances at her. “They’re not coming back, are they? They’ve actually left.”

“Don’t look so upset.” Valerie tells him. She was more focused on getting alcohol into the bottles than the conversation with Nero. “it didn’t go your way, what are you going to do, cry about it? Well that’s actually what you’ll do, but not me! I’m not going to sit and whine over it. I’ll just kill all of them later.”

She waves Nero off, turning back to her beer, filling a 16 oz bottle, then grabbing a big 40 oz one and filling that. For drinking when she feels like she’s dying it’s not a small amount. Reluctantly, she shoves a small plastic bottle of water in her pocket as well before leaving.

“So the mutts can shapeshift?” Sable asks. Nolan had gotten to the part where he was talking about the Sable and Bull mutts. They were back on the rock, and Sable did have her axe again, her left hand resting yet again on Nolan’s neck.

Nolan nods. “Yeah. I feel like that pit has to be personalized. The whole time, it was on camera too. It’s like Hermes was the only thing holding us together. Urban’s a minute away from killing everyone and I just know that Valerie wants to go solo.”

“So where are they?” Sable asks. “They’re nearby, right?

Nolan grins and shakes his head. “You’re not getting that out of me.”

“If I truly wanted to get it out of you, I would have already.” Sable tells him. She lets go of his neck and stands up and walks to face him, placing her hands on his shoulder, leaning in to talk quietly. “I don’t give a sh*t where the other Careers are. The only thing I give a sh*t about is my family. And you’re going to help me with that. Keep talking about the pit.”

Invidicus was yanked up from the water again. This had been going on for 15-20 minutes. He hadn’t spilt location, but Invidicus had been reduced to a sobbing, gasping mess, desperately looking to make eye contact with anybody. “We could yank all of his hair out.” Eve says dully. “Like in clumps. Premature balding.”

As Invidicus is yanked up again, he finally looks at Circe. “Circe please! Please make them stop! Make them stop!”

“f*ck it.” Circe shoves Briar further from her, elbowing her way to the front of the group, yanking Falcons hands off of Invidicus, and dragging the spluttering Career up for air. “This has gone on for far too long.” She stares into Falcon’s eyes. “We’re not doing this.”

Invidicus coughs, and weakly clings onto the bottom of Circe’s pants. “Thank you. Thank you.”

Eve grins. “So can we castrate him now? That will make him give it up.” The look of total panic on Invidicus’s face suggests that this would have worked in a heartbeat. Eve goes to grab her knife again. “No more babies for you!”

“Nobody’s castrating him!” Circe says exasperatedly. “If we sit here and torture him, we are no better than the Careers.”

Bull shoves his way to the front, throwing Falcon behind him. “So what?” He grabs the knife off of Eve. “I think I’d make a great Career. Step aside.”

“If you do that, I’m leaving.” Circe says. “This is cruel and unusual punishment.” behind her, Invidicus glances at Elizabeth, who had somehow gotten a throwing knife and slipped it into her pocket. Invidicus looks past her at Falcon, shrugs before giving him the perfect puppy dog eyes look. Falcon is not amused.

“But he killed your dad.” Eve says, looking at Circe. She brushes her black hair out of her face, glancing at Invidicus before Circe again. “You don’t want revenge?”

Invidicus coughs up more water. “Well a mutt version of your dad and a mutt version of my mom danced in a circle while trying to kill Hermes, so I think I’ve been punished enough.”

Angus looks at him, somewhat taken aback. “What the f*ck?”

Invidicus nods and sighs. “It was my birthday. Hermes and my mother died on my birthday. My mother, the strongest person I know, except maybe Valerie. I couldn’t help her, it was a mercy kill. Hermes killed her. And once it was over, she comes back as some f*cked up mutt, prancing around with over a hundred dead mutts from District ten and everybody tries to kill Hermes. They took my mother and made the world use her memory not for her, rather just a device for Hermes. That’s f*cked up. And it was my birthday. I just want a birthday cake, that’s what I should be doing right now, leftover birthday cake.”

He struggles to his feet, and nobody seems to stop him. “I watched my mother die a horrible, brutal death. Hermes didn’t die for hours upon hours of time. My father died in that battle too, and he wasn’t much, but he was a father. My mother is gone, and I’ve realized now that I am nothing more than my mothers son, than my sister's brother. I am nothing without my family, I have nothing, I’m nobody. And I nearly killed a dog. I don’t have parents anymore. I’ve never had Nero, and I’ve lost Valerie. And you,” he looks past the group at Elizabeth. “You don’t give a sh*t about me. You never have.”

As this happens, Invidicus was yelling loud enough for Sable and Nolan to hear. “Oh sh*t.” Sable grabs Nolan, dragging him back to the group. “Trust me for a minute.” She tells him. “You’re going to make some new friends.”

Invidicus pulls himself up taller to look at Bull. The man from ten was over half a foot taller, and easily ready to break him. “So if you’re going to kill me, do it! I don’t have friends to get home to, they all hate my guts or don’t know sh*t about me, because I don’t know sh*t about me! I am nobody! I have nobody, and I’ll be nobody until the day I die, which hopefully is today. If I had a gun, I’d give it to you so you could pull the trigger and get it over with!” he shoves Bull, now screaming. “Pull the trigger bitch! Pull the trigger! Blow my f*cking brains out, just don’t hurt the baby!”

“Why do you care so much about the baby?” Bull says. Invidicus glances at Elizabeth, who hesitates, not knowing what to say.

“Because they’re scared of that pit.” Sable comes out, looking at Bull. “Family is such a big thing in these games, you know the Gamemakers were going to do something. The mutts down there, they’re smart. Blaze Vilmeer died down there, suffering from a venom. The mutts are quiet, but if they see that baby's face in the sky, they’re going to be angry. That’s it, right?” She stares at Elizabeth coldly. “You’re scared of the mutts, so you're keeping the baby safe. That’s why we can’t kill it, a group has to go down and kill the mutts first, otherwise horrors will be unleashed.” There was a second where she glares at Elizabeth. “Right ? ”

Elizabeth stares at her for a second before nodding. “They’re crazy mutts. Whatever horror you’re thinking of, worse. Hermes held up for hours on end. I don’t know how he did it. It’s tied to the Vilmeer mutt. He will literally rise from the dead and plague every last tribute if this baby dies before someone kills him again.” She holds eye contact with Sable, most likely trying to figure out if Sable believes what she’s saying.

Sable steps forward. “The Careers are too scared to do sh*t. Hiding like babies, these three left to keep the kid safe, while the others are huddled in a ball, it’s the 494th all over again. There’s valuable stuff down in that pit, we’re not quite sure what, but whatever it is, it’s valuable. Hermes did the brute of the work, pacifying them. We can kill two birds with one stone. It’s not even that dangerous, as long as the kids are alive. There are weapons that beat all others down there. We send a larger group to get those, and a few individuals go kill what remains of that Career pack. It’s not dangerous. Nobody here dies today. These two, they care for that baby. And this one,” she jerks her thumb at Nolan. “Is going back to that pit. Prisoner and a guide. And if all else fails, sacrifice.”

Falcon looks at her. “And you trust them?”

In response, Sable grabs Elizabeth by the arms, showing Falcon the girl's wrists. “They’re purple, Falcon. Something’s wrong down there. You don’t want to kill someone possessed by the purple." She looks at Falcon. “You could lead the pit group.”

“Pit?” Falcon asks, looking around at the alliance. “I don’t want to run around with Smurf boy.”

Sable shrugs. “Take that one then.”

Invidicus wildly shakes his head. “If you put me back in that pit, I’ll die before you even get me there. No way. Nope.”

Bull moves towards Sable. “I mean, the pair of us, we could easily take on that pack.” He looks around the group. “Everybody that isn’t Falcon, are we all good with the idea of that?”

Falcon pushes his way in again. “Hey, the pair of you can’t just run off, what if you leave?”

Oh, you know a lot about leaving.” Sable tells him. “You’ve left at every chance you've received for the past 23 years of your life. It’s nearly 24, right? September third? Three days before Dad’s.” She looks at Falcon. “The idea of leaving didn’t even cross my mind. We’ll meet back at the entrance of this arena once we’ve all finished with what we’re doing. In fact, whatever group finishes first comes looking for the other group. No man left behind.”

“Do you think just the four of them, Falcon, Angus, Eve and Circe would be enough for the pit?” Bull looks at Nolan. “Because if the group thinks it’s unsafe, me and Sable could keep the children.” He glances between Cassidy and Briar, seeming to forget about Brandy.

“You’re not taking Cassidy and Brandy.” Angus says. He looks at Sable. “We’ll go to the pit, but I’m not separating my family any more than I have to. We’ll go with Smurf boy, but we’re keeping him on a leash, literally. Circe, tie a rope around his neck.”

Sable hands Circe the rope she had been using a week or two ago to keep her armor together before it had been welded. She looks at Briar and crouches down to talk to her. “Do you want to come with me, or go to the pit?” she asks. “I’m not mad either way, we’ll meet again in a week.”

Briar hesitates, looking at Cassidy. “I think… I think I’ll stay with you. And Bull.” She looks at the weapons. “Are we just going to arm them again?”

Sable shakes her head. “No, I think the pit group can take what they want. You two are lucky you’re both staying alive. We’ll get the Career location out of you first before you leave.” She takes Midus out of Briar's hands and tenderly rocks the baby.

Falcon angrily stares around before sighing. “Say your goodbyes then.”

“Thanks.” Invidicus pats Circe on the shoulder, moving to Nolan. “What the f*ck happened with Sable, man?”

Nolan shrugs helplessly. “I don’t know. She just made me tell her about the pit, I told her the truth, and now we’re here. She pinned me against a wall. I don’t know how I feel about that other than I'm terrified.”

Sable pats Falcon on the back. “No hard feelings, we’ll see you soon.” She looks at him. plucking a string from someone’s jacket from his hair. “I think you’ve grown so far from the boy I know, that it just feels wrong. You’re my brother and family is family. I love you, ok?”

Falcon looks at her. “I love you too. And when I go home, in the years to the future, I think I’ll name a daughter after you. A Sable that I can take care of this time, not the other way around.”

Sable looks at him sadly. “Don’t dwell in the past, it kills you, Falcon.” There was slight hesitancy before Sable hugs her brother for the first time in a while. They both knew it would be the last time.

“Kid, be safe.” Bull sits next to Cassidy on the ground.

“I will.” Cassidy looks towards him. “Bull? Back in week one, when I had that argument with your father, was he going to hurt me?”

Bull sighs. “Kid, I don’t know. If he hurt me, he could hurt you. Aries hurts people. It’s the Robbins way, to punch first, ask questions later.” As he talks, Cassidy looks him up and down. Bull bears many scars on his back and arms, some self inflicted, others not. She looks at a particularly wide scar halfway up his upper arm.

Bull notices she’s looking at it and smiles. “You can touch it if you want. It’s from when I was six. Sable has a matching one. Our Uncle tried to tattoo different tattoos on our arms to differentiate us. We cut them out. Made them look identical.”

Cassidy sighs. “We just have to make the best with what we’ve got.”

“I just gotta talk some fear into him.” Sable drags Nolan out of eyesight. “You’re free. Smile a bit at Eve, she’s not doing well. Get her to like you, you’re golden. I don’t care what you do, but if you play your cards right, you could be free in a week.” She smiles at him. “That’s not what you want, is it?”

Nolan shakes his head. “You truly scare me, Robbins. Why do you insist on helping me?” He looks up at her, smiling. “I think that we would have been great friends in two if this-”

“Shut up with your utopic bullsh*t.” Sable roughly tells him, grabbing him by the hair, jerking his head back against the rockface. “You get to run off away from careers and with a stable alliance, I don’t have to kill my sister. It’s a win-win situation. If it didn’t benefit me, I wouldn't be helping you.”

“And next time I see you?” Nolan asks.

Sable smiles, but not at him. “Hopefully that will be for the Finale. I don’t want to not kill you next time. I really want to kill you Careers, your motivations just coexist with mine.” she shakes him again. “Come on. Falcon’s waiting on you.”

She drags him back to the group. “Ok! So Nolan here is going to lead you to the pit. These two,” she gestures to Elizabeth and Invidicus. “Will be telling me where the Careers are. Maybe kill my bluebird when you finish so if we find these two again, we know that baby can be dead. I want to see you all again soon.”

Falcon sighs, placing a rope around Nolans neck and handing the other end to Angus. “You try anything, and I’ll have your face as blue as your hair.”

“Got it.” Nolan tells him. “This way.”

Sable smiles at Briar. “Sweetie, go collect firewood, ok? We’re going to figure the locations out.” Briar nods and disappears over the hills and Sable turns to Bull and laughs “yeah, we’re not meeting them again. You wanted a split, you’ve got it!” She looks between Elizabeth and Invidicus. “I’m just going to assume she’s in charge.”

Elizabeth nods, peering at her leg. “Midus is going to be fine.” She reaches out to take the baby from Sable. “It’s ok. I got him. I have sponsor money set up for him as well.”

Sable looks at her and Bull makes the swap for her, unceremoniously picking Midus out of his sister's hands and plopping the child in Elizabeth’s. “Where’re the others?” he asks. “The others, where are they?”

“Next arena.” Elizabeth tells them. “The city. As much as I’d love to kill Valerie myself, go do what you have to do. Do it brutally.” She slowly moves towards Invidicus. “See, that wasn’t that hard to say!” she tells him. “No need to go through waterboarding.”

Invidicus coughs again. “He did it wrong anyway. He wasn’t holding me under for long enough.” He slowly moves to take a feeble attempt at a protective stance in front of Elizabeth.

Sable curses and Bull rolls his eyes. “Well Falcon’s idea of being a criminal was drugs, not torture.”

The four tributes stand looking at each other in silence. As the camera moves to take a side view on the scene, it’s really apparent the size difference of the tributes. You would look at the picture and assume that the twins were the Careers if you didn’t watch the games. Bull was an entire foot taller than Elizabeth, and Invidicus stood at 5’8, making Sable four inches taller than him. The Willis siblings were smaller, skinnier, more injured, and much less armed.

Invidicus seems to be the most aware of this fact, literally puffing himself up trying to look bigger like a cat. Sable sighs, and quite like she did with Nolan, she picks him up and holds him above her. “You feel manly now?”

“I think you broke him.” Elizabeth says, as Invidicus’s mouth opens and closes like a fish. She rolls her eyes and Sable glances at Bull in amusem*nt. “Give him a second.” Elizabeth says. “He’s a simple creature.”

“I-” Invidicus starts. “You’re pretty?”

Elizabeth slaps him. “Why was that the first thing you thought of!” She shakes her head sadly as Sable snickers, putting Invidicus down, jokingly kissing the top of his head.

“It wasn’t the first thing I thought of!” Invidicus protests. “It was the only thing I thought I could say that wouldn’t get me strangled!” He glances at Elizabeth worriedly before looking back at the twins. “Can we goooo?” he drags out the last word, looking up between Sable and Bull. “We’re weaponless, she ain't got money no more, and I probably didn’t have much to begin with.”

“What sponsor gift was it?” Bull asks.

Elizabeth hesitates before showing him the bottle. “Pain meds. For the leg. You don’t need those, you just tough things out like they’re nothing.” Bull seems relatively satisfied with that answer and doesn’t press the issue.

Sable sighs. “You got 48- no, until sunrise to get as far away from us as you can. Anything post that, we’re going to kill you.” She shoves the pair. “Are you just going to stand there? Go!” The siblings from two quickly flee the scene, and Sable giggles quietly. “They’re actually adorable.”

Bull laughs before glancing at Sable. “Blue boy- what’s his actual name?”

Sable scoffs. “Nolan. Even the name sounds pretentious. Nolan Thornton. His parents must have been bigots if they named their son Nolan. Is that even a District two name?” She sighs, looking at the small shapes of Falcon’s group. “He’s- for a Career, he’s not the worst. I don’t like those careers, but I don’t like him marginally less than the others.”

Bull glances over to where Briar could be seen in the distance. “I know you told me about the time you talked before the games in the sauna rooms. Do you really think that sending him-”

Sable cuts him off. “I don’t want to talk about that, especially on camera. But yeah. Sent him to be with our pack. I want a split, but I don’t want to send them around with a homicidal maniac, you know?” she hesitates before shaking her head. “Yeah, Ironically my little blueboy is the least likely person in that group to initiate a split. Give him 24 hours, he’ll be really happy. I think Eve’ll be happy as well. Falcon might need some convincing.” She smiles at Briar, who had just gotten back with firewood. “Good job! Now, we need breakfast.”

In the mentor room, everyone sighs in a mix of relief and disappointment. “Well that could have gone better.” Dallas says.

“It could have gone much worse as well.” Blaise mutters. “She, Elizabeth, had a knife, it looked like she was going to go for Falcon. That’s your tribute to win, right?”

Dallas nods. “Yeah. I still think it’s gonna be Falcon. I just need him to handle everything correctly. He’s doing fine. He just needs the cameras to stay.” Dallas turns around in confusion as Alexandra taps him roughly on the shoulder. There’s a minute when he tries to remember which victor she was, before giving up. “What?”

Alexandra rolls her eyes. “You’re going to go into the District two mentor sleeping quarters. From there, you’re going to bang on Regime Glass’s door, and get her to come out. She’s useful, and she won’t come out for me.”

For once, a look of true uneasiness crosses Dallas’s face. “If she doesn’t want to come out, respect that. I’m sure as hell not going to disrupt her.”

Alexandra scoffs. “I thought you didn’t respect Careers? I’m going to break that door down if you don’t do it. Get Nyle to help me.”

Dallas shakes his head. “I don’t respect anyone that isn’t worth my respect. I don’t respect any of you, Careers especially. In my mind, there are only two victors that deserve my respect. Myself, and Regime Glass. And I’m not so sure about myself. She’s had it the worst. The worst. I don’t even call her a Career anymore. I’d fight any of you, maybe hesitate on fighting two. But her? I don’t f*ck with that. She’s earned my respect.”

Alexandra laughs. “So you’re scared of her? Real shame, you two would make such a cute duo: the most deadly victor and the least human victor?” She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a knife, flipping it in her hand.

“Xandra!” Achilles says suddenly. Alexandra turns to look at him and Achilles shakes his head. “She’s human. Barely, but still human. And If you break that door down, you’re going to die.” He shakes his head as Dallas opens his mouth. “Don’t threaten to duel her, she’ll say yes, and it’s not worth it. Too many dead people.”

The camera focuses on Achilles, and it’s clear something had just happened prior to this. He was super jumpy, and clutching a peacekeeper rifle. He looked like he had just witnessed the genocide of millions. He slowly turns to the screen, and as he passes the camera, there’s visible blood on his sleeves. He glances to make sure Valerie was still on the camera before looking back at the room.

Everybody else just looked back at him, picking up that something was clearly wrong. “This morning-” he starts. “This morning I received news that my mother had been killed in an airstrike. Somebody went out of their way to bomb the civilian neighborhoods of District two. I learnt that she was dead, and four of my students in the academy were too. Multiple others were injured.”

Achilles looks around, his eyes never resting on someone, rather just looking through them. “I was on the District ten floor when I was grabbed. Men in capital peacekeeper uniforms. They tried to shoot me. They thought I was Dallas, maybe it’s the hair from the back, I don’t even know. In the second of confusion there was, I grabbed a gun and shot a man in the chest. Then I did it again and again and again. I didn’t stop shooting him until I had to reload and then I shot him again and again.”

His gaze finally does land on someone, it being Calista. “You need to run. Run and don’t stop running until you can’t run anymore. Then walk, then crawl. Don’t let them catch you, Calista Armani.” He looks at the screen, checking again that Valerie was in fact breathing. “Ruby?” Achilles asks the room.

“Announcing with Flickerman.” Blaise tells him gently.

“Mako?”

“Asleep. He needs rest.”

“Cipher?”

Blaise chokes for a second. “Why would you want- Cipher’s gone.”

“Right.” Achilles looks around the room, gun in his hands. Anyone who looks at him, he seems to point the gun at. “Where’s Lagoona?”

“Outside working with sponsors.” Blaise tells him. “Look kid, put the gun down, nobody here’s going to hurt you.”

Achilles wildly shakes his head, looking as the peacekeepers enter the room, aiming the gun at them. “Stay the f*ck away!” he hesitates for a second before crossing in front of Dallas. “Stay away from him too! You can’t shoot anyone, nobody else is dying!”

“Achilles, let’s calm down.” Styx says from across the room. He puts his hand on one of the peacekeeper’s shoulders, and that officer lowers their gun.

Dallas on the other hand, pulls out his own, albeit more handheld, pistol. “You gonna shoot me?” he asks the officers. “You sending people around to shoot me now? I’m not scared of you. Ain’t nothing that scares me.”

“Fowler!” a sharp voice sounds from behind the peacekeepers that immediately move out the way so Miss Arianna Snow could enter the room. Our president had moved into her new role well, her hair now icy blonde, but she seemed to hesitate on going blue like her mother. She gestures for Dallas to follow her. “Come on. You’re giving a debate speech. And Hart, put the gun down.”

Achilles keeps the gun trained on the peacekeepers and Dallas sighs. “Come on kid. Put it down. Put it down or we’ll kill the rest of your family.”

“Dallas!” Arianna Snow remarks. She pushes past the peacekeepers, towards Achilles and pushes the gun down. “Mr. Hart, you can either stand here with a gun and get arrested and punished, or you can put it down and go get some sleep.”

She looks at Dallas. “You need to give a speech on why Maximillion Flickerman sucks and why you should be in charge. I kind of want to hang him, he’s saying I'm not capable of running the country.”

“Castrate that f*cker.” Dallas tells her. He slowly takes the gun out of Achilles’s hands, and passes it to one of the peacekeepers. “Then what?”

Snow smiles. “Is Castration a big District ten punishment? But after we find Flickerman, we’ll go figure out what’s going on in two? You can’t come for that, you’re only a victor. Then you need to come with me to the main Cardew manor, and deal with Gaius. Never met the man before in my life, but apparently he could be the stand-in president for the next five/six years.”

Dallas nods and moves out the room. “Nice hair. Suits you. Professional.” He had taken his own pink extensions from the mall trip out a few days ago.

Our young president shivers. “I'm professional only because I need to be, Mr. Fowler. If I could, I would be asleep in bed, or doing my summer reading assignments. But the country needs me.” she smiles. “Fortunately in that case, a stand-in president should be chosen by midnight.”

Achilles stands in the center of the room, before Calista takes his hand and begins to guide him out of the room.

CAPITAL NOTE: (NOT FOR PUBLIC EYES TO SEE) (Variant, personal note, later recovered during the 508th games.)

October 23rd, 500.

For goodness sake, [REDACTED]! Refer to the president by her title. I know it’s not her title at the moment, but it was then, so use it. I get it, you don’t like her, but she’s doing as good of a job as she can, for a child. I guess you can get away with it in the eyes of the law, but it’s still wrong and puts off the wrong impression.

I’m being nice to you, you’re probably going to get a message from a certain Dallas Fowler. I won’t word my plans on paper, but you know how I feel about how this country has gone. Stay in your own lane, [REDACTED]. And when you write about the pre-game scenes, don’t show that conversation between Aries Robbins and Emerald Bancroft. We don’t want to fuel the fires.

• Maximilian Flickerman, Former Games announcer.

VIEWABLE AGAIN TO THE COMMON CITIZEN

CAPITAL NOTE: (NOT FOR PUBLIC EYES TO SEE) (Variant, personal note, later recovered during the 508th games.)

October 25th, 500.

[REDACTED],

Listen here, you piece of sh*t. I ain’t going to pretend for a second that I like you. If you don’t change the way Miss Snow is addressed to at least Miss Arianna, or by her last name, I’m going to personally come to your house, shoot the door down, and murder your family. Then I’ll hang your corpse and feed it to the impoverished starving children of District eight.

Go do what you're best at, Mr “Keeper of History”. We all know that's the code for “Head of Propaganda.” Once you write down this history, go find something to cancel Maximillion Flickerman for. Again. Seriously, I want Romulus Flickerman saying that he doesn’t love his father anymore.

• Dallas V Fowler, District ten, President of Panem, Victor of the 495th. (In that order, motherf*ckers. Me first above all, then my district, then your godforsaken country, then your games.)

VIEWABLE AGAIN TO THE COMMON CITIZEN

“Well we’re at the Hotel!” Valerie glances towards the open sewer grate. “And I’d assume that they were here as well.” she takes a drag from the cigarette, looking towards the building. “It’s too quiet.”

Urban nods. He looks at the motorcycle, crossing over to see the note. Before anyone else could see it, he balls it up in his fist and shoves it in his pocket. He probably recognized Nolan’s handwriting. He looks over at Bentley. “It is too quiet. Someone’s in there.”

Bentley nods. “Valerie, you climb things well, right?” Valerie nods and Bentley smiles. “Can you climb up the outside of the building? Just in case they make a run for it. And I want… I want Mercedes on the far side of the building. If someone runs, either shoot them with the bow or throw an axe at them.”

Valerie was already climbing, making it above the door. Urban peers inside. “Does that mean the rest of us are going in?” Bentley nods, tugging on Nero’s arm, pulling him inside, Urban following. “I think I’m missing an axe.” Urban offhandedly mentions. “You have it?”

Bentley shakes her head. “You probably forgot it back at the campsite.

Zale had heard everything. After hesitating for a second, he grabs a broken mirror and starts moving towards the roof. He curses, seeing the cloudy skies, and pulls out a flashlight. He aims the mirror towards Carter and Casey's campsite, and shines the flashlight, projecting the glint into the sky.

Carter notices the light first. “Something’s happening.” Casey joins him and frowns. “You think this is a District ten fight?” Carter asks. “You said you saw Falcon, and he wasn’t super happy.”

Casey nods. “Should we go then? If they fight and split up, we’re not surviving that fight.”

Carter nods. “Come on. We’ll get in the first car we see, then drive until we can’t drive anymore. Get out of this arena.”

“I think I figured the map out.” Casey says as the pair hastily pack things up. “The one Zephyr sent you. It’s a layout map. I think of the entire arena.”

Carter glances at it, before doing a double take. “375th arena?” he grins. “I mean, that seems to match up. You wanna take a trip to paradise?”

Casey smiles. “I could use a break.” she tugs on his arm, pulling him out of

‘You wanna take a trip to paradise?’ was the slogan of the company that had created the bunker arena. However, it was more well known for its role in the finale of the 375th. 15 year old Electra Sparks faced off against her final opponent River Hicks, the 17 year old boy from District four. They had been close allies the entire games, and while River was busy avenging his District partner, Electra decided to mess with the security system so she could hide from the stronger tribute. Eventually, she broke the camera system and said “You wanna take a trip to paradise?” was broadcasted over every speaker, over and over in the salesman's voice ‘You wanna take a trip to paradise?’ River eventually found Electra on the last floor, but she managed to unleash the rat mutts on him. She would later tearfully state that she thought he would give up and it would be over. River fought off the mutts, and chased Electra through the staircase systems, but she managed to shut him in the convection oven. The speakers just kept blasting ‘you wanna take a trip to paradise? Welcome to paradise! Welcome to paradise! Welcome to paradise!” No matter how much we tried to clean that oven to make it presentable when people toured, we could never remove the desperate scratch marks River had left inside as he tried to claw himself out.

Everybody loved the 375th. Of the (Now 20, as this is written once the 500th concluded) quarter quells, this was voted in as the fourth favorite of all time. Poor Electra Sparks just couldn’t handle it, and after her victory tour in District Four, she took her own life, arriving in her own District dead.

“Funny move on Zale’s part.” Flickerman comments. “I mean, he contradicts himself a lot.” He takes a big sip of his coffee, smiling at Ruby. “I mean, now that I think of it, there aren't many adults left. As in parents.”

Ruby nods. “I know. I think there’s only eight left. Adrien and Zale from four, Issac from five, Jute and Lace from eight, Gwendillin and Crow from nine, and finally Leevey from twelve.”

She smiles at the camera. “And the vast majority of the people who died, died protecting their kids. That’s why Zale’s strange. He left his children.”

“Can you really blame him though?” Romulus says quietly. “Can you truly blame a human for wanting to live? It’s biting him in the ass now though, pardon my French.”

The pair watch as the Careers begin clearing rooms. “He’s got at least an hour before they get to the roof though.” Ruby says. “Maybe he’ll make a plan.”

“Are you all good with moving this fast?” Nolan asks. He glances at Brandy. “We’re moving pretty quickly.”

“We’re fine.” Falcon tells him stiffly. “We mean it when we say District ten is going to beat you Careers.”

Nolan nods. “Right. I’m just saying, you’re going to need energy for that pit.” Falcon says nothing and Nolan sighs. He stiffens slightly as Eve, who was currently holding the rope around his neck, briefly squeezes his hand. He glances at the tribute next to him, who smiles slightly, before letting go.

“So, how did the Career’s game go so far?” She asks. “Start from the bloodbath.”

“Eve!” Angus reprimands.

“I want to know?” Eve says defensively. “It doesn’t hurt anyone to know what the Careers did last week?”

Nolan smiles. “Well we spent a long time in the maze. I don’t think we got out until day five. Really boring. You’re right about something, we do not get along most of the time. But we got to the Amusem*nt park.”

“Blue boy?” Asks Angus. Nolan glances at him and Angus glares towards him. “Who killed Terrier?”

The group shifts uncomfortably. Nolan hesitates before continuing. “We found him on the carousel. We assumed that the rest of you were with him, so Hermes interrogated him. Apparently Aries had told him to wait here. Hermes just asked who was going to do it. I already said I didn’t want anything to do with kids, so Urban volunteered.”

He looks at Angus, who had stopped walking, the pack stopping with him. “Aries told him to wait?” Angus whispers. Nolan nods and Angus shakes his head, but doesn’t say anything. “I- There was something wrong with that man. Sable drowned him.”

Nolan sighs. “Urban- I know it isn’t going to change anything for you, but Urban isn’t all bad. He just kind of became the designated child killer of the group. We- he’s been through a lot. He got it over with real quick. I think Elizabeth tried to offer to kill the kid, but she’s crazy with the murder methods. She popped some girls' eyes in. Urban, though brutal, gets the job done.”

“Is that supposed to make us feel better about our dead brother?” Circe asks.

Nolan shrugs. “I don’t know anymore. That’s my brother, but it’s the first time I’ve seen him in two years. He’s changed. I left a boy whose only goal in life was to party and have sex, and came back to a hardened man, taller than me now, stronger than me now, and much much more violent than the boy I knew. While I ran from my past, he grew up. Perhaps he had been growing up the entire time, and I was just too blind to see it.”

He smiles. “You don’t want to hear about that though, you want to know about the Career pack.”

Nolan stretches. It seemed clear that it was now a rest stop. He sits down, fiddling with the zipper on his jacket, zipping it up. “Next event was Sable, Bull and Talon showing up. I tailed Sable, and that woman scares me. She grabbed Mercedes over her shoulder, and the rest of the Bancroft family, me, and Invidicus, chased her. She basically escaped the Bancroft's, and then me and her ended up on a trapped ride, and Invidicus was trying to fix it so I wouldn’t die up there. From there, we could see Urban fighting Talon. I was later told that Talon had tried to take the baby. He cut Urban’s leg, Urban still walks with a limp.”

“He felt awful after that.” Eve says. While the rest of the ten pack sat as far away from Nolan as they could, Eve allowed for slack in the rope, sitting right next to him. “Talon felt so bad, worrying if he had hurt the baby.”

Nolan smiles. “Midus was fine. Honestly, we were all worried about Valerie more. Blaze and my mother went with her to chase down Bull, but they just stopped for some reason?” visible annoyance crosses his face. “Valerie decided to chase Bull alone. I feel like she hasn’t told anyone the full story. I don’t think they seriously fought. Either way, Valerie gets bored, and lets Bull go to kill a tribute. She then discovers where you had all been camping. Then the Ten vs Careers fight happens.” he glances at the group. “Did you guys take Ferrari and Gucci? Because they went missing.”

Cassidy shakes her head. “I think they just took off. We saw them again in the volcano arena, and they claimed you were there, but I don’t think anyone believed them.”

Nolan nods. “At least they’re ok.” He glances over at Brandy. “I mean, then we went on a little walk around to see every arena. I think there’s something like fourteen arenas. That was when Blaze got stung by a bee and caused all this sh*t. At some point, Valda, who had been Hermes’s second in command, led an uprising against him. Hermes decides that we all go back to the pit, the pit stuff happens. I think we all realize that the only thing that was holding us together was Hermes, so everyone starts fighting, and I agree to leave with Invidicus and Elizabeth. Careers were last seen-” He shakes his head, smiling. “I’m not going to say that.”

Falcon nods, more to himself than the Career in front of him. “Let’s just keep moving.” he tells the group. “I want to keep moving.”

Nolan hesitates before rushing through his next segment, almost as if he knew it was a bad idea to bring up, but he wanted to anyway. “Urban didn’t push Talon. Talon jumped.”

Eve looks at him in an indecipherable way, something between anger and relief. Nolan nods at her. “Urban didn’t do that one. He tried jumping after the guy, but I pulled him back. I think he really just wanted to go out on his own terms.”

“Give me that.” Falcon yanks the rope out of Eve's hands. “Eve, go talk to Circe or something. Talk to anyone but the Career.”

“Mom?” Lace turns her head around to the sound of Cloth's tearful question. “Mom!”

“Oh, my sweet baby!” Lace stares up at Cloth, as the girl tosses her things down, and slides down the corn, leaving cuts along her palms that the girl doesn’t even seem to notice as she throws her arms around her mother. Lace sobs as she holds her daughter. “My girl’s ok! She’s ok!” She looks at Cloth. “You look ok! Have you had food? Was there water? Were there allies? No creepy men, right?” Cloth doesn’t answer her for a few minutes. She just stands there, crying into her mother’s arms.

Eventually, she looks at her mother. “I’m so sorry. I tried to make them stay. I was with them. Weaver was leading me, Callus and Paylor and they wanted to go into the volcanic arena. I told them it was a bad idea, but she didn’t listen. Nobody listened to me. I told them I wouldn’t go in there with them, so they left. Then they died.”

“Shush.” Lace tells her. “Shush.” She strokes Cloth's hair. “It’s not your fault it was like that. We had a plan, remember? That we would all leave as soon as we could? And you four tried to follow that, Me, Wovey and your father went back for Twill. Hermes Graves got to her first. Wovey tried to run, then your father got killed. We should have left her and just went with you. You shouldn’t have been alone. Weaver shouldn’t have been under all that stress.”

Cloth sniffs. “I thought Hermes Graves was supposed to not want to kill people.”

Lace sighs and shrugs. “He seems to follow that justification that gets a lot of tributes through the games: Bloodbath kills don’t count as real murder. I don’t know where that came from. He whispered sorry to her. That’s one tormented man.”

Cloth hands her an ice-cream sandwich. “It’s melted, but it’s food.” She says. “I was with Zale. A man from four.” She looks at her mother. “He wasn’t cruel. He taught me how to drive.”

About twenty minutes past Cloth and Lace’s reunion, Flickerman turns the camera on himself. The man was visibly exhausted, yet he smiled. Ruby actually wasn’t in the room now, she was on one of her rare sleep breaks. (she had indeed opted to take the cyborg surgery that allowed people to recharge so she could announce 24/7, but nothing replaced actual sleep, so that was what she was doing.)

Instead, Cassius Cardew and Caligula Cardew were sitting with him. “Elections!” Caligula smiles at the camera. He smiles at Cassius , who pats him on the head.

Flickerman nods. “That’s right! We are indeed hosting our elections for the position of stand in president! All Capital citizens, cast your votes! It’s a very strange ballot!”

He laughs. “I honestly didn’t expect Dallas Fowler to actually run! And I really didn’t expect him to be leading the polls currently! Especially after that last speech!”

At the final debate, Dallas had cussed everyone out, claimed that they would have to drag him away from his home in District ten to live full time in the capital, and spent half the time talking about Maximillion Flickerman's botched nose job. Unfortunately, the crowd seemed to love it. They really like their victors.

Caligula laughs as well. “Now let's not get too political ourselves! Don’t want you to get fired! I’m not even allowed to vote! Or drink! And I haven’t started Drivers Ed yet!”

Romulus rolls his eyes. “That’s because you have a chauffeur to drive you everywhere.”

“Right on that one.” Cassius says. “I mean, let's look at the polls.” He pulls up a pie chart, split between the three options. Cassius Cardew had opted out of the job, and Arianna had confirmed that she wouldn’t be doing it alone. So the three options were the most hated person in the capital (Maximillion Flickerman), A man who nobody had seen or heard from in years and they still haven’t seen (Gauis Cardew), and a victor from District ten, who was barely a legal person to run.

Maximilian Flickerman had actually brought it up that Dallas might not be legal, so in response, Arianna just changed the law. She actually passed the law, and I quote, “Dallas Fowler can run for whatever position he wants, whenever he wants.” it would have probably been easier to just make him a Capital citizen, but it made a point.

On the pie chart, it was split up:

Dallas Fowler (21 yrs old) : 44%

Gauis Cardew (52 yrs old) : 38%

Maximilian Flickerman (58 yrs old) : 19%

“I’m honestly surprised that [REDACTED] isn’t running.” Cassius says. “If my father can, they probably could.”

“Age limits on terms now.” Flickerman says. (Ouch, Romulus, I’m not that old!) Sometime in the early 100’s age limits were added on the president. By the end of the year they turn 75, the country must go onto someone else.

Caligula laughs. “I mean, they’re what, 67? And it’s not a permanent president, only a stand-in. They’d do a good job, and the country would love ‘em.

“Speaking of,” I say, entering the room. “I’d like to make a statement on that.”

[REDACTED]

NOTE ADDED POST 508th GAMES:

The former keeper of History is in the witness protection program after their role in the rebellion. We try really hard to keep their parts out. It’s a little hard, considering they wrote this file and like to add opinions sometimes, but we try. We’ve erased all photos of them in the media, erased any concept of appearance or name, and we try to keep their speeches out.

Viewable again to the common citizen

Flickerman sighs as I pat him on the head and leave the room (I needed to get back to re-writing down the 75th, there’s a lot of propaganda, and it’s on me to fix it.) He runs his hand through his hair, smiling at the Cardews. “So, we’ll see! It’s a strange election.” he clicks on the intercom so he could speak to the victor room. “What do you guys think? I know you can’t vote, but it’s still your country?”

“God save us.” Jupiter says. “Please, Dallas Fowler would be a horrible president. He’d remove laws on seatbelts and make us go around on horseback.” behind him, the other District one victors laugh.

Zea rolls her eyes. “You just say that because he’s from District ten. If it was one of you, you would be elated.”

Jupiter scoffs. “Might be so, but you need to admit that he would do some crazy sh*t.”

“I think he would do fine.” Jupiter turns to look at Achilles standing in the doorway. He shook his hands out, staring at the camera. “Dallas honestly wouldn’t do that bad of a job.” he quickly crosses to look at Valerie on the screen, breathes a sigh of relief before moving to the back of the room, pacing nervously.

“Go back to bed.” Jupiter tells him. “Dallas belongs in a loony bin. His heart froze out there in that arena, he cares for nothing but himself.”

“Well if our games define us, it makes sense why you squawk like a bird.” Savannah suddenly blurts out. “I mean, maybe that’s why you can’t stand up for yourself, after spending so much time in a bird cage. You haven’t known freedom a day in your life.”

Jupiter sighs. “Savannah, I get District loyalty, but come on. Fowler needs serious mental help. Delusional man.”

“He’s just opinionated.” Savannah tells him. “Dallas, though I don’t agree with some of it, speaks what’s on his mind. I think we need that.” she glances towards Achilles, who sits down again, looking at the screen.

“Where’s Mako?” Achilles asks suddenly. “Where’s Mako?”

“Still bedridden.” Nyle tells him. “Like we told you less than twelve hours ago. That little optimistic f*cker will be up for tomorrow.”

“What happened?” Achilles asks, looking around. “He was fine? Mako was fine? He was perfectly fine! He was fine! He was fine!”

“Shh.” Styx comes up behind Achilles, who was continuing to scream at Nyle. (He was fine, he was fine!) “Achilles, sometimes injuries take a little longer to heal than others. Mako’s a fighter. They're going to fix him up. He isn’t dying any time soon.”

“Two more dead.” Achilles says suddenly. “Two more of my students were found dead. And some of Calista’s as well. They're targeting the children.”

“I know. I know.” Styx eases Achilles back into his chair. “But we can’t go yelling about stuff like that on camera. Your students are children, they look up to you. Don’t scare them.”

“I’m a child!” Achilles yells. “I’m a f*cking child! And nobody, and I mean nobody, understands the sh*t I have to go through. I volunteered at fourteen, and I won. There’s a reason I live in Victor's Village alone, you know. My parents are nutcases, far worse than Dallas Fowler.”

He shoves Styx’s hand off of his shoulder, yelling in the man's face. “I got shoved into teaching class of 504, a class full of the ‘bad children.’ do you know the amount of child abuse cases I’ve had to deal with? The amount of kids on drugs? The amount of students telling me they’re going to kill themselves? And I try so hard for those kids, because so many of them don’t have a happy family back home and look to me to fill that void! Those are my students, my students who are dying out there. Ashlar Lynch, one of my sister and Valerie’s friends, she always wore her hair up in bows until she started talking to Valerie. She called me during that bomb going off. She was thrown from the window, and I told her, ‘Ashlar, just keep moving, you’re a strong girl, just keep moving!’”

He was sobbing hysterically at this point, and Calista had joined Styx in trying to get him to stop freaking out. “Ashlar, keep moving! And she was crying and crying, telling me about how she was meant to be watching her little brother, and he had simply been blown to bits in front of her. I was begging her to keep moving, to crawl even. And then she just stopped. And I cried and pleaded with her. I screamed at her to keep walking. Eventually I just begged her to answer me. She never did. I stayed on that phone until the peacekeepers came and took her body, told me to come back out here, and hung up on me.”

He half sobs half screams before continuing. “My sweet little Ashlar. She didn’t even show up to class half the time. When Scylla would have her friends over, Ashlar would be the distraction while they stole my car or something so Valerie could teach everyone how to drive. She would bring donuts into the training room, and come talk to me about her boyfriend that was much too old for her. In the past 24 hours, I’ve lost my mother, and six of my students. And I, I am trying. But I don’t know how much longer I can try for. I don’t know how much more death I can see in my life.”

“He’s moving!” Nyle yells suddenly. Zale was attempting to climb down the building.

He had chosen to go down the back, and was closer to Mercedes’s side of the building to scale. Chances were, he had decided that she would have been easier to take down if needed. He was wrong.

As he got to the base of the building, he slowly started backing away, trying to not be heard. It wasn’t even clear what had alerted Mercedes, she was just already moving. Zale didn’t have a real chance before the arrow flew into the back of his knee, Mercedes alerting Valerie to come with her to join her.

“Don’t kill him.” Mercedes says. She stands over Zale, who looks between the girls, trying to think of a strategy. “Don’t move. Bentley! Urban! I got him!” It was clear she was one of the District one Cheerleaders, her voice, just like it did back in week one in the maze, travels far, even to the ears of Carter and Casey (Who were slightly past the hotel, busy hotwiring a car).

“How the hell does she yell that loudly?” Urban mutters to himself, moving down the stairs three at a time, Bentley and Nero close behind.

“Get him to tell us about other tributes.” Mercedes tells Valerie. “Ask him who was with him here. You’re good at that torture stuff, or at least Elizabeth was.”

Valerie nods. “Zale, right? District four, father of the unwanted tributes? You’re double f*cked here. Not only do we want you dead, but your own mentors do as well.”

“Ok.” Zale looks at her. “Let's work something out here. I can give you names, I can give you locations. I saw your siblings as well. You nearly had a run in with ten. Do you want to know where ten is?” He smiles at Valerie, eyes lingering on the other three making their way over. “Hey, I can talk about Hermes. I got release codes on some of those tapes. Trust me, I’m a resource. Not gonna harm you.”

“You’re not going to be harming anyone.” Valerie tells him. She yanks the arrow out from behind his knee, tosses it to the side and looks to Urban. “Hold him down, I’m playing doctor.”

She places her axe against the already bleeding cut. “You know how many muscles and tendons are here, Mr Fisherman? If I slice one, I could ruin any chance of you walking again.”

“Where’s ten?” Bentley asks sharply.

Zale takes a deep breath in. “They went that way.” he wriggles an arm out to point towards the Rapids arena. “They left the day of those alarms, I think. Spent the majority of their time here getting drunk. I think Aries Robbins died in this arena. Betrayal on the inside.”

Valerie nods. “Do they look like they’re splitting up?”

Zale tries and fails at shaking his head. “No. They seem pretty allied together. I know Falcon Robbins liked to walk around on his own a lot, but he seemed fine with going back to them.”

“Who’s Falcon again?” Mercedes asks.

“Sable’s older brother.” Bentley says. “Not Bull. He’s shorter than Talon and Bull, about Sable’s height. Nearly 24. Honestly, he shouldn’t be forgettable, but I forget about him. He’s a little quieter than the others.” She kneels down next to Zale. “Who was with you in here?”

“A girl from eight.” Zale replies immediately. As Valerie presses the axe against him, he talks more. “Cloth. Really skinny girl. That’s the most memorable thing about her, skinny as sh*t. She didn’t quite look real.”

Valerie nods. “And the other tributes in this arena, who?”

“I can’t remember the name of those boys from twelve, but they’re with Crow from District nine. And the Volunteer from six is with his sister up near the back of the arena.”

Valerie nods. “Got it.” She gives Urban a thumbs up, and Urban snaps Zale's neck. Mercedes makes a small sound of unease, and Valerie scoffs. “Come on, you thought I’d let him live? It’s the hunger games, not a making friends show.”

She stretches up, looking to the sky. “We’re going after the volunteer, right? We’re all in agreement that we want him dead?”

Bentley nods. “Uh huh. And we’re all in agreement that fighting ten is out of the question?”

“For now.” Urban says. He was fixing his hair, and seemed mildly upset that there was no mirror. “We’re going to need to take them on eventually. They’re very closely knit, and we need that to break.”

Bentley nods. “Come on.” The pack begins walking ‘north’ (It wasn’t actually north, due to arena placement, but normally the back of the arena would be north. It was actually east.)

Bentley sighs. “We need to think logically. I think we need to kill Eve and Circe, or at least one of them. They’re half the reason the pack sticks together, and it’s easier than killing off Sable or something.”

The group seems to be in agreement on that statement. “Let's think about leadership.” Valerie says. “We all know that the Robbins family loves Sable, but do you think the Fletcher family would follow… What's the oldest son’s name?”

“Angus.” Bentley says. “I think they like him. My father said that he was pretty close with Talon. He would probably get mad at Sable if Circe died, but think for a second: if Circe was gone, he would just be leading a twelve year old and an eight year old.”

Urban nods. “It’s less the size of the pack, rather the danger they bring. Grouping them as the cowboys makes it easier to fight, but we’re more worried about certain people. That child Robbins, Brie or something, we’re not scared of her. We’re not f*cking scared of Cassidy or Whisky. We just don’t want to fight the other ones.”

He glances around the rundown arena around him. “I could take down Circe easily. She’s strong, but she’s a fourteen year old girl. I could probably do the same with Eve, the girl’s good with a knife and could throw a punch or two, but again, just a fourteen year old girl. Realistically, they could do some damage, but I’d win, no problem. It becomes a problem when you get to Angus. That is a tribute my age, with farmer muscles and an urge to kill me. He’s probably still pissed about Oxford from the bloodbath.”

For a second, Urbans voice softened when talking about Oxford, before he was back to this strange new analytical standpoint. “You see, when you get to the three eldest Robbins children, if you can call them that, they’re not anyone I want to fight alone. I wouldn’t run, but I’m not stupid enough to jump in there. It was pretty f*cking freaky, watching them train. They look like they could be from two, and they act like it. I don’t want to say it, but I think I have to: If I had to fight Bull Robbins, fist to fist, He’d win. If I came in close combat with him, or Falcon or even Sable, they could win. That’s why we need distance. We should have thrown axes into their heads when we had the chance.”

“Don’t say ‘even Sable’.” Valerie says. “Don’t pretend that if we were back home right now, that wouldn’t be the tribute you’d bet on.” she sighs. “If Hermes wasn’t dead, maybe him too.”

“You’d bet on Sable?” Bentley says, raising an eyebrow. “Really? If I wasn’t there, and was looking in on this, I’d go for Ferrari or Nolan. Maybe my dad?”

Valerie nods. “I’d totally bet on Sable. If I couldn’t bet on myself winning, if I was going to get murdered if I didn’t pick the winner and I couldn’t pick myself, I’d pick Sable.”

“Well that just means we throw an axe into her head at the first chance we get.” Urban says. “It’s gotta be against Hermes’s rules, to talk about who would win other than you.”

Bentley nods. “Yeah. The only problem is that when I was in his victor office, I saw his drawboard he made for possible victors. I think she’s right at the top. He REALLY wanted to talk to her during training. She didn’t want anything to do with him.”

“How’d you get into his office?” Valerie asks.

Bentley shrugs. “I’m quiet. It’s always been like that. Mercedes is the definition of high maintenance, Ferrari’s training is the most important, I didn’t do anything. Ferrari was constantly in modeling gigs and was going to act in something this summer, Mercedes is a cheerleader and is in Dance, I… I don’t do much. I had a lot of free time at home, so It’s easy for me to find things out. I’m not the number one priority.”

“So you're saying you weren’t his favorite child?” Valerie asks dryly, a smirk forming on her lips.

Bentley rapidly shakes her head. “No! I mean, my mom did favorites, but Hermes loved us all. It’s just that I was more low-maintenance. We’d go on father daughter drives around the city so he would spend time with me. My dad- I mean it’s not like he stepped out of the arena and was fine. He never did well with surprises or fireworks. Fiercely overprotective of us all, he would chaperone all of our school trips, and any sort of cut we had would be immediately treated. We’ve had therapists since we could walk, he never wanted us to feel upset or like we couldn’t handle anything. We weren’t allowed to joke about a lot of things, as he’d take so much literally.”

She smiles, running her hand over one of her braids. “I think the worst part was really the dating part or hanging out with friends. Ferrari had boyfriends, and he hated all of them. And some of them were really sh*tty, but he HATED them. I mean, he’d be researching them and their families. All our internet would be tracked, we weren’t allowed to leave the houses without a tracker, and Curfews were really strict. He was really paranoid about our safety. He didn’t like to let us out of his sight. No sleep overs until you were 12, unless they were at our house.”

She laughs, but there was a sad tone to it, as she knew that he was gone. “Once Ferrari was out with her friends, and they would be driving. He got access to the traffic cams of the city and watched her. Mother would always try and get him to stop, and he would shake his head, with that look in his eyes, saying that he needed to make sure we weren’t getting hurt. If one of us was sick, an immediate doctor's visit would follow and he would stay there constantly hovering. Cameras all over the house, monitoring over who we talked to, how we dressed, how we spoke, everything was planned. He nearly homeschooled us, but our mother eventually talked him out of it. He really doesn’t like things out of his vision. You’ll all be dead at the end of the games, but if you were to somehow watch the District one reaping, you would see him holding onto Mercedes so tightly, you’d think he was kidnapping her. But honestly, I wouldn’t trade him for anyone else.”

“So um, are we following Nolan, or just heading in his general direction?” Invidicus asks. The pair had been mostly silent, Elizabeth seeming somewhat annoyed, and Invidicus was visibly shaken from the past confrontation.

Elizabeth shakes her head. “No. He’s f*cked over. If you want to go rescue him, be my guest. I just want to get out of this god forsaken arena and get to that bunker. Safest arena by far. They also have poison on one floor. And reliable access to food for Midus. It’s sheer luck and kindness of strangers that the baby’s alive.”

She looks at Invidicus. “Why the hell didn’t you just give up the location of the pack? You got waterboarded for no reason at all?”

“No reason?” Invidicus repeats. “No reason? Nobody deserves to get murdered by Sable Robbins.” He sighs, running his hands through his hair. “I guess I just didn’t think.”

Elizabeth is quiet for a second before grimacing “‘you’re pretty’' She quotes Invidicus in a snarky, whiny tone. “Where the f*ck did that come from? You’re on the verge of being murdered and all you can think to do is say to your murderer ‘you’re pretty’? And then look around with the most bitchy submissive face I’ve ever seen in my life? f*cking idiot.”

Invidicus flinches at her words, and is silent for a second. “It works though.” He says quietly. He scuffs his shoes against the ground, cracking his knuckles subconsciously. “I mean, what was I supposed to do? Act all alpha dominant male while she has me suspended in the air? I couldn’t fight her. I couldn’t flee from her. I couldn’t just stay there and do nothing. Oftentimes compliments are the best path. It works on you. You just got to feed someone’s ego and they’ll drop you. They’ll stop kicking you. They won’t poison your food anymore. They stop pointing a gun at your head. Being known the smiley guy gets you places. I’m not smart, or super strong, or super good looking, or super rich. I gotta be nice, otherwise people are going to gang up on me. It’s all I really have going for me.”

Elizabeth scoffs. “The nicest Willis child. You get nowhere by being nice. Maybe a smile helps, but without the ability to shove others down, you go nowhere. You get nothing.”

“You underestimate me.” Invidicus says sadly. “I mean… I came in third! I came in third in trying to volunteer for this thing. The things I did to make sure you got in-”

“Don’t talk about-” Elizabeth starts.

“Would you shut up!” Invidicus suddenly yells. Elizabeth stops and turns to him in shock. Invidicus continues to pace a good five feet ahead before turning around. “Would you shut up and think about me for once! For once in your goddamn life, think about someone else! My whole life revolves around you, revolves around being your older brother and making sure you don’t get hurt. Mom sent me off to join the military, for god sake. The amount of lunches and dinners that I wasn’t allowed to have, since you needed to eat. You keep saying that mom didn’t love me, you think I didn’t know that? My life, since the day you got into this academy, has revolved around you. My life is yours. I have no personality outside of you, and you know that. I can’t even think without you being inside of my head. And all I get out of it is you bitching about every decision I make. I wasn’t good enough for mom, and I’ll never be good enough for you. Which means I’ll never be good enough for myself.”

“Oh grow up.” Elizabeth tells him. “Grow a dick, Invidicus. Grow a pair of balls! At least you had a chance.”

“No, I never had a chance-”

“Shut up!” Elizabeth yells. Invidicus quickly falls silent, trying to crack his already cracked knuckles. “You had friends. You could drive, and go to parties, and date, and fail a test, and do whatever the f*ck you wanted to. I? I really had nothing. She made me nothing but a trophy. A walking first place medal. Well f*ck me, right? I watch everything drip away. Drip drip drip. And trust me, If I could hand it all to you, I would give this all up to you in a heartbeat. My life was Valda Willis’s do-over. Don’t go bitching to me about how you got nothing, because at least you got to live as a person. I’m a trophy.”

“A shadow, not a person.” Invidicus says.

“Well at least a shadow looks like a person.” Elizabeth tells him. “It looks like a person, it moves like a person. A trophy is just an object. I would kill to be a shadow. I’m going to kill to be a shadow. I’m winning to be a person. Because I want it the most.”

Midus begins to fuss in her arms, and she sighs in frustration. “Shut up!” Of course, yelling at the baby doesn’t do much to help. “Just, stop f*cking crying!”

“Maybe he’s hungry?” Invidicus asks. Elizabeth glares at him before roughly shaking Midus. “Ok, that’s enough.” Invidicus quickly moves to close the gap, and rips the baby out of his sister's hands. “Don’t shake the baby.”

Elizabeth looks towards him, a moment of confusion clouding her eyes. “Yeah. I know that. I think it’s the purple.” She eyes her arms for a second, glancing over her skin. Maybe it had gotten more purple. It wasn’t really brought to light until she grabbed Invidicus’s wrist to compare. It wasn’t just her veins anymore, her whole wrist was slightly tinted. Not enough that if someone looked at her they would think she was a purple person, but enough that when put against Invidicus’s skin, it made both siblings shiver.

“You need help.” Invidicus says.

“You think they don’t know that?” Elizabeth asks. She didn’t seem angry anymore, more amazed by the tinted skin. “I don’t have the sponsor money, and I never will. And I think I kind of like it. I like hearing something talk to me. It truly understands me better than I do. And I think I like that.”

She laughs, running her fingers over her skin. “And it wants me to go to that pit. I yearn for the pit. But I’m a smart girl. I’m the smart one. I know that it’s not a good idea to go back there, alone at least. I can do better than Blaze.” she plucks the still crying Midus out of Invidicus’s hands and waves her brother off. “Go get water. Or something to eat. I must think.”

Invidicus doesn’t even question her.

“Are you sure those are safe?” Mercedes asks. Urban and Valerie were climbing separate telephone poles, and wires dangled all around the top. The idea was that they could look around for tributes. It was a last ditch effort, they were 3/4s of the way into the arena, and no Carter or Casey to be seen. (The pair from six had exited the arena and were heading in the same direction as Crow, Jessup and Victor.)

Bentley nods. “There’s no power in this quadrant of the arena. Even still, be careful up there!”

Valerie had easily scaled to the top of hers, and was looking around as Urban struggled to get his large body up to the top. “Oop?” Flickerman giggles as the camera looks on Valerie’s confused face before panning to the back of the arena: Somewhere in the distance, dust could be seen, and that very distant outlook building crumbles away into nothingness. The camera flicks to the mentor room, where you could see Styx and Calista (Blaise Singh had joined them as well now) restraining Achilles in his chair.

Valerie stared at it for a second before fiddling with her jacket. “Now what’s she going for here…” Flickerman laughs at Valerie as she reaches into her jacket to pull out a hidden beer bottle. “She’s got her priorities right!”

“Nero, toss me your jacket real quick!” Valerie says. There was a hint of panic in her voice that only Bentley seemed to pick up on. Once receiving the jacket, Valerie rips part of the lining out, much to Nero’s dismay, and stuffs one end into the bottle, pulling out her lighter in the other hand. She scrambles down the pole, tossing the jacket back at Nero, and lighting the homemade fuse.

She looks at Bentley, a smile creeping up her face. “Run.” and chucks her homemade bomb straight towards Urban and takes off running.

Urban screams as the explosion hits him, erupting into flames around him. The second the explosion hits, Nero doesn’t even hesitate to take off after his sister. “Bentley, help him!” Mercedes yells. “Bentley, do something!” she screams as Urban crashes to the ground. “Bentley!”

Bentley shakes her head, moving after the Willis siblings “Mercedes, come on!” She looks back at Mercedes, who stands firmly by Urban. “Goodbye, Mercedes. You’ll regret this.” She doesn’t let Mercedes think to say anything else, moving after the Willis children.

“Urban!” Mercedes yanks her water bottle out, pouring it onto the burning man. “Urban! Somebody help! Somebody help him!” Of course, nobody comes. She looks at Urban, kicking him with her boot. “Stop drop and roll! Stop drop and Roll! She grabs Urbans water bottle and pours it on him as well. “Urban, stop screaming and do something!”

Something gets in Urbans head that maybe panic isn’t the best answer, and he begins to roll the fire out.

“Woo!” Valerie was clearly elated, happily moving through the city. “You thank Invidicus for that one! Big brother taught me about bombs!”

“Valerie, what the f*ck!” Bentley was a reasonable distance behind her, visibly either angry or panicked or both. “We needed him!”

Valerie stops for a minute, letting Bentley catch up and grabbing her hand. “Come on! You remember how we saw that library collapse? That’s what was happening. That’s what they were hinting at to your father before the games started? ‘Over time, games will crumble away from our minds, like all tributes do in the end’? No wonder the arena was this big! We’ve been seeing them crumble, we’re just finally experiencing it!”

Bentley looks at her for a second before smiling. “Am I another case to be done with here?”

Valerie shakes her head. “No, I’m going to fight you when we’re not running for our lives. Everyone else is fair game! Urban will be fine, as long as he doesn’t panic.”

“Everyone else?” Bentley tries. “Nero too?”

Valerie laughs. “Do your worst!” she frowns suddenly as Nero was nowhere. “Actually, I think he got the hint that I didn't want him.” Nero was already gone, veering off to run towards the side exit. She rolls her eyes. “Keep up if you want, Bingey Bancroft, but I am out of here!” with another cheer, Valerie takes off running again.

For a second, Bentley hesitates on following her. She glances back towards where Mercedes and Urban should be, then grits her teeth, moving after Valerie.

“Do they hurt, do we need to get bandaids?” Mercedes panics, fussing over Urban who had put the fire out. “How didn’t your hair burn off?”

“Plot armor?” Urban says woozily. “Yeah, that’s got to be it.” he heaves himself to his feet, listening to the collapsing city. “We need to go. Somethings wrong.” Ever since he had seen that note written to Zale from Nolan, Urban had been strangely quieter.

“Come on! We’re going this way.” He starts dragging Mercedes towards the other side exit.

“You’re heading at the wrong degree.” Mercedes tells him. “I studied this arena a ton. We need to walk slightly more to our left.”

Nero was the first Career to exit the city. The Willis family was fast. He stumbles along the tunnel, straight into the Rapids arena. He coughs for a minute and looks around. After flexing muscles and checking for injury, he lays his jacket out on the ground, and starts checking over everything he had on him. There wasn’t much, he had his water bottle, the bottle of beer, three cigarettes and no lighter, the knife that Valda had given him to kill Philip with, and a throwing knife he had gotten off of Invidicus. That and the necessary items each tribute was equipped with (The bra and two hair ties) were all he had on him.

“Ok.” Nero whispers to himself. “That’s just… fine.”

Nero didn’t look like a Career. He had scabby legs, bad posture and bad teeth, and would constantly sniff like he had a cold. He was skinny too, his knees looking unproportionate to his body. When he did have his sword, though it being too big for him might have played a part, he never looked like he knew what he was doing. But he was nine and alone now, staring out into the rapids. The boy completely reties his shoes, knotting them then double-knotting them then tying them into such a knot that it would take a good ten minutes to undo. He shoves his items back into his jacket and starts moving. After a second, he hesitates and looks at the bottle of beer. “Carpe diem.” he mutters, and takes a big sip of it, immediately spitting it across the floor before taking a normal one, his face still having a reaction to it.”

Valerie laughs as she gets out of the arena. Clearly exuberant, she spins around on her feet, leaning back against the corn, waiting for Bentley. “Hey Achilles!” She yells at the rocky ceiling. “Was that better than the last Molotov?”

Achilles in the mentor room just laughs, and even though Valerie couldn’t hear him, he responds. “More or less, Valerie.” he shakes his head at Calista. “That girl is going to be the death of us. You through having to mentor that, and me through the stress of watching it.”

When Bentley eventually does show up, Valerie calls her in with a slow dramatic clap. “My mom could run faster than that, and she’s had four pregnancies.”

“f*ck off.” Bentley tells her, trying to catch her breath. “f*ck off.”

Valerie sighs happily, lighting her cigarette. “We’re watching the world burn, Bingey.”

Bentley settles next to her. “So now what?” She asks. “You f*cked over the Career pack, happy? Now what? Do you want to walk off one way and I the other? Are we gonna fight?”

Valerie hesitates for a long second, before looking at Bentley. “I mean, if you want to fight, we can do it. That wasn’t really what I had in mind.”

“Then what did you have in mind?” Bentley asks. She crosses her arms and stares Valerie down, the corners of her lips worrying together as if she knew what Valerie was thinking, yet didn’t want to say it in case of being wrong.

Valerie shrugs. “Live a little? Maybe I just started thinking about things. I mean, we’re not stupid, we’re not weak. We’re armed and could both hold our own in a fight. I honestly think it wouldn’t be that bad of an alliance. One of those smart and strong enough to take others down, made of people who won’t start crying when they need to kill each other in the final. Nothing could make me like you, Bingey.” she smiles. “Remember, you owe me for not stabbing you to death at the pit. Nobody would have stopped me.”

Bentley doesn’t say anything for a second. She looks at Valerie and eyes her up and down. “I don’t want a full alliance.” She eventually says. “I want a dead Bull Robbins. I can promise you that you can sleep safely as long as his face doesn’t light the sky. Can you do the same?”

Valerie smiles. “You can trust me, remember? We’ll be allies until he dies or we decide another deadline. Does that mean we hunt him?”

Bentley hesitates. “Do you want to hunt him?”

Valerie nods. “Born ready. I’ll be your best friend for the next few days that it takes him to die, Bentley. Then we’ll figure it out from there.”

“Now this wasn’t expected!” Flickerman was also elated by the new events. “I mean, we don’t know how long this alliance is going to last here. They haven’t exactly liked each other, yet I do think it’s been improving.”

Ruby shrugs. “I think it’s all strategy. Neither girl is a complete idiot, they’re using the other. I think this is the kind of alliance that only ends in a backstabbing betrayal, quite literally.”

CAPITAL NOTE: (NOT FOR PUBLIC EYES TO SEE)

Again, District five is a serious problem. We are lucky, sheerly lucky that Vale. Willis and B. Bancroft were talking during these moments, as we couldn’t show the City’s collapse. It just froze. Urban Thornton and Mercedes Bancroft should have died, and if the arena’s collapse didn’t slow, they would be dead.

It is most likely District five that’s the problem, but there’s always the possibility that this was another effect of Cipher Maarlon, especially after her final stunt with the ghost mutts during the finale. She’s dead, cremated and her ashes buried next to Hermes in the victor’s graveyard here in the capital. (Why we still let them be buried together and cater to the dead man, I don’t know, but we’re doing it under the command of our dead president) yet she’s proven that she’s skilled.

So District five should honestly be on the top of our agenda, alongside District two and watching Styx Cleemont in particular. Maybe he needs a little accident between now and the start of the 501st.

VIEWABLE AGAIN TO THE COMMON CITIZEN

Urban and Mercedes were lucky that they moved quickly, as they barely get to the volcanic arena in time. Urban had carried Mercedes for part of the way, yet when they finally crash down in the tunnel, both tributes check for injuries rapidly.

Mercedes had been hit by a flying piece of concrete, hitting her shoulder. She winced as she moved it, yet nothing seemed dislocated.

Urban was worse off. The cut from Talon back in the amusem*nt park was bleeding severely, and it had been mainly adrenaline that carried him to the exit, when he tried to stand, he woozily held onto the tunnel walls as the pair limped towards the exit. He was burnt, yet we had indeed (Guiltily as I may put it) saved his hair. People really liked the mohawk. When Urban had fallen from the pillar, he had spared himself from injuries, yet there was glass from the bottle sticking out of his arm.

Once they get out of the connecting tunnels, Urban drops to the ground. “Check your pockets, for anything. Do you have the first aid kit?”

Mercedes shakes her head. “Invidicus took it.” (He had taken it, and it had gone to Falcon) Still, she starts emptying out her pockets.

Mercedes had her bow, a quiver of nine arrows, a serrated knife, her mother’s watch, pockets stuffed with five snickers bars, the broken head of one of her father’s spears, a box of matches and her district token, a little charm bracelet, on which each of the charms had one of her family's names on it.

Urban had his necessary tribute items (Bra and two hair ties), three remaining axes, two travel cans of hairspray from the store, three sticks of beef jerky, a sword, and fourteen vapes. Mercedes stares at them in amazement and Urban grins. “There’s another two hidden in my hair. That’s how I’d get things into school, just make the mohawk around them.”

“Smart.” Mercedes says. “Not the nicotine addiction, but smart thinking.” She looks over the items and sighs. “At least we’ve got weapons and food of sorts. Nothing for your leg.”

“I’ll tough it out.” Urban says. He was silent before continuing. “Why’d you stay?”

Mercedes shrugs. “Valerie was being crazy. It was the right thing to do. Bentley’s the only person in my family who I actually think would turn on me. You don’t like me but Nero didn’t like me either. At least I was doing the right thing, and was going to die doing the right thing.”

Urban sighs. “You’re just an annoying kid. I don’t like kids, they just flock to me for some reason. Maybe the hair’s colorful. It’s nothing personal, you just move and act like you're on a kids TV show.”

“This is a kids TV show.” Mercedes says. “Family fun.”

“No, you’re right actually, this is the hunger games Family fun addition.” Urban laughs. “I bet that’s what’s the name of the quell!” The quarter quells were all named, ones like the notorious 75th (reaped from past victors) being known as the ‘All Stars addition’ and the 400th (Made from only 12 year olds) was known as ‘Tweenage Terrors addition’. Urban was right, this was indeed the hunger games Family Fun addition.

It was about 20 minutes pre anthem when the District ten pack exited the rapids. “Which way’s fastest?” Falcon asks.

Nolan frowns. “You’re going to want to get sleep before going in there.” he sighs as Falcon looks at him pointedly. “I think we’re on the complete opposite side of the map. Either way works.”

Falcon nods. “That way then.” he starts leading the group off to the long grain.

“Falcon, can we please go to sleep?” Eve asks.

Falcon shakes his head. “Once we get to the next arena we can. I want to get some distance tonight.”

“Huh.” The camera pans to Valerie and Bentley, both perched on top of the corn, looking down on the ten pack. They had crossed here, and were perplexed. Bentley frowns. “Nolan’s with them.”

“Not by choice.” Valerie says. “And they’re going to the pit. And no sign of the other three in the alliance.”

Bentley nods. “You think they could be with your siblings searching for information? That’s what I would do.” She smiles in the darkness. “What’s more important is that this means there’s been a split of sorts.”

Valerie nods. “Are we sleeping up on the corn tonight?”

Bentley agrees. “Yeah. it looks really flammable, so for the love of whatever you worship, don’t drop your cancer stick.”

DAY 23

“Invidicus, get down.” Elizabeth says suddenly. “That’s not supposed to be there.” she stares at the base of the Misfits, or more particularly one of the fallen trees used for more defense. “I studied this game back to front for hours, and that tree isn’t supposed to be there, and we both know there’s a cave in there.”

Invidicus hesitates before nodding. “And if they’ve had time and strength to move a whole tree, they must have been here for a while. You think it could be Wyatt Murray from five?”

Elizabeth nods. “Think so. You said that he went off with the little girl in the end, right? Didn't want any allies, but ended up with the sister? That means there’s probably two tributes in there. Unless…” she trails off for a second, looking around and smiling. “Invidicus… you think Sirenna is in there? You promised you’d run plan six with me!”

Invidicus freezes in place. “I did….” Whatever plan six was, he didn’t exactly seem happy about it. “Sireena…” he whispers to himself. “Where did you run off to? You can’t hide from me forever.” He looks to Elizabeth. “So we’re gonna try and run plan six?”

Elizabeth nods. “You’re going to go up there and just look in. Talk her allies out of killing you and then we’ll work from there. I’ll be right outside. Come on!”

From the minute Elizabeth and Invidicus appeared at the base of the hill, Remus had spotted them and was shaking everyone away. “Careers. Only two of them and they’re from District two: the female volunteer and her older brother.”

Cara peers out into the night, before turning around to the group. “sh*t…” She whispers. She slowly turned around and did a head count. “We’re meant to have Moss and Edi- f*ck it, we’re going to have to fight, or we’ll die here. Pexey, unless your training score has to do with crazy axe work, Finn’s going to take the axe.”

She looks around. “There’s two of them and seven of us. We’ve got it.”

Remus smiles from his lookout. “They’re weaponless. Everybody, against the far wall where they can’t see us. Finn, axe goes straight into the first person to walk in the door’s head.”

Finn tensens up, hands clutching Moss’s axe. “Nelly, shut up!” He finally spits. Nelly was hysterically crying at this point, and Pexey groans, covering Nelly’s mouth.

“Cara, if you’re in charge, go stand near Finn, just in case something goes wrong. It’s on you if it goes wrong.” Pexey stares Cara down. “Like it’s on you Edi-” she stops herself. “I’m sorry. Stay back. I’m really upset.”

“No, it’s fine. My group, I’ll lead us to our success or death.” Cara tells her. She slowly makes her way near Finn, standing behind him. “You’re going to do great.” she whispers.

“Cara, I want you to run.” Finn whispers. He reaches back to squeeze her hand. “Cara, this plan probably would have worked if we had more people, but the second this goes badly, I want you to run.”

Cara shakes her head. “It’s not going to go badly as long as we all stick together. If we don’t stick together, we’ll have a problem. If you die here, I won’t be able to live with myself, knowing that I’ve killed three people with this.”

Invidicus’s footsteps grow nearer. “Sireena?” He calls out. “It’s me, Invidicus. I’m alone. Not here to hurt anyone, I just want to talk. Where’d you run off to, you can’t hide from me forever.” He steps into the cave. “Reena?” Finn’s axe comes crashing towards him, and he screams as it smashes into his shoulder.

Invidicus goes down quickly, in probably the most dramatic way yet, falling straight to the ground. When Finn swings the axe at him, he reaches up with his other hand, trying to keep the axe off of him. Elizabeth curses, moving towards the other exit, but not before Nelly joins in on hysterical sobbing and crying, grabbing one of the water bottles and taking off. Elizabeth stops for a second, debating on following her before continuing to enter.

Elizabeth freezes at the sight of Pexey. “Oh hell no!” she starts pulling the knife out from her pocket. Before she could attack, Pexey grabs one of the knives from Zephyr and lunges towards her. “Invidicus, Pexey’s here!”

Invidicus practically leaps to his feet, yanking the axe out of Finn’s hands and throwing him off of him. “Then kill her!” Before he could move to his sister, Cara had jumped on him, trying to get the axe back from Invidicus. “You little bitch!” he screams again as she punches his bad shoulder, jumping backwards to the ground, crushing Cara between him and the floor. Finn tackles him again, Remus moving over to join in trying to get the axe away from the Career.

Elizabeth seemed somewhat hesitant over going against Pexey. Leevy and Magnet were both going for knives, and Elizabeth kept them in the corner of her eye while she fought Pexey.

It wasn’t that Pexey was skilled with her knife, it’s that she jabbed towards Elizabeth without hesitation, almost recklessly, not caring for how hurt she could get. Elizabeth was almost dramatizing it for the camera, taking bigger leaps and more cinematic dodges than needed.

“Whatever happened to the little doctor boy?” Elizabeth jeers. “Einstein, was that his name? Oh that’s right, I watched him fall down that landslide to his death.”

Pexey ducks under her knife, glaring at the Career. “You’re not going to kill me and you know it, bitch.” Behind Elizabeth, Midus sat on the ground, wide eyed watching the scene. Pexey nearly steps on him as she moves around. “We both know too much about each other to do that.”

Elizabeth hesitates, before turning around and stabbing Leevey in the stomach. Pexey grabs Magnet's arm. “Magnet, run. Wait at the exit. I’ve got this.” Magnet hesitates, but does leave.

Nelly had actually reached the exit, and didn’t stop running, just kept moving towards the long grain arena.

Invidicus successfully axes Remus in the head, the cannon sounding as he pulls himself up. In the background, Elizabeth could be seen stabbing and stabbing Leevey’s body, that cannon sounding as well.

Invidicus brings his axe up, only to be tackled by Finn. “Cara, run! Cara, please run!” Cara stares at him for a minute, Finn's arms wrapped tightly around Invidicus’s neck, dragging him down. She holds eye contact with him for a minute before moving backwards out the cave.

She gasps, not even a real scream of pain, as the blade enters her from behind. Pexey yanks it out, stabbing her through the neck. Cara drops to the ground, clawing at her neck for a minute before her cannon goes off.

When the camera looks at Pexey, there is no look of victory or uneasiness. She looks at the dead girl in front of her, an expression of total indifference. She then turns and moves to run towards the exit.

Finn was the last to go down, and he did it fighting. Maybe in his last moments he understood that this was the end for him. Maybe he hoped that the cannon outside wasn’t Cara. Maybe he thought about an afterlife, or wondered where Nelly went. Honestly, we would wonder about these siblings for a while. He did have a pretty strange name for District twelve, Nelly and Rob as well. But by the time the 501st games come around, I’ll bet that everybody will forget about the eighteen year old tribute from District twelve.

He put up a great fight. He dragged Invidicus down to the ground, and secured a knife. When Elizabeth did show up to help her brother, there was no dragging Finn off. He died after 54 stab wounds, 36 in the back, 12 in his shoulders and arms, 5 to the legs and a final one straight in his mouth and in the back of his throat. He might have been dead at that point, or nearly there. In the mentor room as his cannon goes off, Doug Howell sighs in disappointment. A few of the Career victors laugh, and Nyle Barbeir shoves him roughly telling him that he’s still got a few tributes left. District twelve never comes out on top.

“Invidicus?” Elizabeth eventually asks. When she turns around, she hadn’t left unscathed. Most of the damage was from Finn, who had caused a gash on her left cheekbone, about two inches long. It was gushing blood, getting into her mouth. Her leg was bleeding again, and she hurried to take another pain pill. “Invidicus, don’t die on me now!”

Midus was left forgotten in the background as Elizabeth shakes her brother. “You have a pulse. Don’t tell me that you died to a coal miner. No child of Valda Willis would die to a coal miner!”

Invidicus suddenly shouts in pain, shoving himself up with his good hand. He slowly drags himself to the side of the cave. “Light a fire,” he says. “Elizabeth, please, fire. I- I think they got me bad.”

Elizabeth hesitates before starting a fire, Midus still forgotten. “For f*cks sake, we need that medical kit.” She eases the jacket off of Invidicus, looking over him. “You’ve been stabbed in the back.”

“Cara.” Invidicus says. “The girl from six. The one he told to run. She started helping him once it started getting bad.” he looks at Elizabeth. “Is this how Talon Robbins felt? When we did that to his arm?”

Invidicus’s shoulder was the biggest wound. It was like Finn had hit it, and decided to keep swinging. Muscle and bone were visible, and blood was all over the ground. No function in the arm, the dominant arm. Invidicus was a throwing knives user. Maybe he knew how to throw non-dominant throws, but it didn’t really matter. That was a debilitating wound. No coming back. It was the type of thing that if he was to win, we would have to amputate. Plus the blood loss made it look very grim.

He couldn’t even see the whole of the damage, from where the wound was, but Elizabeth could. The corners of her mouth press together. “Invidicus, I can’t fix it. Nobody could fix this. No amount of sponsor money. You’re going to bleed to death by morning.”

Invidicus breathes in a shaky breath. “Oh.” with his good arm, he reaches out to tenderly touch the damage, flinching as he does. “I wouldn’t want them to send me anything anyways.” He looks out into the fire. “I just want my mom. She did love us, Elizabeth.”

That final phrase seems to do it for Elizabeth, because she quickly gets to her feet, throwing ten pain pills in his direction. “You pop all of those at once, that combined with the blood loss should definitely kill you. I’m leaving.”

Invidicus’s head cracks around to look at his sister. “What? Why? Where are- where are you going?”

Elizabeth doesn’t look at him as she yanks a knife out of Remus’s hands. “I don’t know. All I know is that you’re a lost cause, and just because you’re dying, doesn’t mean I have to. I don’t want to spend the next three hours of my life listening to you whine about that woman.”

“The next three hours?” Invidius yells. “Those could be the last three hours I live! You’re going to leave me here to die, surrounded by the corpses of the children I just massacred?”

Elizabeth looks back once. “You follow me, you’re dead. I don’t care for you, I’ve never liked you, and now you’re just a leech. Suck it up, you’re a Career, act like it. Our mother would be disappointed.” She kicks Finn’s body into the fire and turns around and leaves the cave, moving towards the exit. As she leaves, Invidicus yells for her to come back.

“Elizabeth! Elizabeth! Don’t leave me alone! Eliza! Ellie? Ellie? Liz? Ellie? Lizzy, don’t let me die here! Ellie, I don’t want to die!” He begins to cry alone, the only eyes watching him from the burning body of Finn Keenworth.

“Ruthless!” Flickerman laughs as Elizabeth limps away, wiping the blood off of her hands. “Couldn’t even spare a few hours! I love it! And this means that both the Misfits and the Career pack have been completely disbanded in the first two days!” He smiles. “Ten’s still hanging on a little bit, that’s still a pack.”

Ruby smiles. “You know, poor guy. I was starting to like him. Not as much as Aspen, but I was starting to like him.”

“Aspen?” Flickerman asks, raising an eyebrow.

Ruby giggles. “I’ve been checking her socials from the bunker. She’s built a shrine. She’s getting really bored in there, we should probably give her some screen time soon.”

Invidicus pulls himself up to his feet, tears still on his face. “Ma, it hurts.” he slowly moves to push Finn out of the fire. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know this would be so hard. It shouldn't be this hard. I don’t wanna die here. Mama, I don’t wanna die here!”

He yells in anger, kicking the wall. “I don’t wanna die! I don’t wanna die! I don’t wanna f*cking die!” He whines in pain, clutching his shoulder. “Mama, do you love me from where you are, more than 60 feet underground? I have nobody now, Mama! I don’t got anybody! I don’t got my friends! I don’t got Elizabeth and I ain’t even got the f*cking cat!” He whimpers again, looking at the mixture of his own and the children's blood on his hand. “I just want you all to be proud of me. I don’t even want to be here anymore. And trust me, Papa, I tried to talk her out of it.”

He lies back down on the cave floor. “I begged her. I pleaded with her, Papa. I told her to wait and volunteer next year. I said that Nero was too little. I said that this would ruin our lives. I told her to even wait until I’m out of the academy. I said it didn’t care if I won the games or not, I just- I would have been happy with being a peacekeeper. Get shipped off to District eleven? I bet it’s got beautiful sunsets there. Not so much light pollution. I’d love to be able to see the sun again. It gets cold up in the mountains. District eleven sounded nice. District ten did as well, I’d love to own a sheep. If my life was ever in my own hands, Papa, I’d just be a peacekeeper. Anywhere but in that house.”

He struggles to his feet, looking over the mess around him. “Mama, look at the blood I’ve shed. The blood is on my hands, Mama. Are you happy, laying in that pit? I’m not gonna die here, mom, am I? Not when I don’t even know who I am? Not when… not alone.”

He slowly moves over to the sponsor box from Zephyr, reading over the note “You woke up?” he whispers to himself. “Probably a few days before you died. Was it even worth it?” He slowly takes a blanket, wrapping it against his arm. “If I even make it through the night, it will be because of you. I’d rather it took me in my sleep. And if I wake up, I’ll be ok. I’m gonna be ok.”

Outside of the arena, Pexey and Magnet exit. “What took you so long?” Magnet asks.

“Killed Cara.” Pexey tells him. “For Edison.” There was still blood on her hands. “Elizabeth’s coming.” She tugs on his arm. “We need to move.”

“Pexey?” Bentley spoke into the night. For a second, Pexey freezes, looking around to locate the Career, before spotting her on top of the corn. “You're with your brother. Are you coming up?” In the Darkness, Valerie looks at Bentley questioningly, but keeps her mouth shut as Bentley reaches out to help Pexey up then extend her hand for Magnet. “You too. You're strong enough. We’ve got axes. We can throw them at anyone.”

Pexey glances at them in the darkness. “Invidicus and Elizabeth Willis attacked my group-” she immediately shuts up as Elizabeth walks out of the arena, holding Midus.

“Shush.” Elizabeth says. “It’s ok.” She looks around the outside of the arena. “It’s never over until your cannon sounds.” She quietly hums to herself. “I think I’ve found a use for you, but you’re not going to like it, little one. I’ll give myself some time to think of some other options. But when your food runs out, I won’t have another option.” She continues humming to herself, the tune of an old District two folk song, and keeps moving back towards the city arena.

The group on the corn is silent for a minute before Valerie speaks. “Invidicus is where?”

Pexey shrugs. “I last saw him on the ground getting stabbed and hit with an axe. I’d assume he was alive right now, as the only cannon I can’t assign either belongs to him or Finn Keenworth from District twelve.” She glances at the Careers near her. “Are you going to put an axe in my head now?”

Bentley shakes her head. “My father really liked you. I mean he liked you a lot. Even for Hermes, a lot.”

“He thought I could win?” Pexey asks, a smile playing on her face.

Bentley shakes her head. “No, he just really liked you. Called you a tragic tribute. Whatever deserved that eight must have been upsetting.”

Pexey shifts on the corn, sliding down to her feet. “Yeah. it was. The peacekeepers in three made me learn it.” she frowns. “They loved me.”

Magnet glances at the Career tributes. “Where’s the rest of you?”

“Unimportant.” Valerie says. “Look, where’s Bull Robbins?”

Magnet shrugs. “I’d assume he was still in this arena. Strong guy.” He looks down at Pexey who was waiting on the ground. “Look, what do you want?”

Bentley smiles. “Just wanted to check in on Pexey. Big wonder about that training score.”

Pexey scoffs. “If Hermes felt bad for me for doing it, you can probably guess what it was.” She stares up, eyes landing on Bentley. “Hermes’s plan ended up with Edison dead."

“And that wasn’t his fault.” Bentley says calmly. “I’d assume that he was in the landslide that killed the boy from seven. Your girl from six got Hermes thrown out of power. They put Nolan Thornton in charge instead.”

Pexey shrugs. “I’m leaving. Maybe the mutts that killed my brother will reclaim me.”

Valerie hesitates before calling out. “You don’t wanna stay? We’re going to kill Bull Robbins. Not quite sure how yet, but we’ve got to try. If you stay here, you’re in an alliance with Careers. Trust me, we’ve got sponsor money, enough to fix any injury.”

She looks at Bentley. “They wouldn’t be useless. Look at him, strong muscles and a knife. Let him stab someone. She’s got a score for…” Valerie trails off. “Reasons.”

“f*ck no.” Pexey stretches. For somebody talking to the Careers, she didn’t seem that afraid. “Magnet, you stay if you want. I don’t really want to see anyone for the rest of time. I don’t want to see anything ever again.” her hands run over her eyes. “I don’t want to look. I don’t want to feel. I want to be numb.” She begins wandering out into the maze.

Magnet opens his mouth and freezes as Bentley puts her hand on his shoulder. “She means it, stay if you want. We’ll take on Bull Robbins. It’s something to do, right…” she trails off. “What’s your name?”

“Magnet.” Magnet tells her. “Magnet Klein.” it was silent for a minute so he fills the silence. “I’m fifteen. And from District three.” More silence from the girls. “Uhh… I scored a five? And I’m 5’7. In my job in three, I would ship cargo. I’d help load things onto trains for District six.”

“Do you do Morphling?” Valerie asks suddenly.

“Once.” Magnet tells her, rubbing his arm. “In a syringe, not the drink form. I thought I was going to get AIDS.”

Valerie grins. “That’s f*cking cool. You smoke?” Magnet shakes his head and she shrugs. “First time for anything. Here.” She lights a cigarette and passes it over Bentley to reach Magnet. “Careful. Don’t drop it on the corn.”

“My mom said these give you cancer.”

“Who cares what your mom says?” Valerie scoffs. “She’s dead now. Mine is too. And Bentleys. Honestly, we’re not going to get yelled at by anyone. Have a cigarette.”

She gets down from the corn and climbs up on the other side to be across from Bentley and Magnet. “Valerie Willis and Bentley Bancroft. We’re both fourteen. I turn fifteen in September though. On the first.”

“So it’s coming up?” Magnet says.

Bentley nods. “This week too. It’s the 29th today, your birthdays in two days.” she had turned 14 back in March.

Valerie nods. “Sweet. So you’re staying, Magnus?”

“Magnet.” He corrects her. After looking after where Pexey went off to, he nods. “Yeah. Guess so.”

After sunrise, the camera switches to the District ten pack, with their new addition. They moved slowly, looking at all of their surroundings, though it was nothing but corn. “What are you doing?” Angus asks sharply as Nolan reaches in his jacket.

“Just looking for a hair tie.” Nolan says. “My hair’s on my neck. It’s getting hot out here.” Quite like most of the group around him, Nolan’s hair was longer than usual, reaching his shoulders. A little shorter than Bull’s hair. He grabs the hair tie, putting his hair up in a ponytail. “Nobody’s getting stabbed. You took my knives and sword.”

He sighs. “What do you think those cannons were last night? I counted four.”

“Well hopefully not Sable.” Falcon says, looking up to the rocky sky. “I mean, always could have been your buddies turning on themselves.”

Nolan stays quiet for a second before smiling. “Well it probably wasn’t Sable.” he looks over at Falcon, who was refusing to look at him. “I- back when I was with the other Careers, they posed a question. I really don’t want you to take it in the wrong way, considering the rope around my neck, but was any of your family on steroids?”

Falcon scoffs. “No. Would have gotten us kicked out of the club. I mean, Bull could have been doing whatever, but not Sable. And also not Talon. Bull was honestly really chill with drugs back home though. He’d smoke some green, and maybe take a couple mushrooms three times a year, but was pretty chill.” He smirks, still not looking at Nolan. “You wouldn’t know it, but Bull’s really chill most of the time. You need to hit him first normally. Sable on the other hand throws hands because she doesn’t like your hair.”

Nolan continues smiling. “Yeah I know. She used some flavorful words against my father, talking about how he dyes his hair to conceal the gray, and how it’s really clear he got a hair transplant. Needless to say, Darius Thornton was silenced. She hit him as well, if that wasn’t clear.”

Suddenly, Nolan stops walking. “Do you hear that?” As the ten pack quieted, the sounds of footsteps could be heard. Falcon reaches into his pocket, fishing around for something.

He didn’t even wait to truly see who the tribute was, the throwing knife went flying forty feet, colliding with the girl's chest. With her constant tears still on her face, Nelly falls backwards without really knowing what had happened.

“Nelly Keenworth.” Eve eventually identifies. “I think. She never stopped crying during training. Constantly clinging to her mother’s side.” Falcon shrugs, ripping the knife out of her chest. He had taken Invidicus’s throwing knives, (Not the jacket, Invidicus still had that) and proved that he did indeed know how to use them.

“You know long range.” Nolan comments. “The Careers didn’t think you did.”

Falcon shrugs. “Anyone learns how to throw a knife with the right combination of free time and living in the Robbins house.”

Happening at about the same time, the camera rewinds a few seconds to show the interaction between Sireena, Spindle and Spud. The three of them were doing great. “It do taste better.” Spud says. He was talking about the corn, which he was currently munching on. “Much better than the sh*t we ate in the beginning.”

Spindle nods. “I guess.” He fidgets with the bracelet on his wrist. “There can’t be that many tributes left.” All three tributes look around at the sound of Nelly’s cannon. “One more down!”

Sireena smiles. “I counted the tributes left. I think it’s 48.” She looks around at the group. “It’s just double the normal size now. I guess it’s just like the 50th now. Second quarter quell.”

Spud frowns. “We ain’t learn about those games back home. They afraid it would cause a rebellion.”

Sireena smiles. “We need to learn about them. All the quells. I took a class called AP game studies last school year. You learn about all about every quell, and the final project, part one of the test, is an in depth creative recreation of one of the games from the past 25 years.” she glances at Spindle. “I was talking to Talon Robbins in training, he mentioned that Sable and Bull also took this class. They took it two years ago. I didn’t really expect that.”

“I wouldn’t expect an entire class based on game study, but here you are!” Spindle laughs. “I think… I don’t know what I think. I bet your upcoming academy students all love to take it.”

Sireena nods. “They reserve places for those kids. It’s a requirement. Honestly, one of the most helpful classes I took, considering I’m here. AP stat isn’t going to help with sh*t in the arena! It’s not just game study, there’s also a whole look on the pre games activities. You know how Career tributes also record little videos, to send into the capital to get people excited to see them? They’re often performances, dancing or acrobatics normally. We do that as well in the class, and study how alliances are shaped and formed. I was going to be taking AP game psychology this year, but I’m here now. Honestly, if I get home, I’m going to stay in school and still take it. Maybe they’d study me. That would be cool.”

“She really isn’t stupid.” Ruby says. “With all those classes. I really really like her. Sireena’s been growing on me.”

“Romulus!” Cassius Cardew enters the room, with a formal looking letter. “You’re our news guy, tell the world about their new president. The votes are in!”

“Oh I’m scared.” Romulus says without thinking and immediately covers his mouth. “I’m sorry, it’s just been such a confusing time. It’s my first time seeing the results actually.” he holds the folded paper in his hands. “Mr. Cardew, do you know what’s in this letter?”

“Oh I know all right.” Cassius looked exhausted as ever. I swear, the circles under his eyes had to be a fashion statement at this point. At least he had found the time to shave the light stubble on his face. He smiles at Flickerman. “Go ahead and open it.”

With shaking, genuinely shaking hands, Romulus Flickerman opens the letter, reading over it before looking at the camera. “For the next six years of Panems history, the stand-in president will be none other than the Victor of the 495th games! Welcome Dallas Fowler to office in a history changing election!”

Ruby’s phone on the table immediately lights up, practically drilling a hole in the table at the rate of the notifications. “I’m never going to hear the end of this.” She says, almost awestruck. “He’s never going to shut up again, is he?”

Romulus was smiling, looking over at her phone. “The first thing he does as president, text the victors group chats.”

“Oh yeah.” Ruby says. She still didn’t unlock her phone. “Where is our president?”

Flickerman changes the camera to the mentor room, and then to the District ten rooms where he eventually sees Dallas, completely decked out in District ten traditional clothing, laughing with Blaise Singh. “How we feeling, Mr. President?”

Dallas shrugs. “Does this mean I win the monopoly game?” They currently had a game going, Dallas had a massive fan of money in his hands, and was leering over Savannah. “Can I order her to give up?”

“You’re cheating!” Savannah laughs at him, before looking at the camera. “He bought a separate monopoly game in here to rob the bank! Cheater!”

“I call it a loan.” Dallas tells her. He then smiles this malicious little smirk of the devil, and looks to the camera. “As President, I’m allowed to make announcements over the arena, right?”

Ruby groans. “Dallas, please don’t mess up the games…”

Dallas Fowler scoffs. “I just want to tell everybody that I’m president now. I want to see the little Careers' faces as they cry.”

“You are going to be an evil dictator.” Ruby tells him, but he couldn’t really see her and she was smiling.

“Careful Rueberry, you can’t talk to the president like that.” Dallas tells her. “And don’t pretend that you wouldn’t have voted for me if you could have voted. I’m awesome. And going to actually do stuff instead of talking about doing things. But first, Savannah, you owe me 238 dollars on the District three railroad. And I believe that bankrupts you, which leaves me the winner.”

“Pay back your 5000 dollar ‘loan’ first.” Savannah tells him. Dallas simply tosses all of the money in the air before making his way to the announcing room.

When he walks in he smiles. “I feel like there’s an official inauguration message that I’m not reading right now.” He reaches over for the intercom. “First official act as president: send the entire arena into a panic.”

His voice rings over the arena. “Attention all tributes, especially my tributes!” Every tribute in the arena recognized him from voice alone. Dallas smirks as he talks, smiling into the microphone. “From the time of our dearest president's assassination, there have been many measures in place, including an election for a new president. Now a couple of rules might have been changed around, a bit of new laws made, that made it possible for me to say this here today. I am indeed the new temporary president of Panem.”

Complete shock over the arena. You would have thought some of them had been slapped. Eventually, the District ten tributes began to cheer, Nolan alongside them. Other groups slowly began to join in as Dallas smiled. “Yeah, I like the applause! I think I’m going to make that mandatory! You too, Mr. Urban Thornton, I order it. Otherwise I’ll detonate your tracker.”

“Dallas!” Ruby was laughing at that one, plus Urbans confused face as he slowly began to clap. “For legal reasons I don’t think you can do that one!”

“Just messing with him.” Fowler was clearly elated from the applause in the arena. Invidicus had actually just woken up to the announcement, shook his head and went back to sleep.

“Wait, does that mean the president's my mentor now?” Bull was beaming now.

“Oh, I’m still mentoring my tributes.” Dallas says. “Honestly, I’m not going to have that much more information, just some stuff on mutts. And I’ll have access to anything any tribute did pregame on camera, but I could have gotten that anyway.” he smiles, tapping his foot. “I was told by Selina Snow herself when I won my games that my number one priority for the rest of time, no matter what happens, no matter who’s in danger, and no matter who dies, my number one priority is mentoring my tributes. I’m legally obligated to do so. They can’t exactly tear up that contract for another eight months minimum, so I’m mentoring my tributes.”

“Hi Ferrari!” Whispers Ruby over the intercom. “I’m here too!” Ferrari smiles, waving at the sky, but there was maybe half the energy that she had put into the wave compared to the first time she was seen on camera.

Ruby suddenly turns to look at Dallas, a frown on her face. “Do I have to call you President now?”

Dallas shakes his head. “Nah. I honestly only ran because it would be funny and I knew I could do better than whatever Maximillion Flickerman would pull out of his ass. I guess the mentor room for victors is going to be about the same until I want to win an argument and order you to listen to my side. Call me whatever, I don’t care, but don’t whine at me like a little bitch. Or do, I’ll still fight back and now I have peacekeepers.”

He smiles at the intercom again. “Well I’m going to deal with actually being president now and do some actual stuff, so I need to leave now to find young Arianna, or I guess she could be referred to as just Arianna now. Don’t die on me, District ten!” After clicking off the intercom, he strides out of the room, the tassels on his leather jacket swaying as he walks.

“Is this a good or bad thing?” Flash Lin asks. Him and Gadget were still in the graveyard, and were honestly doing great. They might as well be mutts themselves, with the way they learned the weapons.

Gadget shrugs. “Good? Overall, I’d love to see Dallas Fowler as president. He speaks his mind. Maybe that doesn’t mean everything's going to go great for us in particular as tributes in a game against his District ten, but in the long run, he’ll do great.”

She glances around the graveyard. “Flash, do you remember Dallas Fowler’s games? You would have been eight.”

Flash slowly nods. “A little.” The pair wordlessly began moving in the same direction, not needing to discuss where they were going. “I mean, I was eight. I know how big of a deal it was. I just remember thinking that I’d never seen that much white before in my life. It was only you and me that our parents let watch, right?”

Gadget nods. “The blood, there was so much blood, and on the snow, it was left everywhere. Apparently murdering someone with an icepick leaves a lot of blood if you go for the head.”

She was braiding a strand of her hair subconsciously, staring around the gloomy graveyard. It was a constant state of dusk there. “Flash, you understand that it’s the 495th games that caused all the problems in three, right? I mean, the 494th was the fuse, but the 495th blew everything up.”

They had gotten where they were walking, the gravestone of Cyber Ectorious, the District three male tribute of the 495th games. Each gravestone did have something for each tribute, something that the crowd would recognize them for, or at least an article of clothing. Some had weapons, others had well known tribute tokens, Cyber was special.

Sitting on his grave was a little cage, inside it a taxidermied polar bear.

When in District three on his victory parade, Dallas had told the crowd that he didn’t regret surviving, yet if it couldn’t have been him, he would have wished it was Cyber.

Gadget stares almost enthralled at the gravestone. “Whether it hurts me or not to say this, he was someone to look up to. Possibly the smartest tribute to ever walk into the games. I get the feeling he and Hermes Graves would have been friends. You know they’re a good person if Dallas Fowler likes them.”

“Do you think it was a suicide?” Flash asks. “I mean, it was the one part I wasn’t allowed to watch. Horrifying.”

Gadget nods. “I think he realized that he couldn’t win against Dallas. You know it was a suicide, he tried getting eaten by the bears first. I don’t believe that bullsh*t about ‘oh, he tamed the mutts!!!’ He was trying to get eaten.”

She tosses her hair over her shoulder. “He was going down down down. And I think he was trying to take Dallas and whoever else was left with him. Biggest tribute caused arena destruction. They couldn’t even get the body home. Forever buried at the bottom of the frozen arena.”

Flash reaches out to stroke the taxidermied bear. “Smart doesn’t mean victory. It’s a combination between smarts, strength and survival. And the mental need to survive and keep pushing on. The persistence to drag yourself out.”

CAPITAL NOTE (For the public to see as they please, as of 504)

We didn’t quite want this one to be forgotten behind the scenes. Dallas Fowler’s first act as President.

11:38 AM, August 29th.

“Do you see the train yet?” Arianna waited hand in hand with the president. The pair of them waited alone on the train station platform. There was security, yet they were so far away, they wouldn’t have made much difference.

Dallas shakes his head. He was clearly much more on edge from the scene, hand clenched over his pistol. He stood looking out as the sounds of the tribute train came in. Arianna sighs. “People are going to hate you, Dallas.”

“I don’t give a sh*t about what your people think about me.” Dallas tells her. “And I don’t want to do this either. They’re Careers. But in order to get things done, I’m going to have to play nice for a few weeks. Half of it’s to shut Achilles Hart up. Besides, get the children out.”

The train stops. For a minute, no doors open, before they slide to reveal over 100 children standing there. “Scylla Hart, welcome to the capital.” Dallas says stiffly.

Nobody moves to get out of the train, until a girl shoves her way through and out. Scylla looked a little different from when we last saw her. A little skinnier, a bruise on her collarbone. You could tell it was her, easily. She had one of those looks that nobody could ever forget.

“It’s good to see you, Mr President.” She tells him. You could see she spoke through gritted teeth, and she glances back at the train, where everyone else stood, refusing to get off. “Thank you for bringing us here.”

Dallas frowns. “Only doing what’s right. How many of you are in there?”

“316.” Scylla tells him. “Many didn’t want to come. They didn’t want to come to you.”

Dallas finally smiles. “Maybe I don’t want to see them either. Well whoevers parents didn’t want their children to get blown up made the right choice.” he looks behind her at the train. “Get off then? There’s been sleeping arrangements made. I became president at 9:14 in the morning today. This train left at 10:25 on the dot. I’m a productive man.”

Styx Cleemont enters the room, two peacekeepers supporting a third, taller peacekeeper behind him. “They’re just going to use the train as a way to get back to that outpost.” Styx says. Savannah Jones peers after him. She was having a relatively bad day healthwise, and was in a wheelchair. Styx smiles at her. “They’ll be safe. And…” he stalls on what to call the new president.

“Dallas.” Fowler tells him boredly.

“Right. Dallas, I can take all of the children to where they’ll be staying until we get places.”

Dallas nods. “Right. Thank- nope, can’t do it.” he glances at Scylla. “I want to personally take this one to Achilles. It’s better than him finding out she’s here and tearing up the Capital looking for her.” Styx nods, waving the line of Children after him, suitcase after suitcase being unloaded from the back.

“Who brings an entire bed frame?” Dallas mutters to himself. “Snowflakes.”

“Would he really tear up the capital for me?” Scylla asks.

Dallas nods. “Unfortunately, yes. Your brother is on the verge of shooting himself in the head right now, he’s losing it. We’re hoping you calm him down. By we I mean the other victors because he’s a bag of nerves.” he does a double take, looking at the girl near him. “Whose is that?”

Scylla was turning a gun over in her hands. “Valerie’s.” it was as if it had materialized from nowhere, how that had been concealed in her dress…. She frowns. “We bedazzled guns last summer, but mine got confiscated by peacekeepers.”

“Do you have a suitcase?” Arianna asks.

Scylla nods, disappearing back on the train, a peacekeeper following with what was one of those carrier things from hotels. “I have clothes.” She glances at Arianna. “Can my father legally drag me back to two, or do I need to go on the run.”

“You’re not running anywhere in those shoes.” Dallas tells her. “Did he not let you come?”

Scylla nods. “I do what I want, though. And the heels are detachable.”

NOTE END

CAPITAL NOTE: (NOT FOR PUBLIC EYES TO SEE)

After everything was unloaded from the train, Styx seems to return, looking in. “Regime?”

There was a scuttling noise, and the smaller of the peacekeepers who had held up the injured came over. She clicks the helmet, revealing the gaunt face of the Victor of the 494th. Her hair was as tangled as always, her face still a horror show.

Styx smiles. “I do want to say that it was a pleasure to meet you. Get back here before dinner, ok? And make sure our ‘Cargo’ stays safe.”

She nods, looking back in as the other, uninjured peacekeeper appears, going to take off the helmet before Styx hurriedly stops them. “Keep it on. And don’t speak. There are cameras everywhere. We don’t need an accent ruining everything for us. And make sure that he doesn’t speak either. Try and keep all the gear on until you get to the wilderness of the mountains, but I don’t think it matters with him. It’s a miracle he survived. I can’t even recognise him.”

“He’s a miracle.” Savannah says. She looks at Regime, then the other peacekeeper. “All three of you, miracles you’re all still alive. Regime, you’re going to head back once you show them the spot. And me and Styx are going to visit Hermes’s Grave. How he convinced you to leave that room, we don’t know.”

She looks at the other peacekeeper, who pointed at the train. “Right, get going. And send news if anything goes wrong!”

After the train pulled away, she looked at Styx, who was white in the face, a bag of nerves. “You’re ok.” She says. “You’ve made your decision on where you stand in the world. Hermes would be proud.”

“Am I doing the right thing?” Styx whispers. “I mean, objectively helping those men survive is the right thing to do, but will this hurt others?”

“Dallas isn’t going to hurt us over it.” Savannah says. “As long as he’s in office, we can operate. He probably would help, help us overthrow the government he’s running. I just don’t think he’s going to have power for long.”

Styx nods. “He knows that, right? Someone’s going to send a bullet in his skull?”

Savannah shakes her head. “He thinks he’s indestructible. He’s not going to live for much longer, but as long as he’s living, we can help others.”

VIEWABLE AGAIN TO THE COMMON CITIZEN.

“Hart!” Achilles turns around in the mentor room, to see Dallas standing in the entryway, arms crossed. Dallas smirks. “Got you a little present.” he steps aside to reveal Scylla, standing there beaming. She must have been at a fancy dinner party when she left two, it was her finest clothing.

“If you keep sweating like that, your hairline is going to recede.” Scylla laughs, moving past peacekeepers to look at her brother.

Achilles quickly moves across the room, scooping the girl up in his arms and holding her tightly. “Oh, thank god. Thank you god, and thank you Dallas Fowler.”

“Interchangeable.” Dallas says, moving out of the doorway to check on the District ten tributes. Achilles either doesn’t hear him or doesn’t care. The entire time, Scylla looked around the room, and at the camera in interest, while trying to get Achilles to put her down, muttering threats of burning things.

Achilles eventually does put her down. “What are you doing here?” He glances over her hair, her clothing and the small scrapes on her body, trying to decipher what was new.

“I wanted to see Valerie.” Scylla says. “And our president decided that he was going to evacuate children from the bombing areas from two. There’s 316 people here.” Achilles turns around and looks at Dallas in shock and Dallas shrugs.

“It’s not like I did much.” He scoffs. “I just sent a train and said that anyone who wanted their children out, send them on the train. Apparently people in two don’t like me and would rather their children get bombed. Well I don’t care about them either. It’s just stupid not to help.”

Dallas Fowler was not what you would call an empathetic man. He hated Careers, and he hated the government, and he hated anyone who so much as looked at him that wasn’t Arianna Snow or Lagoona Cresta. I do have to say that him shipping those children out of two was not an act of sorrow, rather just thinking it was stupid of the government not to have done it.

Achilles smiles, reaching to touch Scylla’s hair, but she moves to the consul, looking at Valerie on the screen. “Don’t press any buttons! I mean it, I’ll chop all of your hair off. And don’t embarrass me.”

“You embarrass yourself, I’m awesome.” Scylla looked at the screens. “What does that button do?”

“That just changes the perspective of our view on the tribute.” Lux says. Scylla frowns, looking at Gadget’s sponsor card. “And that’s a debit card with tribute money on it.”

Meanwhile, Achilles smiles. “Do you know if anyone else from the academy year is here?” No answer from Scylla, she was realizing that the sponsor cards were color coordinated by district. Achilles frowns as he looks to Dallas. “What are you going to do with everyone? 316- 17 If you count Scylla, where are you going to put everyone?”

Dallas shrugs. “I’ll get to it when I do? For now, they’re in the training center. Little Career dreams, to go run around and f*ck up the equipment. We had to get everything out of the rooms and all. It wouldn’t be such a bad idea to ship them out to other Districts for the time being, I’d rather keep them away from sponsors like Ignatius. So when they become too much of a problem or there’s too many of them to stay here, we’ll deal with it.”

“There’s already too many of them.” Achilles says. “Look, put me in contact with any kid from my year, I’ll figure things out from there.”

The announcing booth and the mentor room are both located on the third floor of the training center. The main sponsor hall is on the first. It was a trouble to fit 147 tributes in the building, even with the expansions from after the fire of ‘480. 317 would be near impossible. Nowhere near enough space.

Dallas stares at Achilles, frowning slightly. “And that would help how?”

Achilles shrugs. “I don’t know, Mr. Fowler. But I need to see my kids.”

Dallas looks at him and frowns. “There are kids in there older than you. You’re a child yourself.”

“We'll call it teen pregnancy, because those are my children.” Achilles crosses his arms. “Look, I mean it. The kids are probably stressed out, many of them have peacekeeper older siblings, and multiple of their classmates have died. They’re also watching Valerie Willis on that screen. And I know it might seem like it makes them happy, and it does, but if she dies, imagine the scene that will happen. At least let me help them put on a dumb play about the 494th. Would you rather have a cramped up space with angry children who want to stab people, or a cramped up space where the kids don’t want to murder anyone. And trust me, some of these children have served jail time.”

“What is wrong with your year?” Mutters Calista.

Achilles shrugs. “Nothing wrong with them, they’re all great kids. They just have a lot of energy and the mentality of a violent mob. And this one’s in there.” he jerks a thumb out at Scylla, who was looking over the District ten tribute portfolios. “You good there, Scylla?”

She nods. “Yeah. just getting a feel for the controls since I’ll be a mentor one day.” she glances at Achilles. “Me and Valerie watched you on during your games three years ago, you and me are watching her now, and in three years time, you and her will watch me go in. And win of course.”

“It’s a little more difficult than ‘I’ll just go in and win.’” Lux says.

Scylla shrugs. “You just don’t have the right mindset.” She looks at Achilles before smiling. “I’m going to look at the training center, I bet it’s awesome. Valerie probably loved it!”

Achilles watches her go for a minute before Dallas gets up, sighing. “Don’t let her burn anything.”

“Do you have anything else to do?” Achilles asks.

Dallas shrugs. “Meeting with Maximillion Flickerman, but that started 20 minutes ago and is about unimportant things. So I guess I’m going to go there in a few minutes. He wants to talk about tiling. I don’t give a sh*t about tiling.”

“You’re going to get impeached before the month’s up.” Achilles tells him.

“Over tiling? In the government bathrooms? I don’t think so.” Dallas sighs. He glances at the screen, smiling at his tributes before leaving the room.

“So we’re essentially f*cked over.” Gucci and Ferrari were back to talking about Dallas Fowler being president. Gucci goes to run her hand through her hair and remembers how short it is again. She sighs and looks back at Ferrari. “With Fowler as president, it’s not even a thought of a District one win.”

Ferrari shakes her head. “Honestly, it’s not as bad as it looks. Fowler hates everyone. Sure, he hates Careers, but he also hates the games in general. He doesn’t even like the victors from his own district. He probably also has enough to deal with other than rigging the games against us.”

Gucci glances around the fiery arena. “Ferrari, I think I want to go back.”

“Huh?” Ferrari had moved to start preparing dinner. “Like to the last campsite? I mean, it was easier to sleep on, but we were too close to that lava pool for comfort. What if someone came and we needed to fight?” she went back to boiling water, back turned to Gucci.

“No, Ferrari.” Gucci says. “To the group. I want to see my son again. It might be the last time I see him.” She stood up, pacing back and forth. “He’s probably outgrown his little uniform. He could have said his first words already! If Dallas Fowler is president, I might never see him again.”

Ferrari frowns, reaching for a spear as Gucci keeps talking. “Besides, that was our deal, two weeks away and then going back? It’s been two weeks.”

“I didn’t say that.” Ferrari says, turning around. “This is a permanent thing, Gucci.”

Gucci shakes her head. “But Elizabeth told me that it was the plan to-”

“Elizabeth?” Ferrari asks incredulously. She laughs slightly, looking Gucci up and down. “You’re serious? I never talked to Elizabeth about this. Only my father. He must have sent Elizabeth to get you to come. And she did. She got what she wanted from him.”

“She got Midus.” Whispers Gucci. She takes a second to process before looking at Ferrari. “She has Midus! Oh my god, who knows what she’s doing with him, everybody told me she was crazy!” Her gaze on Ferrari turns to a glare. “Look, I’m not making you do anything, but I need my son back. And I’m not letting her use him like that.”

Slowly, Gucci begins backing up. “You’re fine here alone, you know it.” around her, the fire bubbles and spits up. Ferrari’s hand tightens on the spear, and before Gucci can even defend herself, the spear pierces through her chest, exiting the other side. Dead before she hit the ground.

Ferrari slowly walks over to the body, yanking the spear out. “If I have to be alone, so be it.” She whispers. “But if you’re not my ally anymore, I have no reason to keep you alive.”

She straightens up, looking around the lava. “Rule 24: There is no such thing as peacefully breaking off an alliance. If they’re a strong opponent, and they want to leave peacefully, stab them in the back, because next time you see them, that’s what they’ll try on you.” She glances at Gucci’s corpse. “And Rule 96: if given the choice between being alone as a healthy strong tribute when you think you can win against everyone or with a weaker ally who slows you down that you don’t care for, choose going solo. Unless there’s tons of tributes left and you’re in a bigger needed alliance, it isn’t worth it. Sometimes the camera time isn’t worth it.”

She stares in the lava, as if trying to see her own reflection. “It’s a difficult spot I’m in, dad. I don’t think we intended for the games to go on this long. All I know is that there is no Career pack left. They would have split days ago. No pack to join, I need to tough it out.”

“How far away are we?” Eve asks.

Nolan squints around. They had passed the bunker arena and were about to pass the collapsed arena of the library. “We’ll get there before tomorrow.” The group had stopped, sitting in the corn maze to get food. Nolan frowns as a bark could be heard.

A dog with reddish brown fur appears. Its ears folded over, and it was relatively smaller than the dog that Victor had been around. With a wag of the tail, it looks at the District ten tributes and barks.

Angus seems to ready a knife, as he’s the furthest inside the maze, but the dog just rolls over panting. Cautiously, Angus reaches to pet the dog, and smiles slightly as it happily barks for affection, chasing a corn thrown by Brandy, bringing it back to her happily, before barking again.

“I thought mutts were meant to be dangerous.” Eve says, looking at the Dog.

“They are.” Nolan says. “Just like tributes. Mutts are either predator or prey. So this is either something we eat or something that eats us. Tributes follow the same pattern. Kill or be killed.” Still, he watches as Brandy plays fetch with the dog, which was still barking as it brought back the corn, time and time again.

“Oh!” Ruby giggles. “It’s moving her!” sure enough, each time the corn was thrown, the dog would drop it again a foot or so in front of Brandy, enticing her to go further and further back in the maze

“Don’t go too far!” Angus yells. “I mean it Brandy, don’t get lost!” He turns back to the group. “Ignore the Careers for a second, and I guess the twins and Briar. Who else is a genuine enemy?”

“Um-” Nolan starts before stopping. When the group looks at him to continue, he sighs. “The Careers identified Spud and Wyatt as the big threats left. We didn’t really talk about anyone else.”

Falcon nods. “I want to add Talissa from four to that list. She’s got nothing to lose and an affinity for spears.”

Eve nods. “I saw her a lot during training. Belongs on a ship. I’m suspicious that she’s part of the District four training academy, but isn’t allowed to mention it. I get the feeling that both families are rich enough to afford it, and she uses those spears dangerously.”

Circe nods. “And you might as well add that girl from three. I can’t remember her name, but the thing scored an eight. I don’t really know how, she looks like she’s suffering from radiation poisoning, but an eight is an eight.”

Angus smiles. “And Silo. He scored an eight as well.”

Nolan laughs. “I was talking to Hermes about that. Silo’s training score is funny. He started off actually doing things, and then decided at some point it wasn’t worth it anymore and started banging on the door to be let out. Of course, they didn’t let him out, so he started smashing everything inside the room. It’s why your training scoring was delayed, they had to get new things. He dented the door in and everything. Apparently he deserved a nine, but they docked him a point for wrecking everything. They don’t boost scores as punishment anymore after the whole drama with the 74th.”

“And Hermes told you this?” Falcon asks.

Nolan nods. “Hermes… I mean I think he liked me. I think he liked almost everyone.” he sighs, itching under the rope collar. “Hermes seemed to know everything that happened in that tribute building. I swear, people’s mentors had to have been telling him things.”

“Like what?” Cassidy immediately turns around, looking at the Career. Both her and Eve’s eyes were trained on Nolan, genuinely interested in what he had to say.

Nolan smiles. “Sireena Bates. I got the whole list, from District one to twelve: Blaze, Urban, Slate, Invidicus, Marlin, 18 year old Wyatt, Atom, possibly something with Carter, Grove, Spindle, Barley, Silo, Maise-” He falters in the list for a second, a quick glance at Angus, “And Spud. 12/13 people.”

He smiles at Eve and Cassidy, who just look at him wide eyed. “At least that’s what Hermes told me. Honestly, Ferrari and Bull spent so much time harassing each other over passive aggressive letters, I was more entertained by that.”

Eve laughs. “I remember Bull getting a letter, screaming and throwing it to the ground. Ferrari had written a portion of the letter in Cursive after he decided to cuss her out in Spanish. Bull can hardly read normal English let alone loopy.”

Nolan’s smile broadens. “I read one of those Spanish ones. Sable gave it to me to give to Ferrari. I didn’t understand half the language.”

“You speak some Spanish though?” Eve questions.

Nolan nods. “Rich family. Urban’s fluent because of my father and I know a few words. Which basically means that I know how to say please and thank you, ask for basic directions, and say that the food is good. That and the random curse words Urban would teach me. And even with those curses, I had no idea what Bull was saying half the time, but Urban was busting a gut laughing his ass off when he read it.”

Falcon sighs. “Sable and Bull have a…. A flavorful vocabulary. I didn’t realize that Spanish was something taught in two. We only know it because we live in the very southern part of District ten, and my mother’s mother’s native language is spanish. Like, our town is built just outside of where the southern border of ten used to be before the extension. Now there’s only like 20 miles to go before you leave Panem.”

He glances around, hesitating on his words before continuing. “That’s my mother’s side of the family anyways. The Robbins side of the family is much easier to trace.” he smiles for a second. “We can trace it all the way back to before there was a Panem. The Robbins family had ancestors that were here before the colonization of the Americas. From there we know that ancestors lived on Native American reservations until Panem was formed and those were abolished. Which was about 570 years ago.”

Nolan smiles. “I wish we could trace our history. It’s strange. My father talked about the Thornton side of the family, but only knew back to our great grandparents, and my mother wouldn’t talk about her side of the family. We knew we had cousins and they were in the academy, but that’s all we knew. Urban was pretty close with Magnus back home.”

“It gets depressing after a while though.” Eve says. “You can only look at nearly an entire generation getting wiped out by plague so many times before you want to stop looking.”

Before Nolan could answer, a scream could be heard from inside the maze. “Brandy!” Angus immediately starts moving.

Nolan was up before anyone could yank him down. He dives for the long knife, easily over a foot long, and yanks it out of Circe’s hands, running after Angus.

Angus freezes at the sight of the scare mutts, armed only with an axe that was meant for throwing, not chopping down limbs. Still, he readies it as the mutt continues to lash out on Brandy, who was barely rolling out the way. He doesn’t completely register for a second that Nolan is beside him before Nolan’s in front of him, lunging out onto the mutt, slicing and stabbing at anything available. “Angus, get her out!”

Angus doesn’t hesitate to drag Brandy out of the stab zone, slamming the axe towards any dog mutt that came near him. “The hell did you think you were doing?” He keeps pulling her further and further away, shoving her towards Circe so he could look at Nolan again.

The Mutt began to grow, trying to wrap its big hands around Nolan, who looked at it bolted (like a cartoon character) out of the maze. The District ten tributes also take off running, Circe being the first to tumble out of the maze.

Nolan barely makes it out of the maze again, and pulls himself back up to his feet. “Is she… Hawk, is she alright?”

“Who the hell is Hawk?” Eve asks, straightening her jacket.

Nolan frowns and looks at Falcon who was putting a bandaid on Brandy’s arm. “Your name isn’t Hawk?”

Falcon shakes his head. “No. It’s Falcon. Completely different bird.” He turns around and looks at Nolan, a slight smile on his lips. “Have the Careers been calling me Hawk?”

Nolan shakes his head. Between the panic from the Scare mutt, the stress of the games and now calling Falcon by the wrong name, Nolan looked to be on the verge of tears. “No! I’m just really stupid. I- people have called you Falcon! I’ve called you Falcon! It’s just how I’ve been remembering all the names of the District ten tributes. I put everyone in a pair.”

“What were the pairs?” Cassidy was laughing and Eve smiles, yet the other tributes seem to quickly remember that this is a Career and stopped any friendliness.

Nolan sighs. “Falcon and Talon, bird part of bird, I guess that’s where the whole mixup came from. Sables and Minks are similar animals, Eve is nighttime and Circe is a daughter of the sun god-”

“Let’s keep moving.” Angus interrupts. “I want to see the pit.”

“He’s up!” Flickerman smiles. “Honestly, I thought this was it!” In the Rapid’s arena, Invidicus woozily pulls himself to shaking feet before collapsing down again. It was a rainy day in that arena, and Invidicus would need water.

He slowly pulls himself towards one of the empty water bottles of the group, then practically crawling to the exit of the cave to put the bottle outside. “According to his tracker,” Flickerman says, glancing at the information incredulously, “Invidicus Willis lost about four pints of blood. Do you know how much that is?”

As Invidicus sits out in the rain, he hesitates on checking the injury before either deciding that he didn’t want to see or that it would be dangerous to. He sighs, moving back in the cave to grab bottle after bottle to place outside. Eventually, he stops in the rain and staggers to his feet.

Slowly, half leaning against the outside walls of the cave, he makes his way over to Cara Ramirez’s body. He doesn’t speak while doing so, but he begins to pull her back inside the cave. It takes him three rest stops in the less than five yards the body was from the dry part of the cave, but he gets her there, placing her next to Finn. Slowly, he moves to take Remus and puts him next to Cara, then finally Leevy next to Finn. Eventually, he takes one of the blankets sent from Zephyr and places it over them.

He collapses in front of them, shaking from the effort it took him. “Mama please.” He whispers in defeat before looking to the smoldering ashes of the fire “God, do you hear me? Because if you hear me I give up. I can’t do it. I can’t do it anymore.”

He turns over so he was lying on his back. Maybe it was easier to breathe, maybe it was so the camera could look at him better. “God, will you forgive me for the blood on my hands? The blood on my hands, and my back and in my hair? Will you forgive Finn Keenworth for the blood he spilled from my shoulder? Will you forgive Urban Thornton for the murder of Terrier Fletcher? Will you forgive Hermes for everything? Because I’d forgive them in a heartbeat.”

He gasps for air again, reaching for the bodies behind him, but his hands never reach them. “God I know this is punishment for everything. I know I shouldn’t have locked her outside. I’ve only truly heard Valerie scared twice in my life. Once during those twelve year exams and once when I locked her out there. God, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for that. I’m sorry for every moment I threw a knife at Nero. I’m sorry for breaking his little arm with that bat three years ago, he was just so annoying and I was so so exhausted. I’m sorry that I wasn’t a good enough son. And I know this is punishment, it’s my own fault we’re in here. I shouldn’t have let Elizabeth do that. I shouldn’t have done that. I beg of you God, please forgive me. I don’t even care about my own survival anymore, just please let me see Valerie again before I die. Just one more time. That’s all I want.”

“Aspen, what’s going on here?” Ruby asks.

Aspen immediately turns to the second tablet, grinning ear to ear. In front of her, there was a second screen that was on her now almost constant livestream. “Hi Ruby! Hi Mr. Flickerman! I’ve been decorating!”

“I see.” Romulus says. Around her, the walls were plastered with photographs of Invidicus Willis, some from the games, but others seemed to be printed from social media or articles. There were a few with genuine toddler photos. Romulus sighs. “What…. What led to this?”

Aspen shrugs. “Researched my competition, decided I wanted to stick little pink bows in his hair. He just felt like a random enough tribute. Did you know he played soccer as a little kid?” She raises a photo of what must have been Invidicus when he was about seven years old, scoring a goal. “I got this one from his moms instagram!” Aspen says proudly. “He was so cute as a kid. Wonder what happened.” She tapes a little bow on little Invidicus’s head. “He’s for the girlies now.”

Romulus Flickerman was lost for words. “I think you broke a Flickerman.” Ruby says. “And was that you who was commenting on those Mercedes edits?”

Aspen nods. “Yep! If I’m gonna die here, I might as well live on in the comment section.” She stretches. “Please, I need a passion project. I’m losing my mind inside of here.”

“People really love you, Aspen.” Ruby says suddenly. “I mean, some people hate you, but they love the interaction. It’s not certain death.”

“Thought you were supporting your friend Ferrari through and through?” Aspen asks.

Ruby quickly nods. “I am! And you’re going to die here so she can get out. It’s just that- just that nothing’s certain. Anything’s possible. I learned that from Hermes.”

It was about another two hours before Invidicus got up again. He seems somewhat stronger, and he drinks some water. “Probably should have boiled that to be safe.” He mutters. “Never mind.” He walks outside of the cave, moving to sit on the top of the hill.

It wasn’t the clearest arena and he wasn’t at exactly the highest vantage point. But the rain had stopped and Invidicus looked around. Maybe he was looking for food, or the glint of Sable’s armor. It wasn’t Sable that he saw. Invidicus’s brow creases as he squints at the person making their way towards the arena’s exit. “Wait… Nero?”

Nero turns towards the small shape of his brother on the hill and stares in shock. “Yeah?”

It was as if Invidicus had only lost a few drops of blood rather than 40% of it. He sprints down the hill, discarding any bottle of water, practically tackling his little brother off of his feet, picking him up with one arm as he probably did when Nero was a toddler. “You’re safe. You’re safe.” He drops Nero back to the ground, examines the kid's face, before hugging him again.

Nero was a lot more reluctant. He just stood there, confused and suspiciously looking around. “Where’s Elizabeth?” he then gasps as he sees Invidicus’s shoulder. “What happened! Where are your weapons? Where’s the others?”

Invidicus sighs, then practically falls over. “I’ll tell you everything. Just help me back to the cave up there, ok? I think I lost a lot of blood. Elizabeth thought I was going to die.”

“Are you going to be ok?” Nero asks quietly.

Invidicus hesitates. “I don’t know, Nero. Hopefully.”

They make their way back to the cave and Nero freezes at the bodies. Invidicus smiles, easing himself down again. “It started when we left. Pretty soon after, we- me, Elizabeth, Nolan and the baby- got cornered by District ten.”

Nero sighs. “At least you all got out alive?”

Invidicus laughs. “Yeah. they waterboarded me for a bit. Elizabeth’s done worse. VALERIE’s done worse! But in the end, The District ten pack somewhat split up. Sable Bull and the younger little sister stayed here, and the rest of them went off to the pit. I think Sable wanted them off of her back. They took Nolan.”

He laughs again. “It’s honestly not that bad. Elizabeth tried to run, and Angus chased her down on horseback. Nolan was mesmerized by the horse. I tried telling him that the cowboy was sexier, he didn’t listen. Honestly, he’ll be fine with them.”

“And all of this?” Nero gestures at the bodies, all huddled together. He frowns at the blankets, but says nothing.

Invidicus’s laughter dies down. “Me and Lizzy, we thought it was Sireena. Just a second of a lapse of judgment. This guy here got a jump on me with an axe.” He gestures to Finn. “And everything went down from there. Honestly, we’re really lucky that the other three ran from the cave. If even one of them was to stay, I really think we would have both died. Anyway, This guy from twelve got my shoulder really badly. Then Elizabeth decided I wasn’t worth staying with and left me. To die.”

He sighs sadly, tussling Nero’s hair. Nero hits his hand off. “Well after you left, we went looking. Killed a guy from four. Then Valerie and Urban scaled some poles and were looking out. Valerie notices that the arena’s collapsing and decides to murder Urban. She makes one of those alcohol bombs.”

“Molotovs.” Invidicus says. “Maybe I shouldn’t have taught her those.”

Nero nods. “Well she threw it at him and ran. Me and Bentley followed. Then I knew she was going to try and kill me too, so I left.”

Invidicus immediately turns around. “You left her? Where’s Valerie?”

Nero groans. “She was trying to kill me, and you know she would in a heartbeat. She must either be in the volcanic arena or in the maze again. I’m not looking for her. Go ahead, but you’ll start bleeding out over anything strenuous.”

Invidicus stays quiet. There must have been a full five minutes of silence before he talks again. “You say she’s with Bentley?” Nero nods and Invidicus sighs. “I pity the thing. Look, Nero. I can’t hunt right now. I need rest. But to the rest of the arena, if you don’t count Elizabeth, I’m dangerous. You’re staying with me, right? Just my face alone should protect you.”

Nero stares at him coldly. “Is this what we’ve come to? You were the best sibling. That doesn’t mean you were a good person. You want to hear about how my daily life went?”

Nero stands up, pacing back and forth. “Monday morning. I would wake up, probably to being waterboarded or something by Valerie or Elizabeth. I’d pretend to get something to eat. Dad would yell at Valerie over something, and you’d throw something. Then you’d be driving us to school. In that car, Valerie would make me eat a bug or something. You once slammed my wrist in the car door on purpose because I got in on the right side of the car not the left. From there, I would go to school, where I have no friends and am failing every single subject because I can never find time to study or do any work because one of you three finds me and f*cks it up. I get told to kill myself. I really consider it sometimes.”

He looks back at Invidicus. “I go to the academy straight after school. No surprises there, everybody hates me. I mean it, they all want me dead, Invidicus. On a good day, Mom picks me up. In there, I would get my only moments of peace for the week. Most of the time, you drive me back. I beg you to slow down, and you don’t. If Valerie’s in the car, it’s worse. There are no doors on that car, and you try and shove me out while you’re going 70 in a 30. Sometimes I can’t bear to be in there with both you and Valerie, so I’ll walk the nearly 2 hours back home. Then once I get home, Dad’s drunk and moms screaming. Then I wish Valerie was there, because she’s the only one who’d do something about it. Either Valerie or Dad ends up bleeding. Then you come and sit in my room for hours, following me around the house. You’d think that after five years you’d grow tired of pulling my hair out one by one, but you don’t. This repeats for the next five days, while you have peacekeeping on Tuesdays and Thursdays.”

He smiles to himself. “Tuesdays, I either walk home or have to wait outside of the peacekeeping training area until 11pm. At least you know to drive me home before leaving. Sometimes Valerie’s with me, but she disappears. I learned not to follow her. Thursdays are the worst days of the week. You can’t drive me back and neither can the parents. Valerie disappears. Elizabeth takes me to the lab with her. There, my nickname is Lab Rat. I had 20/20 vision, now I can’t see things 10 feet in front of me. I get night tremors, I can’t balance correctly. Once, she decided to put me under anesthesia, and use that medical glue to get my mouth shut. It’s toxic. I nearly died. I nearly died a lot. There’s never a set time I get home. Sometimes I black out for the whole weekend. Speaking of weekends, full training academy where people hate me on Saturdays, and class in the mornings on Sundays and mom picks me up again, yet by Sunday afternoon, she’s exhausted and trying desperately to pay off an electricity bill. She’s exhausted, Valerie’s probably missing, you’re at peacekeeping or work, Elizabeth stays late at the academy. At least when you or Mom do something really horrible to me, someone buys me a packet of sh*tty M&Ms. Dad never apologizes and the girls go out of their way to do it again.”

“But you’re staying.” Invidicus says dubiously. “Look Nero. I’m here. You can either take me or leave me. But I’m willing to at least stand next to you. Take me or leave me. Because if you stay, I’ll fight for you. I’ll keep fighting for you until my arm gives out. Because I’m no Elizabeth, but I’m not stupid. This?” he points to his mangled arm. “This isn’t getting better. And I don’t want any sponsors on it. Achilles- I hardly know him, but we grew up together. I guess that’s got to count for something. I taught him to shoot a peacekeeper rifle, he let me sleep over there for a few days back in May. And now I just beg him to not send me anything.”

Nero sighs. “I’m going to find something to eat. It’s probably going to be fish. Are we going to stay in the cave with all the dead tributes?”

Invidicus sighs. “Just for now, Nero. I need a few days.”

Nero crinkles his nose. “Did you put them under the blanket or did Elizabeth?”

“I did.” Invidicus says. “I don’t know why, I just did. They looked cold.”

“Like before all of this,” Spindle says “What did you all want to do when you grew up? For a job?”

Spud laughs. “I mean, I always wanted to be a poet! I like words. I would have been spend’n a ton of my life locked up, and my writing ain’t gonna go nowhere, so maybe if I got out, I’d have ended up working in the fields.”

Sireena sighs. “I think I would have just taken over the parents' business. I would have really liked to get married one day. I’d like to stay at home and take care of the house and kids. I’ve always wanted four. I don’t know why, but I’ve always wanted four kids.”

Spud grins. “If you get out, you gotta name a kid after me.”

Sireena rapidly shakes her head. “I’m not naming my baby Spud. What even is a spud?”

“I think it’s a potato thing.” Spindle says, staring at the corn. “You know, I think I would have wanted to be a lawyer. Probably Divorce.”

“Where were you when I was going to jail?” Spud laughs again, before frowning. “Honestly, no lawyer could have gotten me out of that. I ended up pleading guilty.”

“Do you ever wish you didn’t do it?” Sireena asks, running her hands through her hair.

Spud sighs. “I wish I never got caught? I don’t regret the fire. I feel bad for the people, but…” He trails off, before continuing. “I try not to think about the people. I ain’t like talking about it.”

“Sorry.” Sireena says. “I was just… How do you live with that?” she quickly shakes her head again. “Sorry. You don’t need to answer.”

Spud sighs. “I never met the victims of the arson.”

“You don’t need-” Spindle starts, but Spud cuts him off.

“No, I do.” Spud pulls himself to his feet, looking around in the early evening air. “I never met the victims of the fire. I did see one of their families at the trial, and they stared at me like they wished I had burned in the fire as well. I guess I deserved that.” He smiles to himself, rather than the two allies. “I don’t think about them much, the people that died. Most of my thoughts are on Springer.”

He runs his hands over the dry dry corn, pacing around. “Springer was two years older than me. Gentle giant. He taught me to light the first fire, and bought me my first cigarettes. He had his life together, that's something. He started a band with his girlfriend, and had a real knack for the guitar. He played bass. It was something he could make a real career out of; he was going to go and tour around the District. Hometown heroes those people were.”

Spud stops moving around, and looks down, scuffing the ground with his shoes. “I mean, the night he died, I just wanted money for one of my people. I was pissed at my girl, I ain’t wanna see anyone! I owed someone a lot of money. Big big bucks. Of course, I ain’t got the money! So I panic and start looking for anything I can pawn off.”

He looks up at Sireena and Spindle briefly before looking down again. “Then Springer entered the room. I thought that he would lend me money. He didn’t want to. We start yelling, and the whole time I’m thinking, ‘this life ain’t fair, he’s got it all. He’s got the girl, he’s got the money, he’s got everything he’s ever wanted!’ and so I started swinging at him. I’m shoving him, he’s shovin’ me, and a big ass dresser with the television falls. He just kind of shook a bunch, then he didn’t move again.”

The camera looks at Spindle reaching slowly for his knife before flashing back to Spud, who smiled at the ground. “I think I was in shock, and the fire from the TV was spreading around, and I just- I just lifted the dresser, took his wallet and left him. I didn’t know what to do from there, so I did what I do best and burned away what I didn’t want to look at. Then I set off and burned that building down. It was all a blur post then. I was angry. I don’t remember being sad, I remember being angry. There was just so much fire everywhere, and I was in the middle of it, and this was something that was mine. My fire. My mess. Not Springer’s, mine. This was something he was never going to do because he was dead, and I left him there to burn and burn forever more.”

He suddenly looks up again at the other two and grins. “Well it’s either that story or I came home one day drunk and stabbed him before shoving the TV on him. Or I wasn’t even home, it was all TV damage. Or maybe I didn’t do it, I was just taking the blame for Culler, who’s real name wasn’t even Culler, he just thought it sounded cool. It depends on who you ask.” his smile widens as he sits down again, “So yeah. I think about Springer from time to time. Motherf*cker’s going to be my dying thought.”

“Oh.” Sireena eventually says. “That's… I don’t know what to say, I’m sorry.” She leans in to kiss him on the cheek.

Spud smiles before glancing at Spindle. “I swear on my life that I thought you had a girlfriend. You don’t seem gay.”

“That’s offensive.” Spindle tells him. “But yeah. My boyfriend’s cool. Very much a gay man.”

“So like… do you top?” Spud asks awkwardly.

Before Spindle can say anything, Sireena hits Spud on the arm. “You can’t just ask people that! Spindle, don’t answer his questions!”

District eight found that amusing. Spindle’s girlfriend definitely did.

“Are we actually going to go and hunt those Careers down?” Briar asks.

“No, Sweetie.” Sable says. “We’re taking a break. Anyone tries anything, I’ll deal with it.”

Bull laughs. “Really, Briar. Even if the entire Career pack turned up, I think me and Sable could handle it.” he hesitates before adding on the final part. “Unless they have Bancroft with them. Ferrari.”

Sable laughs. “Are you still hooked on that?”

Bull nods. “Strong fighter. Wouldn’t be surprised if she made her way to the final five.” he smiles at Sable. “Wait, this has been stuck in my head since I saw her. Hear me out: Does she have Aphrodite Grave’s eyes?”

Sable chokes on air. “We are not going to talk about Aphrodite Graves!” she was smiling, as was Briar. “Seriously, Bull. Of all the District one tributes to study, you pick the one that didn’t even win and is the most hated tribute in District ten for the past century?”

Bull smiles. “I don’t know, okay? Aphrodite and Hermes are a case study. I don’t care who she killed, it’s a death game.” in a softer tone he adds, “If Maddox Slater was Aries Robbin’s best friend, he couldn’t be the greatest person to walk the planet.

Briar sighs. “But if you did have to choose a favorite District one victor,” She raises her voice before Bull could answer. “That WASN’T Hermes Graves, who? Has to be a victor.”

Bull groans. “None of them. I hate them all.”

“Just say P. Kenn.” Sable says. “Easily the most interesting victor other than Mr. Graves. Porsche Kennedy, we hate you because you’re a Career, but you’ve got a sense of style.”

“Got it.” Bull says. “Either Blush Sterlington, victor of the 72nd or Cashmere Nicholo, Victor of the 64th.”

Both of his sisters sigh. Sable pats Briar on the head. “Of all the victors to choose, he chose one that decided to join the rebellion of 75’ and another victor who’s biggest role is her siblinghood.”

“And sexiness.” Bull says. “Really, I have a problem with every single District one victor post the 403rd, and he wasn’t even a real Career.”

“Even Hermes?” Briar says dryly.

Sable gasps in mock shock, speaking sarcastically “Oh, he hates Hermes Graves! He killed Bulls darling Aphrodite!”

“And he spent these games tryna kill us?” Then Bull adds, “I don’t hate Graves. You said he didn’t count. If I was allowed to pick him, I would.”

Later that night, after the pair had eaten, Nero glances at Invidicus. “Before Elizabeth got into the academy, how bad was it?”

Invidicus sighs. “The house was always freezing. Sometimes in the winter, we would have no water and no electricity. It would be dark. Mom would be up all night trying to fix something, or begging Slate to do something other than get drunk. She was a trained Career, but she was exhausted. She fell multiple times, and he just left her on the floor. Slate once shoved her while she was pregnant with Valerie. I remember him telling me that mom was going to be gone for a while and there might be no new little sister. Miraculously, Valerie survived.”

He sips his water before continuing. “It could have been worse. That’s what mom would always say. She would tell me that it could always be worse. Sometimes there wouldn’t be food. She would always try and make sure that we were fed though. I’d give anything I could to Elizabeth. She was born with a weak immune system, and any cold or fever that she had, we would drop everything to help her.”

Nero sighs. “I talked to Elizabeth about it before you left. She said that you had to be on a nutrient drip in the hospital.”

Invidicus laughs, but there was no true humor in it. “It’s good to know that that stayed between me and our parents. It wasn’t for nutrients. Mom and dad were fighting. Mom was trying to take Valerie to a friend's house, to get a moment of peace. Dad was convinced she was trying to put Val up for adoption. They were screaming and the baby was crying, and then he started to try and yank Valerie out of her arms and get her in the car. I was six.”

He smiles to himself. “I remember grabbing a steak knife and going down the stairs. Mom was begging him to let go of Valerie, and I just put myself in the way. She got Valerie back and I tried to get him to go to bed when he hit me. He just kept hitting me and I was six. Mom took the knife and stabbed him in the back. Next thing I remember, I was in the hospital. Mom was there. It was the first time I’d ever see her cry, the next being when she died. She couldn’t leave Slate. We just decided that we didn’t want to scare Elizabeth anymore and say that I was there for nutrient deficiencies.”

“Why didn’t she ever leave him?” Nero asks.

Invidicus sighs. “Custody. She didn’t want him to get custody of us. She didn’t want us unsupervised in his house.” He looks at Nero. “She really really did love us, Nero.”

“When did she stop?” Nero’s reply was almost immediate. Invidicus is left open mouthed, unable to think of an answer. “When did she stop loving us, Invidicus?”

“Nero, please don’t ruin the image of my mother for me.” Invidicus says quietly. “I’m trying to stay positive, but I’ve been trying for eighteen years and nothing has changed. You know, at least one of us was happy with their life back home.”

Nero nods. “Valerie loves her life.”

Speaking of Valerie, she was sitting up on the corn, keeping watch. She was definitely one of the tributes who did better with the whole watch thing, staying highly alert. “Valerie.” Bentley spoke into the darkness. “You want to explain the tribute sleeping next to me?”

Valerie grins. “All in the spirit of the games, Bentley. I said I wanted to win. And if we’re talking about finding Sable and Bull, I’d like a sacrifice that we could outrun, you know? Someone that if things go wrong, they can take the fall.”

Bentley smiles and laughs slightly. “You know, you’re a self obsessed bulimic bitch, but you’re not half bad.” She stops herself. “Actually, you are half bad. You’re like 75% bad. But when that 25% comes through, it’s something that I like. When you’re not being a bitch, you’re almost someone I’d like to talk to. Almost.”

Valerie grins. “I’ve been waiting a while for you to say that.”

Before Bentley could respond to that statement, Valerie kept talking. “So hypothetically, we actually go in to kill the twins tomorrow. Bull Robbins is dead. Are we fighting fair?”

“Huh?” Bentley asks.

Valerie shrugs. “Well you said this alliance lasts until Bull Robbins’s face is in the sky at night. Unless you think we should keep it together long enough to go kill, maybe the rest of the District ten pack, and Urban or something?”

Bentley frowns. “Let’s not go in tomorrow. I want a long rest day. Figure out more about our ally here,” she gestures to Magnet “And talk about how we’re going to go in and kill the pair of them. I don’t want to say it, but it seems impossible to win against the pair of them with just the three of us.”

Valerie smiles. “Have some confidence, Bingey. When you’re not acting like you’re so much better than everyone else, you seem so insecure in your abilities. If you were useless, I wouldn’t be here with you. As much as it annoys me when you talk like you run the place, it’s so much better than you sitting here wondering what’s possible for a human to do. Did you even watch Dallas Fowler's games?”

Bentley laughs. “Oh, that’s got to be a case of the indomitable human spirit. He just woke up and decided that if he was going to die, he was going to kill every last person in the arena with his own bare hands and an icepick.”

Valerie grins. “Channel your inner Dallas Fowler, Bingey. That’s what gets your home.”

DAY 24

Early in the morning at 12:13 AM, the District ten pack reaches the Pit. “This it?” Falcon asks.

Nolan nods. “He’s still hanging there.” in the darkness, only the silhouette of Hermes could be seen. “You’re not entering that pit without sleep.” Nolan says. “I can help keep watch.”

Falcon hesitates before sighing. “You’re not watching alone. You can stay awake all you want, but I’m not letting you watch alone. Eve and Circe, you take the first watch. Wake me up soon, ok?”

“And me.” Nolan says. “I don’t want to be asleep. And Circe?” Circe looks at him and he smiles tensely. “Don’t eat anything or let anything bite you. And if you hear bees, scream and wake us all up.”

Carter West yanked on the door to the Bunker. It seemed like Aspen hadn’t set up a block for the entrance, rather rigged an alarm clock to go off when someone entered. She turned it off and moved to the security room.

“What the f*ck?” Casey whispers, looking at the literal shrine to Invidicus Willis. “What the f*ck!”

Ruby was trying really hard not to laugh at the expressions of the tributes from six. “Oh my god, who’s been in here?” Carter says. Ruby has to excuse herself from the room as Carter looks at Invidicus’s face photoshopped onto Fluttershy from My Little Pony’s body. “Oh this is some freaky sh*t.”

“You think it could be Careers?” Casey says. “There’s a weapon room somewhere in here, right?”

Carter nods, but inches further away from the shrine. (it was the whole deal, there were food offerings and candles) He looks at Casey. “Case, wait outside for me. I’m going to get some knives. If it is the Careers and you hear shouting, Run. don’t stick around, Run.”

Both tributes jump as the intercom clicks on. Tortured screams fill the area. The camera turns to Aspen who had pulled up some really sketchy site and was holding it to the microphone.

It was the sounds of a little baby getting beat. Somewhere along the video, a man started kicking a cat. “Casey, let’s go.” Carter says. “Whoever’s in here wants us out.” He looks around “Hey! Um, whoever you are, we’re going to leave! We’ll be asleep on the roof, ok? Then we’ll never come back! We’re going now!”

After they leave, shutting the bunker door behind them, Aspen flips the video off and turns back to the livestream she knew would be on her face “I need to send out a thank you to SockKat_49 for the video link!” she smiles. “I wouldn’t have known where to look!”

“Evil, Aspen.” Romulus says. “I mean, you didn’t have to kill anyone?”

As Falcon and Nolan were sitting silently on their watching, Brandy gasps awake, pulling herself up, looking around. “Nightmare?” Nolan asks sleepily. “It’s a horrific place, probably worse for a child.”

Brandy stares him down in the darkness. “Don’t talk to me like a child.” She says. “I’m a tribute. I’m someone that you need dead to survive. If it came to it, I would kill you without hesitating. I would take my knife and stab it in the back of your neck.”

She reaches for her knife, and points it at Nolan, hand steady. “I’m nine. And I’m going to kill every last one of you Careers.”

Nolan shivers. “Jesus, kid. Put the knife down. Nobody wants to hurt you. I just wanted to make sure you were ok.”

Another hour passes before Falcon talks. “The pit here, do we really want to go down?”

“No.” Nolan immediately answers. “No you don’t. I know that means you’ll probably kill me, but I don’t want to go down there again.”

“I see.” Falcon looks at Hermes’s silhouette. “Was it gory?”

“It lasted hours.” Nolan says. “It seems very personalized down there. Turns out Hermes didn’t like the government! No surprises there though.” He stared at the screens rather than Falcon. “That was when the Career pack really broke.”

Falcon sighs. “So it’s really not a death you’d wish on anyone?”

Nolan shakes his head. “Please don’t push me down there. I would rather run myself through with a knife than do that.”

Falcon sighs again. “We’re going to look at Hermes, then the screens to see if we find anything. Sable’s lying through her teeth.”

Nolan laughs. “She reminds me of a girl I used to know. Her brother died in the bombings and she was never seen again. She tried to get me to follow her, to go on this murder spree and avenge our dead friends. I was too injured to follow.”

He frowns. “The thing is, Zorya could have easily volunteered. Strong and fast with a sharp tongue. Zorya Armani, Calista Armani’s niece or cousin, I was never sure. She had a little brother in Urban’s year. Zorya happened to hate the games and spoke freely about how she hated being in the academy. Yet the second that her brother got killed in those bombings, she did a full 180 on the rebels she was so close with and disappeared to murder them.”

“So that reminds you of Sable?” Falcon asks. “Very surface level comparisons.”

Nolan shakes his head. “It’s not her disappearance that has the connection, it’s the way she spoke and held herself, and how above all, the family came first. She could have easily been in here instead of me, you know, if they found her that is. She’s one of eight children, so Orion Armani was the academy’s top pick for volunteers. In the end, the family said no, as they thought it was stupid to throw away the whole family's lives over the chance of one person coming out. The Armani money runs deep in Panem.”

Falcon sighs. “It’s strange to hear you, with your blue hair and district two accent, talk about someone who hates the government that highly. Perfect dental work.”

Nolan smiles ruefully. “My hair wouldn’t be blue if I had a choice. At least they let me keep it shoulder length. My own little look of defiance to my family.”

Falcon grins in the darkness. “Guess that’s one similarity. I cut mine short. Really short.” He was silent before asking his next question with almost a sense of regret. “You were kicked out of your home after you didn’t volunteer, right? You ever wish you stayed?”

Nolan sighs. “I mean, between you and me and the millions watching back in the Districts, not really. I wish I had been there for Urban. I don’t wish I had stayed in that house. It’s like he’s a completely different person now. When I left, he was a spoiled conceited brat who only cared about throwing a party or having sex with a girl. He acts like that’s still him, or at least he did in the interview, but he’s so much colder now. He wants to pretend he’s fine, but I know that when I left, things became hell for him in that house. They were hell for the first 18 years of my life, and they turned up the torture for him once I left. Darius Thornton really wanted to win the games.”

Falcon sighs. “I left too.” It was as if he was planning to say more, but they stay quiet for a few minutes before he adds one final sentence. “Sable never forgave me, and I don’t deserve to be forgiven.”

After the sun rose, the Ten pack began to wake, and without having to discuss it, they stared at the body of Hermes Graves. “What happened to his shirt and jacket?” Eve asks.

Nolan frowns. “I can’t remember what happened to the jacket. He lost the shirt when fighting a mutt in a lake. Apparently he nearly died there as well. It was like everything was out to get him.”

He stares at the body. Nobody was holding the rope on his neck, so he freely moved to stand at the edge of the pit. “This is as far as I go.” He says. “I’m not going back down there. I didn’t even go into the bad part. Blaze went feral and attacked me, then I got out. I went back a few times to talk to Hermes through the opening. The only living people who went in again are Bentley, Valerie and Mercedes. Bentley never even touched the ground, Valerie axed a Sable mutt and nearly got Hermes out, and Mercedes nearly got herself killed. We were all a little mad at her, but she’s eleven.”

“Sable mutt?” Falcon asks alertly.

Nolan glances up at Hermes’s corpse. “As you could probably guess, there was a heavy District ten influence on Hermes’s experience. Sable and Bull appeared as shapeshifting mutts that when brought together any wound would heal. Had to be separated to be killed.”

Falcon nods. “And these?” he gestures at the TV screens, looking at Nolan. “What do these do?”

“Stick your leg in the pit and find out.” Nolan says.

“No, I think you’re going to do that.” Falcon says. Nolan hesitates before sitting on the pit’s edge, lowering his legs in. Nolan’s camera appears displayed on the screen and Falcon smiles. “So you know what’s going on. Great. Now what about the other holes?”

Scattered around the arena, other than the pit were other holes in the ground, some leading to nowhere, others ominously sitting there. In the announcing booth, Flickerman giggles. “Oh, please go down! I really hope everybody here likes spiders!”

Nolan shrugs. “I don’t really know. We just went into the big pit. I know one had bees in it.”

“Falcon?” Eve asks. The group turns to her and she’s smiling, moving to stand next to Nolan. “In every arena we’ve been in, there’s been something helpful around. There was one that was just a massive cornucopia with trenches! The amusem*nt park had axes, The city had…”

“Drugs and beer?” Nolan asks dryly. “Invidicus brought us cigs and vapes.” He reaches into his pocket, pulling out the vape that somehow hadn’t been taken from him. “Cherry flavored pineapple bomb. For someone I’ve only known for about a month, Invidicus knew me well enough that I like the ones with extra chemicals.”

He places it back in his pocket before anyone could take it from him and Eve looks around at the group. “Shouldn’t it make sense that there’s something we’d want? We don’t have to go spelunking or anything, just look in the holes. There’s got to be something.”

Falcon glances around the group. “We can look in the holes,” he says. “But! Nobody touches anything without calling the group over.”

Nolan hesitates, before looking at the group. “Look. I’ll be your touch dummy. I’ve already got the poison in my veins, and everything in my body’s telling me to jump into that pit. Keep me on the rope too. Just can I please please please have my sword.”

The group shifts uncomfortably as Nolan continues. “Look, none of you know how to use it. I trained with it for years. And it’s really hard to stab someone with a sword. Just make Angus or Falcon keep me on a tight leash, and nobody gets hurt, but if I go and touch a sleeping porcupine, I can kill it before it shoots out poisonous quills and hits everyone.”

Falcon roughly shoves the sword back into Nolans hands. “On your BEST behavior, smurf boy. If I even think for a minute that you’re going to lunge at someone, I’m cutting your throat out.”

Nolan smiles. “At least you’re not castrating me, Mr. Robbins.”

When he hears himself be referred to as Mr. Robbins, Falcon almost smiles but doesn’t. “Circe and Eve, Angus take your other sisters, and I’ll be with Mr. Career.”

The groups walk around, looking in the little holes. “Falcon!” Circe eventually yells out. “We found spears!”

Falcon and Nolan make their way over, Cassidy and Brandy staying with Angus looking at one of the larger holes. Sure enough, there were spears in the hole, as there were some throwing knives, and a large length of rope, temptingly sitting there about seven feet down. The entire place was slightly purple in hue, and almost sparkled with flecks of gold.

Nolan shivers, before looking at Falcon. “You can pull me out again if I throw you the rope, right?” Falcon nods and Nolan cautiously moves to drop down. There was a moment of hesitation before he threw himself down.

Maybe the tributes didn’t notice, but I’d like to point out that the gold flecks in the purple disappeared. When Nolan reached the ground, he began sending up the throwing knives. “Do you want spears?” He asks. “It looks like some of these are broken. They all look… Used.” Maybe Nolan realized that these were the weapons left in the pit from Valda Blaze and Hermes. Maybe he chose to ignore it.

“No, not the spears.” Falcon tells him. “Come on, let’s get you out.”

While that little group was focused on the weapons, Angus had found what looked like a longer tunnel. It seemed to be less than 5 feet high, but was about 8 feet wide. It seemed to lead really far down. It got dark really quick. Something in the distance however was shining. “Wait for the Career!” Brandy warns before calling to the other group where Nolan was just going down. “Smurf boy, we need you next!”

Angus keeps staring at the tunnel. “There’s something alive down there, I just know it.” Cassidy says. “Probably bats. Or spiders.”

Angus ignores her and steps over to peer inside. Stooped over to see what was going on, he turns around. “Can you hear peacekeepers?” he asks. “Like marching. I can hear marching down there. Almost like a parade.”

The rest of the group shows up. “Angus get out.” Falcon says. “Blue boy’s going in.”

Angus ignores him and starts moving. “Come on.” He doesn’t glance back. “There’s a… there’s a sh*t ton of daggers down here!”

Nolan glances at the group before moving. “Angus, is it safe for everyone else?” Circe was currently holding the “Career leash” and was right next to him.

“Yeah!” the camera switches to Angus, who stood in the small room. “Completely! Food as well.” Circe was the next in, followed by Eve. Falcon glances at Cassidy and Brandy, but Cassidy was already going in, and he sighs, following. After a brief moment of hesitation, Brandy follows.

“Damn!” Nolan looks over everything. “It’s not even purple in here!” Angus smiles, picking up one of the daggers, jabbing out at the air. The room was a little taller than the tunnel, about 6 feet high, but Falcon, who stood at 6 feet tall, was still bent over so his head didn’t graze the ceiling.

Suddenly, Cassidy covers her mouth, yanking on Nolans arm and pointing to the wall. Nolan stares at it, unable to see what she’s seeing. “What is it?” He asks. “Angus, I get that you’ve got a knife, but please don’t stab me in here. If you’re going to kill me, don’t do it in a small space like this.”

Falcon smirks at Angus. “I take it you’re keeping that?”

Angus nods enthusiastically. “Mine now, bitch!” As soon as the claim to this new property was stated, a massive hairy, spider leg shoots out of the wall, wrapping around him in ways spider legs shouldn’t and yanking him through the wall. The walls themselves begin to move before the group, revealing that they’re standing in a room made of spiders.

The room fills with screaming as the wall that Angus had disappeared through dissolves into a mass of Spiders, the floor beneath them falling apart, giving way to a slippery, rocky slope, the group sliding down it and down. Well, Falcon Cassidy and Brandy all fell. Circe had managed to stay up high with the help of Nolan.

The pair look at each other before Circe lets go of the rope and chooses to go down with the rest. Nolan hesitates before also doing the same. “They’re going to regret that.” Flickerman comments.

In the center of the ground, a massive spider was standing, throwing Angus down. By Massive, this thing was easily bigger than those trucks you’d see on the highway. Its stomach was half stuck in the dirt, but all eight legs stuck out. It had to be at least 50 feet from head to back of the abdomen. 15 feet sticking out above the dirt as well.

“What the f*ck!” Angus begins pulling himself up, before doing a double take as the body of the spider seems to morph into that of a man in peacekeeping officer gear. (The big spider legs still stuck out of his back).

“Angus, that belongs to me.” the officer reaches out for the dagger. “We don’t like thieves down here.”

Angus blinks at him, looking back at the group. “What the f*ck?” he whispers this time. “Falcon, what is this?” Falcon looks at him helplessly and Angus tosses the dagger back at the spider. “Okay, take it back then! I didn’t know it was yours. We’re good? Because I think we could be good right now.” The officer says nothing and Angus looks at him awkwardly. “Look, this is really weird, Officer. Officer that I was going to enlist under in the fall… it’s really weird of you to appear with spider arms! Really f*cking weird!”

The officer looks at him, one of the large spider legs leaning towards him. “What gives you the right to take my daggers, get your filthy bastard hands all over them, then throw them back at me like they’re nothing?”

Angus blinks at him. “f*cking sorry? Look, don’t call me a bastard, that ain’t something I f*ck with.” he pulls himself up to his feet. Behind him, Nolan was already getting up again.

The mutt grabs Angus with one of the legs. “It’s true though, isn’t it. Your mom was a whor*, Fletcher. That’s not even your real last name, is it? You don’t got a real Papa, you were born to belong to uncle Sam. Which means I’m gonna run you through with a knife here and now.”

“Wait!” Nolan shoves his way through, and the mutt turns to look at him. “Wait. Let's think about this, okay? There’s surely something you’d want! You mutts down here can be reasoned with, right? Let’s talk.”

The look on Nolans face as the man morphs from that of the peacekeeping officer to his own father is priceless. “I don’t want to talk to you again.” Darius’s voice rings out. “I really think you should die here.”

Nolan hesitates, an idea forming in his eyes. “I mean, if that’s what it takes for you to let the other’s go, then go ahead. I ain’t scared of you, I’m a trained Career and a good one at that! I’ll fight anyone! I can fight my way out of this!”

The Darius mutt smiles at him, genuinely smiles at him. “You finally speak like a son of mine. As a reward, once I hold every last one of you here, I will kill them all and you shall be the final one to die.”

Chaos erupts from the group. Nolan barely rolls out the way of the big spindly legs that nearly grabs him. Angus, who was still suspended in the air, screams to the rest of the group. “Climb the f*cking walls! You motherf*ckers, there are caves, tunnels, just get out! Get out! And f*ck this mutt with it’s f*ckin-” the mutts leg starts squeezing him, trying to shut him up. Angus Fletcher really seemed to like cursing.

Falcon was already up one of the slopes, when Circe shrieks, a large clump of spiders landing on her from the ceiling, giving the mutt time to catch her. The spider mutt itself had returned to its fully arachnid form and risen from the ground. Its remaining giant legs slammed against walls, sending more and more rock down.

“Eve!” Falcon yells for his sister, but she was going for her girlfriend. The spider lets out a series of angry clicks, and for a moment it’s body seems to take the form of Eve herself, but remains as a spider, slamming the leg with the two girls against the wall. “Eve!” Falcon yells again. “Eve, leave them! Eve, What the hell are you doing!”

Eve was going for the head of the spider, but was thrown off as the mutt grabs hold of Brandy. Battered and bruised, she was up again, with one of the many daggers on the floor in hand, stabbing at the mutt.

“Falcon!” Nolan had yanked himself up with the man, Cassidy beside him. “Falcon, I’m going to try something really crazy, ok? Look, I trained for this! I need you to trust me, please!”

Falcon’s eyes meet Nolan’s, the pair sharing this look of mutual terror. “What do you need?”

“I need you to block that spider's line of vision for like ten seconds.” Nolan says. “Please, just make sure it isn’t watching me.” he grabs Falcon's arm. “I need you to not run away.” Falcon doesn’t hesitate, moving straight towards the Spider, joining Eve in this stabbing frenzy.

Nolan grabs Cassidy around the shoulders. “Kid, you’re the last hope, ok?” Cassidy stares at him in confusion and panic as he shoves his sword in her hands. “I need you to be really strong, ok? Spiders can’t see very well, but they hear through vibrations in the ground.”

“Wait!” Cassidy had no time to argue, before being shoved back behind a rock face as Nolan slid down again. Eve was now in a leg, and was still putting up a fight. The mutt was back to lying on its stomach, and trying to use one leg to get her dagger. The camera focuses on Angus who was relatively still. On replays, it would be shown that he had been thrown into a wall.

Eve eventually does lose the dagger, and Falcon too was yanked in the air. The mutt stares down at Nolan, who does seem to try and run, but gets dragged up, the dagger taken from Eve slit through his stomach.

“Such a shame.” The mutt changes back into the form of Darius. It becomes clear that Eve and Falcon (Mainly Eve) had done damage. Blood was spilling from the side of the mutt, and it seemed to have a large injury on its head. “I really thought you’d have put up more of a fight!”

“You don’t scare me.” Nolan says dully, trying to move out of the spider leg.

In response, the mutt snarls, shaking Eve in one leg. “Enough. You want to make the first pick on who to die?”

“You’re missing one.” Nolan smiles. “You’re missing someone.”

The spider moves all of its hypermobile legs in front of its face, scanning each and every tribute. “Impossible…” He whispers.

“Darius, you can’t kill anyone yet.” Nolan says. “You can’t. You said that you’d only start killing once you had Every last one of us here! And you don’t. That wouldn’t be very Career of you, Darius. In fact, that would be the least District two-y thing to do, to go back on your word because you couldn’t kill a twelve year old girl hidden in your own home? Pathetic. No wonder you never went into the games.”

“He’s right!” Eve says, still putting up a fight. (if you messed with the lighting, you could see that the leg holding Eve had the most bruises.) “That would really suck for you. I was hoping to see a true Career in action.

“It’s actually an honor for the other ten districts to die to a career.” Nolan says, “so you’d be taking away the honor from your district, their districts, the capital and yourself. You really should wait.” The Darius mutt looks at him quizzically, and Nolan looks at Falcon, his lips turning in a smile. “Tell him I’m telling the truth!”

Falcon was not pleased, and every word out of his mouth sounded like barbed wire. “I’d just LOVE to die to a real Career like Smurf boy. Something something about being honorable. You suck at your job.”

It was silent for a second, before the mutt started looking around and dropped the dagger. “CASSIDY! WHERE ARE YOU, CASSIDY!”

“Well he bought some time!” Flickerman says. “But now…”

“Now their lives rest in the hands of a twelve year old girl!” Ruby says. “Who scored a six!” She looks at Cassidy, helplessly standing there by the rockface. “Like, she knows it too! There’s nothing she can do.”

“She could make it out.” The camera switches to the mentor room and focuses on Savannah. “If she makes it out, the mutt should be stuck holding them there indefinitely.”

“The mutt can’t be reasoned with forever.” Achilles says, staring at the screen.

Savannah laughs. “I mean, the fact that it can be reasoned with in the first place means everything! I bet that your tribute is banking on my Cassidy getting out, the mutt getting frustrated and him being able to argue his way into being a hitman under the pretense of how stupid it would be for a Career to work with these people from ten.”

“Then why give her the sword?” Styx argues. “He wants her to do something.”

“We’re all in agreement that little blue boy should have explained himself better, right?” Mignon Orcheoda (Victor of the 449th) says. She was the oldest of the four living District ten victors (24 years between her and Blaise), and always looked like she was sucking on a lemon. “Or the little Career should have given this chance to Falcon instead, not a helpless twelve year old girl! Bah!” She strides out the room again, back to the sponsors. “Guess I’ll just get more money for Sable, as these ones don’t have any hope!”

The same kind of distress was seen in the crowd in the viewing square in ten, and the viewing square in two. Both groups didn’t seem to have much hope as the mutt raged about, smashing against walls. “Come out of hiding this instant!”

Cassidy slowly peers around at the group, her hand tightening on the sword. There was a tunnel behind her, and she looks down it, her face breaking into relief as she silently made her way into the tunnel, clutching at the rocks. “Huh?” Flickerman muses. “Now this isn’t the time for a geology obsession! Flint, really?”

Making her way back around to the rock, Cassidy breathes in and out, before pocketing flint.

On the ground, Nolan was still taunting the mutt. “Really, a car crash stopped you from volunteering? That’s so pathetic!”

“Yeah, if I was in a car crash and broke my arms, I would have just used daggers with my feet!” Eve laughs, still kicking at the mutt. “Skill issue.”

The Darius mutt yells in anger, shaking Angus. “I mean it Cassidy! Your brother’s going to get it if you don’t come out!”

Cassidy clings onto the sword, almost to reassure herself that it was there, before taking her jacket off. She reaches into the pocket and pulls out two things: the knife from Bull and what had to be her tribute token. (though it was hard to see in the lighting, her tribute token was what appeared to be a little talisman in a glass jar with little herbs and tiny crystals in it.)

She shoves the little jar in her pant pocket, and puts the knife down. She moves to grab more of these rocks, and places them on the jacket, tying them up in this little bundle. Picking it up above her head, she throws it across the cave.

The Mutt immediately turns around, its free arms reaching towards where the jacket went. In the brief seconds it turns away, Cassidy picks up the knife and leaps onto the limb of the beast, slicing Nolan down, sending the Career tumbling to the floor.

The Mutt’s screams could be heard throughout the cavern, probably from throughout the arena as well. Cassidy half drags Nolan out of its eyesight as the mutt sobs and screams over its broken off limb. “Here.” Cassidy drops the sword at Nolans feet.

“What about you?” Nolan pulls himself in a sitting position, looking at Cassidy, who was facing the mutt.

She turns back to look at him, and smiles. “I’m all set.” She flicks the knife out of her pocket, and looks to Nolan. “I’m getting that jacket back. Cut down Falcon or Angus or something. Get someone who knows what they’re doing.”

The camera focuses on Nolan, who after the girl disappears, lifts up his shirt to check the damages. A large cut across his abdomen. The man winces, yanking his shirt back down, before beginning to climb up the rubble of the arena. When Cassidy uses the jacket as a distraction again, Nolan jumps towards the leg holding onto Falcon. But this time, the mutt doesn’t go down so easily.

With a roar, turning back into its spider form, the ground begins to shake as hundreds of smaller spiders spill from the cracks and the caves, lifting this giant beast into the air, so two of its massive limbs could reach into one of the cracks in the wall. (At this moment, Romulus Flickerman seems a little unnerved.)

Yanking the wall down, revealed the pit, still made with its hanging rope ladder. For a split second Valda’s corpse could be seen, or at least what was left of it. The clothes were there, and some skin and bones, yet the head was relatively untouched.

With unfortunate timing, the leg holding onto Falcon finally gets cut through, sending the man flying down. The mutt yells out, and seems to try and start transforming into a different person, speculated later to be Sable, but whatever it was doing gets cut short as Cassidy’s knife enters its gut. The mutt falls over, clawing at its stomach as the spiders around it disperse. As Eve finally gets to the ground, she walks over to the shaking Cassidy and moves past her to finish the mutt off.

“Angus!” Circe’s first thing to do once she was down was to check on her brother. Angus was still unconscious on the ground, and Circe began pulling him up. “Come on, you need to wake up. Career, help him!”

Nolan, who had been standing by Cassidy and Eve, moves over to check on Angus. “Does anyone know basic first aid?” Angus groans on the ground, possibly coming around to consciousness as he seems to reach for the dagger. “Ok ok ok. Um… lets get him out of here ok? sh*t I don’t know this.”

“Put him on his side and tilt the head back.” Eve says loudly before looking back at the crumbled wall. “Falcon? Falcon? Falcon, are you down there? Are you ok?”

Suddenly, Nolan picks Angus up. “Come on. Angus isn’t getting any better down here, and if Falcon’s alive down there, we’d see it on the screens.”

Sure enough, Falcon was visible on the giant screen, pulling himself up on shaking feet. “Eve?” He yells into the burned arena. “Eve! Angus? Blue boy?”

In the announcing booth, Flickerman was frowning. “Oh I think our spider mutt broke something.” he mutters.

Falcon jumps as the floor shakes and seems to try and morph around. Hermes had left it as the hall of games, but right now it seemed to be some sort of hybrid between that and the place where mutt Aphrodite died. Everything seemed to be glitching, with purplish hues showing around. The rope ladder behind Falcon let out a loud pop, and as the man turns back around, it seems to have reformed into what appears to be a very old, broken down elevator, the kind you could see out of. Stamped on the floor of the elevator was the Robbins family crest.

“Hello?” Falcon pulls out a throwing knife, looking around before ducking out the way of a flying noose.

“Oh sh*t.” Romulus Flickerman looked actually pissed. “Well this should be interesting!” He glances at Ruby. “The pit was meant to personalize to the person in there, but I think that since Falcon entered strangely, it must have thrown the sensors. Meaning that the arena’s going to try and adjust to him, yet still thinks he’s Hermes.”

“f*ck!” Falcon, who at first had just seemed annoyed by the rope, actually has to start regarding them as a threat as one latches his arm. Cutting his arm free and barely getting out from under the next one, Falcon starts moving further into the caverns.

There was a good ten minutes of Falcon being attacked by these nooses and a few stray horses before the sounds of a boy screaming could be heard. “There we go!” Romulus seems pleased with himself as if he had been the one to fix the mutts, as he looks at Falcon’s rapid stop, the nooses stopping as well as he enters this new room.

The room seemed to be white and clinical, and Falcon stops, immediately recognizing the area. “Oh fuuuck.” somewhere in the background, some broken music from Hermes’s segment down here played, but we shut it off.

Flickerman laughs. “You see, we’re very lucky that Mink Robbins’s district token was a family scrapbook. It gave us a lot to work on imagery wise.”

Falcon stands there frozen as a door gets opened up, and what seems to be a doctor appears, holding multiple little orange cans of pills on a tray, along with about ten syringes. “Mr Robbins, We’ve sedated your wife, and I’m under the impression that you want us to take Falcon? And is that Sable? I wasn’t under the impression that you wanted her admitted.”

Stepping from the shadows of the room was a younger Aries Robbins, with a younger Sable, who was probably only 12. “No, Sable’s fine. I just want to get him help, you know? I’ve tried telling him to man up, and he just cries and cries for no reason. He drinks the day away then stays in bed for hours. He’s too old to drag out anymore, he hits back. And I don’t need another CPS visit because of bruises on my twins.” He glances at Falcon in the doorway. “Come on, go with the doctor. No one’s gonna hurt you.”

“No.” Falcon was already moving back towards the nooses. “No f*cking way. I’m not going back in there.”

For a second, it looks like the Aries mutt is going to hit him, but the younger Sable tugs on his shirt, whispering in his ear. Aries sighs, letting Sable walk towards Falcon. “Hey, come on! Look, you know how much they’ve helped Mom here last time she was admitted. I thought you said you didn’t want to be tired anymore?”

Falcon shakes his head again as Sable reaches out a hand towards Falcon. “No. Nononono. Do NOT grab me.”

“Falcon, your little brother is in the hospital!” Sable tells him. “Falcon, I can’t- I can’t do it anymore! I’m taking care of two toddlers and a six year old girl, and you are nearly a grown adult. You shouldn’t be my number one priority!” She grabs his wrists, yanking him to the doctor. “Falcon, at this rate if you don’t kill yourself, I’m going to, then our family will really be f*cked, because god forbid that anyone else does-”

“Sable, do you want to visit Talon or not?” Aries’s voice rings out sharply. “And where is Bull?”

“Home.” Sable says quietly. “He’s home. I told him to order pizza for everyone since I can’t cook tonight. He should know how to feed Philip, and if he doesn’t, he’s to call the neighbors.”

“That’s enough.” The Doctor sharply interrupts. “Falcon, come with me.”

“Eat sh*t.” Falcon tells her flatly. “Because f*ck that. I’m not sticking one of those things in my arm ever again.” He stares around the room as the doctor comes towards him. “What the f*ck is wrong with you? What kind of mutt is this!”

“I just want to help you, Falcon.” says the doctor calmly. “You don’t want to feel happy? I know it seems really hard right now, but it shouldn’t be this hard just to smile! Your parents just want to see you smile again. You’re sick and can’t help yourself, let me help you.”

Falcon had backed up to where the nooses were, but a Door had formed, and when he shook the handle, it was locked. “f*ck off.” he tells the doctor. “f*ck off! You’re not putting me back in there!”

“Look at yourself.” The Doctor holds up a mirror, and when Falcon glances at it, it shows a younger him, with long, tangled hair and heavy eyebags. A large bruise covered his right eye, and he was so thin, with sickly pale skin. As the Falcon in the mirror smiles at him, the teeth are bright yellow, with bleeding, receding gums. Falcon shakes his head as the three people in the room look at him with nothing but pity. “Come on Falcon.” Says the doctor. “Don’t make me bring the security in here. You realize that you could be in jail right now, right? And I know you didn’t mean to hurt Talon, but it happened and we don’t want that to happen again. This is going to help you.”

Falcon practically jumps as the Sable mutt tugs on his arm. “Let’s get you inside, okay?” She tugs on his shirt and whispers. “It’s ok. Talon’s ok. You’re going to be ok.”

The switch in Falons face happens so quickly as he spins around, kicking the door down and heading back to the ropes. “I ain’t spending any more time in this sh*thole, and I ain’t taking your f*cking shots!”

Falcon doesn’t even look back as he runs off from the doctors, the camera focusing on the syringes rising off of the table and following him back into the hall of games. As he passed by, the pictures were all morphed and weird, slowly becoming photographs of his own family, yet the arena still seemed to want to focus on Hermes, as some photos seemed to be of Hermes and his friends, or standing next to his sister.

On the surface, the others were still concerned with getting Angus back up. “Is Falcon doing ok?” Eve asks, glancing at Nolan, who was the only one staring at the screen.

“Doing better than Hermes.” Nolan says. “For now. It gets worse with time. Then again, they really wanted Hermes dead. Falcons doing some stuff with doctors right now.”

Eve laughs. “Oh yeah, I bet I know what’s going on. I was really little, but they had him sent to a psych ward for a year. It’s why he graduated a year late, he was in the loony bin with mom. Sable visited them once or twice, but I don’t think the rest of us did. Maybe Talon.”

“Why was he in there?” Nolan’s eyes were trained on the screen, and he moved to the edge of the pit, dropping his legs in and looking at his own face on screen before pulling them out again.

Eve shrugs, sitting up from Angus and moves next to Nolan. “I mean, it’s mostly Dad’s word. All I remember is being upset that Dad was late to pick us up from school when Sable and Bull show up to take me, then get Briar and Philip from daycare. Then I don’t remember well.”

She speaks so nonchalantly, as if it was the weather she was speaking about. “Then it’s all things I’ve been told. We got home, Mom was hysterically laughing, drugged up out of her mind. Talon had been sick that day and stayed home. Apparently when Sable got in, she just heard shouting, put the kids in the kitchen, and went with Bull to check it out. She found Talon covered in his own blood lying motionless, a barely conscious Falcon, who was still trying to grab a knife from Aries, and my father standing covered in his son's blood, holding the knife.”

She looks at Nolan, a smile creeping on her lips. “It all eventually came out, first from Aries. He said that he had been at work and gotten a call from Talon. Talon was screaming and crying for him to come home, and he hung up, thinking he was being dramatic. He got another call and this time, Talon was telling him Mom was on a bad trip. Eventually Dad heaved his way home and came across Mom high as a kite, and Falcon beating Talon sh*tless, trying to get the knife from Talon’s hands. Dad pulled Falcon off, and proceeded to… well, deal with the psychotic behavior.”

She smiles. “When Talon could talk again, he shared his side of the story. Mom was doing really bad on the drugs, and he was hungry and child locks were on everything. Talon was really stupid- He always was- and he could never figure them out, so with Mom out of the question, he set off to find Falcon, who had refused to get out of bed, and Sable couldn’t find it in her to drag him to school. He wanted Falcon to open the cabinets for him. Talon eventually found Falcon in the bathroom with slit wrists, taking out bleach. Trying to kill himself if that wasn’t obvious. I guess Talon tried to stop him, and it just got bloody from there. Us Robbins are known for being bad at receiving help.”

Eve stretches, frowning at her broken nail. “Aw, those have stayed on since the interviews! Well, Talon doesn’t remember much, mom remembers nothing, and Falcon only ever talked to Sable about it. And that was eight years ago!”

She grins at Nolan, before looking back at the screen and sighing. Nolan hesitates, before cautiously putting an arm around her shoulders. “I’m sorry.” He says, also looking at the screen. “I- You’ve had a hard life. I would have loved to meet your family in different circ*mstances. I know it has to be hard, now that he’s all you have and he’s in there.”

Eve laughs. “I never ‘had’ Falcon. None of us did. There’s nearly a ten year age gap between us, and I never saw him, he spent so much time upstairs. I guess we reached an understanding of each other in the end, him in his attic bedroom, me locked down in the basem*nt. Sometimes right before he left, while Sable Bull and Talon were at parties and Briar and Philip were in bed, we would silently watch shows with dad. It’s strange how my best memory of my oldest sibling is when he taught me how to make meth. I think we both understood that we both had some stuff going on and to let the other just be.”

Both of them freeze as Falcon gets thrown to the ground, and instead of going through the needles to the rope, he turns around and moves towards another hallway with what seems to be the reaping stage of the 469th (Back from Hermes’s experience.)

After seeing that he was still alive, Eve continues. “It’s always been a big deal that he left, but he was never really there to begin with. I do think that the ward helped him though, he joined the club and later helped Sable and Talon get involved.”

“Can you- can you tell me more about this Club?” Nolan asks. “I get that it was some underground thing, but I really have no idea what it is. Sable mentioned it a few times.”

Eve finally seems to be upset by the conversation. “It’s just an underground organization. Sable calls it the club because it sounds nicer to tell Briar that she and Talon are going to the club rather than Talon’s going to rob someone while Sable and Bull sell guns. Then Sable and Talon will be beating up whoever has a problem with the Robbins family.”

She looks over at Nolan. “We had peacekeepers, of course, but we have more guns than they do, and we’re stronger than them. The area’s just run by whichever family can hit the other’s the hardest. You’d think that would make us rich, but there’s no money there anyway, so we’re just as poor as everyone else, but at least we’ve got protection. If someone has a problem, they take it up with Big Robbins, meaning my father. Then if they can’t come to an agreement? If they want to fight it out, Sable and Talon deal with it. If they escalate the situation, Sable and Bull deal with it. Sable does everything, really. Cooks, Cleans, gets us all to school, does the shopping, deals with anyone starting fights, helps with homework, deals with dad, the whole lot. Bull ended up taking most of the hits though, Dad really didn’t seem to like him. Me and Briar always thought it had to do with Bull looking the most like him. Falcon was the first, Sable did all the work, Talon looks like Maddox, and the youngest three stay out of his way. Bull took a lot of hits.”

Nolan stares at the screen. “Eve, I don’t want to scare you-”

“Shut up about that.” Eve says. She turns and looks at Nolan. “I’m in the hunger games, tell me the facts.”

Nolan sighs. “Look, Falcon could seriously die down there. We don’t know how bad Angus’s injuries are, he’s just semi conscious. It- it’s not looking good. And believe me, The Career pack believes that you and Circe are threats, but if Falcon and Angus die, this little alliance becomes the babysitters club really fast. I think I want to stick around with you here, but only if you all want me to.”

Eve sighs. “That’s not my choice, blueboy. Circe would likely become in charge if those two die, and if they don’t, well it’s one of their choices. And even if I really didn’t know him, Falcon’s my brother, and family is family. My whole life, Family has been the only thing I could trust, and this changes nothing.”

“Get off!” Upon looking at Falcon, you could see that the man was weaponless. On the District four reaping stage, he rips down one of the spears, and hits one of the nooses away from him. “What the f*ck!” A noise startles him and he turns to look at the Aries Mutt. While the mutt that had fought Hermes had been constantly dripping from water from the fountain, this one was worse.

The skin was puckered, and had pieces that were almost molding. The constant water kept dripping from him, but there were also little bugs flying around. It looked like a maggot was halfway embedded in his forehead. “Falcon, you gotta help me now.” the Aries mutt says, staring at Falcon. “You gotta help me now!”

“Go to hell!” Falcon glances around. “I mean it, f*ck this arena and f*ck the mutts that came with it!”

The Aries mutt stares at him. “Falcon Robbins, My eldest son. You gotta ask yourself, where did Sable go wrong in raising you? Because out of all of you, you are by far the biggest failure.” He walks towards Falcon, and from behind him, he pulls out the battle axe that Sable had later claimed as her own. Each step the man took, more and more water dripped from him, and bugs kept buzzing louder and louder. But through the tangled hair half-covering his face, Aries smirks, almost teasing as he comes closer to Falcon.

“I mean,” it starts again. “You can hardly call yourself a Robbins anymore. Do you even do that still, or have you run from even the name. You can run and you can hide, but you can’t escape fate. And I think you know,” He reaches Falcon, placing a hand on his son's shoulder. “There are people in these games who want to go home more than you. Who deserves it more than you. And deep down you know, that no matter what happens, no matter if you win or lose, you’ll still have nobody.”

On the surface, Nolan moves back to the pile of weapons and Angus, who was somewhat more awake. “I’m going down.” He says. He glances around the group. “In the three days I’ve been around all of you, it’s been more like a family than anything I’ve experienced in the 20 years I’ve lived. Don’t follow me, I’m going to get Falcon. It’s best to just not get sucked in.” On his way down, he salutes Hermes’s hanging corpse.

Cassidy frowns. “More like a family than anything he’s experienced in all his life? We haven’t really done anything for him.”

Angus groans. “I think I gave him a piece of a cucumber. If some rando gave me a cucumber, they might as well be my dad.” He laughs, and Circe and Cassidy exchange glances.

“That doesn’t make any sense, Angus.” Circe pushes her brother back to a lying down position.

Falcon shoves the Aries mutt away from him. “Leave me alone, Dad.” It was more of a plea than an order. “I get it. Everybody f*cking hates me. And I deserve it. But there are people out there who care about me, an-”

“There were people in here who cared about you too.” The Aries mutt interrupts him. “Your mother loved you. Talon definitely loved you. I know I never stopped caring for my boy. Any of my boys, or my girls.”

Falcon looks around at him. There was silence for a minute, as tears slowly rolled down Falcon's face before he spoke. “You are a sick man, Aries Robbins. And you raised sick kids.”

The Aries mutt looks at him, reaching his free hand out. “I’m a Robbins, Falcon. Kill or be killed. We’re all born sick. We’re all walking cries for help and yet nobody gives it to us, so we just get worse.”

He takes a few steps back, dropping his hand to his side. “But I tried, Falcon. Worked my ass off for all my life. Worked from eight AM to 9:30 PM from when I was 18 and until I got here. Six days a week. We all worked our asses off to be where we are today. Except you. You just lay there.”

He extends his hand again. “Want to see, Falcon? I promise, no more needles with me. Nothing can hurt you in there, just numb watching. I promise. Would a father ever lie to his son over something like this?”

It was a shock to see such a genuine smile on Aries’s face, and more of one to see Falcon take his Fathers hand and follow him into a different passageway.

“Pretty different than Hermes, huh?” Flickerman laughs, looking at Ruby. “Yet again, we have an Aries Senti-Mutt.”

Romulus sighs, smiling at the camera. “To be totally honest, we’re just damage controlling the arena. It already made an Aries Senti-mutt, so we’re trying to go easy on it. And Nolan shouldn’t mess anything up.”

“I take it that the pit is meant to personalize for whoever's in there?” Ruby says. She seemed somewhat out of it today, and even though she had about fourteen cups of Starbucks on the desk, it didn’t seem to cheer her up.

As Falcon passes down the long winding hallway, the Aries Mutt lets go of his hand. Falcon stops as he realizes where they’ve entered. It seems to be a small room, with a twin sized bed on the floor, and beer cans and old paper plates of half eaten food on the ground. “Dad, when was this?”

Aries smiles. “November 27th, 494. You stay here.” He opens up the door, and heads down the rickety old stairs.

Flickerman giggles. “Trust me, this was a fun one.”

CAPITAL NOTE (NOT FOR PUBLIC EYES TO SEE)

They’ll claim that all imagery was from the photo album, but who takes family photos when there’s a child actively getting beaten? No, we’ve had cameras in the Robbins family estate, if you could even call it that, since 422, before Aries Robbins even came into the world. Keep a close eye on your enemies, Aurellius liked to say.

- [REDACTED]

VIEWABLE AGAIN TO COMMON CITIZEN.

Falcon looks around the room, glancing from the ceiling molded with water damage to the filthy mirrors, to the bed and the box next to it. He smiles faintly at the edges of a Playboy magazine that had been hastily shoved in with some laundry hamper (Not that the hamper was used, clothes littered the floor.)

He jumps as the door opens again, but instead of Aries walking through, it was the same face he had seen in the doctor's mirror, with an even more bitter face. He was wearing what had to be a Sunday outfit to go to church in, and walks right past Falcon to flop on the bed, staring at the ceiling. It was minutes later that the sounds of a door being slammed open could be heard, and the screams from downstairs could be heard.

Falcon practically jumps out of his skin at the sound of breaking glass and his father’s voice yelling at somebody. Within the shouts of her father, Eve could be heard sobbing back. “I’m Sorry! I didn’t mean to touch anything, I’m sorry!”

Falcon visibly flinches at the sound of what had to be Aries hitting the child. He looks over at the past version of himself lying in bed, but he does nothing, and just keeps lying there as Eve and Aries both yell. In the background, another child, probably Philip, was crying. Mink could be heard trying to calm her husband down, but with a loud cracking noise, the sound of a body hitting the floor could be heard throughout the house.

“Dad, stop!” a louder commanding voice rang through the house, but it wasn’t that of a man, rather a young teenager.

Falcon tenses up, knowing what’s happening downstairs as the sounds of a sobbing Eve gets closer, but he still watches as the door opens. A younger Sable was pulling Eve with one hand, had Philip on her hip, and Briar clinging to her back like a little koala. “Falcon, I need gauze. Lots of it.” She helps Eve up onto the landing and puts Briar and Philip down. She smiles earnestly at them. “Bri, go take Philip to Talon’s Room, ok?” She flinches at the sound of Bull yelling in pain. “Go quick, ok?” she ushers them back down the steps, turning to look at Eve, then Falcon. “Falcon, it’s really really bad. I don’t even know what Eviee did, but Dad’s really mad. I was just trying to change Philip, and Briar was trying to get food, and I looked away, and Eve slipped-”

“Shut up!” the Falcon on the bed yells at her, covering his face with his pillow. “f*ck off, Sable, okay? Like actually go do your job and f*ck off. Quit rambling.”

Sable sighs, shushing Eve quietly. “Falcon, I need gauze.” she says slowly. “Falcon, he threw a vase at mom’s head. She’s covered in blood, I need to fix her before Talon decides to get himself involved.”

For a second, it looks like past Falcon’s going to help, but he just gets up and injects something into his arm. He tosses an old piece of cloth at Sable, before putting his hands on his younger sister's shoulders and shoving her down the stairs. “GET OUT! I DON’T GIVE A sh*t ABOUT ANY OF THEM! I DON’T CARE ABOUT ANY OF YOU!” He grabs Eve around the arm and shoves her out as well, slamming the door behind her and moving back to his bed.

Real Falcon just stands there, fidgeting as the shouting gets louder and louder. Eventually, the sound of a younger Talon and Sable joining into the argument. He flinches at the sound of a genuine shriek from Bull, and the threatening turns into quick paced begging.

“Dad, He’s sorry! He’s sorry! He’s sorry!” Talon was crying, and Sable seemed to be carrying him away from the fighting as the boy kicked and cried. “Pa, please! He doesn’t mean it!” on the floor below, the sounds of a door being thrown open and Talon being thrown inside. By the sounds of the crates moving, it seemed like Sable was barricading him inside.

Bull was yelling now as well. “Don’t f*cking touch me! Get off! Get off of me! Sable! Sable, get him off! Get him-” his final shout was taken away from him as it turned into a shout of pain as the sounds of a door being slammed again and again sounded throughout the house, combined with Talons banging on the door, and the sound of Sable rushing back down the stairs. And still, past Falcon just lay in bed, staring at the ceiling.

It seems like this is all that Real Falcon could take, as he throws the door open and starts heading down the stairs.

The first set of stairs led down to what had to be the doors into the master bedroom, and then past two doors with Sable and Bulls Names etched into them. (On both doors, you could see many other scratched out names, some of them being those of Aries’s dead siblings.)

Falcon passes a completely bordered off towel cabinet that Talon was banging on and begins down the stairs to see what was happening in the kitchen.

A younger Bull was on the floor, huddled and twitching over a bloodied hand. He had a black eye, and his nose was bleeding. Behind him, Sable seemed to be trying to reason with her father, who glances at Falcon and smiles leeringly before looking back at his daughter. “He gets himself into these messes, Sable.”

Sable stares at her brother, before looking up at her father. “Do you want a beer?” She asks. Her voice wavers, but for her credit, she doesn’t break down, and stares her father in the eyes. Slowly, she walks over Bull to get a can of beer out of the fridge. “Here, Dad. Go lie down, okay? I’m going to clean up the mess down here. I’ll get the kids presentable.”

Aries looks around. “Where’s Falcon?”

Sable sighs. “He’s upstairs.”

Aries stares at her. “We have family photos in five hours, Sable. Get the kids dressed, make them lunch, fix up Bull's hand and make sure that Falcon doesn’t do something stupid.” they stare at each other for a second before Aries seems to relent. “Actually, we’ll just do the photos without him. Then get Talon to football, Eve to tutoring, and you and bull to whatever sh*tty thing I've been paying for since you were six. Take the kids as well. Get them all home then get Falcon out to the club. I don’t want to have to do anything for the rest of the day, you’re driving.”

He practically steps on Bull as he walks over to Mink on the ground. “The Vallejo Family wants to settle this in the ring. I think they’re sending Cleaver over. Is Falcon up for it, because I can’t come up with an excuse for why we can’t be at the club.”

Sable sighs. She was washing out Bulls hand, examining what was definitely a broken finger. “Go tell the kids to get changed.” she whispers to him before looking back at her father. “Falcon isn't going to do anything even if you put a gun to his head. He’s probably high as a kite. I think I could try against Cleaver though?”

Aries actually turns around and frowns. “You? Cleavers is a 19 year old man with a bounty on his head for going around and beating up peacekeepers. The Vallejos have been hiding him in a shed. I’m not sending my daughter into that.”

Sable crosses over to him. Even at fourteen, she was impressively built, nothing like her current self, but at least 5 ’9 and easily more muscular than Valerie or Bentley. “Cleaver’s a man, but he’s 5’5. I got height. And… well what else can we do? Send Bull and hope that the finger you broke won’t f*ck him over?”

“Watch it!” Aries warns, frowning as he gets down next to his wife, starting to blot the blood.

Sable sighs. “I mean, maybe we just let them have the traffic light. Or send Dipper! We could send uncle Dipper! Though he might be high as well…”

“Sable!” Aries says suddenly. “Sable, your mom’s not waking up!” There was a moment of exchange between the two, before Sable hastily began climbing the stairs. “Her medicine’s in the top right draw!” Aries yells.

He looks at Falcon finally. “We both know that the medicine isn’t in there. Because you took it out. Because you thought ‘if I sell off my mother’s much needed medicine while everyone else in the family does something with their lives, I can buy more Morphling based tranqs. Because, f*ck everyone else, I’ll get my drugs!’”

“What do you want from me?” Falcon asks quietly. He jumps as the Bull mutt tugs on his shirt.

The mutt, already taller than him, opens his non-damaged hand and reveals a bottle of nightlock pest control pills. “Come on.” He says, putting them in Falcon’s hand. “It makes it a lot easier on everyone else. A waste of attic space, and now a useless tribute to bet on. Take the pills. Get it over with. Nightlock kills quickly.”

Falcon doesn’t even seem to hesitate when reaching for the bottle, but right before the Bull Mutt could hand him the water, Falcon gets yanked backwards, by strong hands, strong hands that rip that bottle out of his, and begin pulling him out of the dark depths of the Robbins family home.

Falcon shouts and panics, trying for a second to spear whoever was behind him, before he gets turned around, pinned back against the wall by the shorter man. “Hey, relax.” Nolan tells him. “I’m not a mutt. We need to go. Nobody’s going to pull a Hermes today, ok?”

“Let go of my son!” The Aries mutt starts moving to Nolan, but Nolan shoves him off.

“f*ck off, Aries.” Nolan tells the mutt. “Don’t you have better things to do? I thought you were programmed to kill Hermes? Don’t you want to do that more than killing off your son?”

Romulus Flickerman groans as the Aries mutt starts genuinely twitching. “And he’s broken again.” The cameras watch as Nolan drags Falcon back up the stairs, and back towards the attic. They pass the young Sable mutt half dragging half fighting the younger Falcon as she cries for him to tell her where he put the pills, and to call a hospital. Out of that house.

“Come on.” Nolan half carries Falcon away. “Nobody’s going to kill themselves, I’m sure you’ve got something to live for outside of this arena. Plus you need to keep your alliance together. The Career pack collapsed for god sake, you have a chance!”

“Nolan, I-” Falcon was still thrown from the encounter in the house. “Nolan, how do they even know what my house looked like? How do they even know about that day?”

“I don’t know, and I don’t care.” Nolan tells him. “I need to get you out, then we’re all going to make a plan about what to do next, ok? Because I counted, there’s only 47 tributes left. And that means that we’re so close to going home, ok? I need to get home to see my daughter.”

Falcon stops abruptly, forcing Nolan to stop as well. “You have a daughter?” He asks.

Nolan nods, looking at Falcon in confusion. “Yeah? I talked about her in my interview. It’s the whole reason I need to get home. I can’t let that girl grow up without a father. I can’t do that to her, I got to be there, I’ve been writing letter after letter just in case I didn’t get home. Falcon, I need to see my Daughter again.” his voice breaks slightly “and also I’ve got to prove to myself that I’ll be a better father than he was.”

Falcon finally takes a good look at Nolan. “You’re bleeding.” The camera focuses on Nolan’s midsection. His shirt was black, but the cut was so long that blood was over the top part of his pants and stained his jacket.

Nolan grits his teeth. “Shouldn’t be fatal.” He says. “As long as I get out of here and then get some rest. I’m going to be fine, as are you. I can’t bear to see anyone suffer down here like Hermes did. I don’t care if he was affiliated with Rebels, my allegiance will always stand with him, in fact his treason makes me like him more.”

Falcon smiles. “Glad to see we’re on the same page, blue boy.” And they continue moving through the arena.

Urban and Mercedes were still walking around the volcanos. “Of course,” Urban grumbles. “We go to the only arena where these burns are going to get worse.”

Suddenly, Mercedes tugs on Urban’s sleeve. “Urban, stop.” She points across into the distance at the sight of the slumped over girl in the District one jacket. “sh*t, is that Gucci?” Mercedes says, before quickly covering her mouth. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to swear-” She gets cut off by Urban dragging her towards the body.

“What happened to her hair?” Urban whispers, running his hand over Gucci’s face.

“Aries.” Mercedes says, pointing to Gucci's shoulder. The initials ‘A.R’ had been carved in it. Mercedes frowns. “At least I think he’s the only one with those initials.”

Urban frowns. “But Aries died over a week ago, and she only died yesterday. That’s a spear wound. You know your tributes and their weapons, right?” Mercedes nods. “Then tell me who alive could have done this.”

Mercedes paces back and forth. “Well considering that the wound is so clear and seems to have hit her straight on, she probably saw it coming and didn’t have time to defend. Which means that It could be Adrien or Talissa from four since they’re skilled. Unless…” she trails off. “Unless it was a betrayal. Ferrari left with spears, Urban.”

The two share a glance for a second before smiles break across both of their faces. “She’s worth the risk, right?” Urban says, but the grin on his face showed that he planned on finding her no matter what Mercedes said.

Mercedes smiled wider. “She would never kill me, Urban. That’s my big sister.”

The pair get up, looking around, eventually finding the footprints. “Come on!” Urban tugs on Mercedes’s arm, moving down after Ferrari.

Ferrari had been walking straight back towards the body of Gucci for reasons we’ll never know. She saw the others long before they saw her. “No…” She whispers, staring at the pair of them. Gripping her spear, she starts moving towards them. “Mercedes?”

Mercedes squeals. “Ferrari!” anything she had been holding gets dropped as she runs towards her sister, who drops her spear as she tightly embraces her little sister. “I found you.” Mercedes whispers tearfully, tightly clutching onto Ferrari’s jacket. “It’s been weeks, but I found you.”

Ferrari slowly puts Mercedes down and looks past her at Urban, who stood there hesitant to interrupt. “Oh, Urban.” She reaches out for him with one arm, and he walks towards her. There’s just a second when they look at each other, over their new frames and spirits before Urban finally hugs her as well. “I’ve missed you too. I’ve missed you too.” Ferrari whispers, reaching out so that Mercedes can join in as well.

“I’m here now.” Urban tells her, before finally pulling away. “Now, what the hell’s been happening with you for the past two weeks?”

Ferrari laughs. “Me and Gucci ended up here. I killed a girl from eight. Then we watched ten pass us. Gucci got a new haircut. Yesterday, she tried to leave so I had to deal with it. So honestly, not much!”

Mercedes sighs. “We’ve been through hell, sis.” She smiles. “Way too much walking. There was a whole mutiny against dad and we ended up in this horrible horrible arena. Dad was so brave, he went down for Bentley then kept fighting for me. It was really bad. Bentley nearly died.”

Ferrari stares at her. “But Bentley, she’s with you now?”

Mercedes shakes her head. “No. Nolan Invidicus and Elizabeth, with baby, left a few days ago, then Valerie decided that killing Urban was a good idea and threw a homemade bomb at him as the arena that was next door to this one collapses. Bentley and Nero followed her. I- I chose to stay by Urban. We came here.”

“Collapses?” Ferrari asks.

Urban looks at her. “Of course, you’ve been here the whole time, you don’t even know what an arena collapse is. There are fourteen arenas, and they’re all slowly falling away to limit the space that tributes can be in. You don’t want to get caught in one.”

Ferrari looks at the pair of them, as if she wanted to say more but didn’t. “We’re going to go to one of the water sources now, okay? Also, I think Sable Robbins made her armor while in here.”

Falcon and Nolan keep moving through the area, hitting off nooses as they go. The arena, still glitching between Falcon and Hermes, was rapidly flashing purple, the sounds of screaming being the only constant. Eventually, I think our gamemakers just gave up on trying to get the arena to focus on Falcon, and went back to working on fixing it for the next person. (Who, if you’ve watched these games before, just broke it again.)

“Huh.” Nolan frowns, looking around as the arena levels out to place the pair on this rocky overlook of a small abandoned boardwalk circus “Do you get the feeling that this arena was specifically programmed for Hermes? Like it was made just for him?”

“Yeah, it personalizes.” Falcon says.

Nolan shakes his head. “No, like it was made with the sheer purpose of killing him.” he looks around, smiling. “We’re not going to have to go down there though. There’s your elevator!” He gestures to the elevator that led up to the surface, about 800 feet away along the overlook. “Come on. You need to get back up so Eve can slap you out of any stupidity that got you down here.”

The pair start walking, seemingly unaware of how calm it had suddenly gotten, before a cannonball falls from the sky, smashing the ground in front of them, sending both tributes flying, Nolan nearly over the edge.

Falcon doesn’t hesitate to move over to Nolan, who is still lying on the ground, struggling to pull himself up. “What?” Falcon asks. “What the f*ck’s wrong with you?” His eyes run over the ground where Nolan landed, the blood spillage from his cut up stomach. Falcon flinches for a second, before looking back around the outlook, finally picking up on the hundreds of wooden frames with nooses tied to them. “Bet this is what you actually wanted to kill Mr. Graves with.” he mutters.

Grabbing Nolan by face, he stares into his eyes. “You said your allegiance stands with Hermes, right?” Nolan nods, still trying to stand. “You said the treason made you like him more, right?”

“Yeah.” Nolan says, his brown eyes meeting Falcon’s grayish black ones. “Yeah.” he glances behind Falcon at the Nooses which were beginning to rip themselves off of the walls. “I think I know what you want, but Hawk- Falcon, I can’t run like this. It hurts too much. I can’t-”

Falcon squeezes his shoulders. “You came this far, Thornton. You can see the exit. And if you can’t run, then just hit those ropes away. But whatever you do, don’t let go of my hand. Because we both know that the biggest difference between the pair of us is the number on the backs of our jackets.”

It was at this point where in the mentor room, Blaise Singh crossed over to stand next to Styx, their hands joining together, just like their tributes.

Falcon smiles, letting go of Nolan’s face, and pulling his ally up to his feet, the pair’s hands finding the other’s, and raising them to the sky, before dropping them to their sides again, and moving towards the elevator.

It was like an army, as every rope starts moving towards the pair of them, but Falcon grins, moving around them in a pre-practiced order. Flickerman's mouth falls open and he laughs. “Of course, leave it to District ten to know Hermes’s exact pattern through those! Well we all know that Hermes didn’t escape those nooses without outside interference..”

Yet unfortunately for our gamemakers, and much to President Dallas Fowler’s delight, maybe having two tributes to fight the nooses together was really all the pair needed. Makes you think about what would have happened if Maddox had stayed behind just a minute longer. It was almost artful, the way Falon moves throughout the ropes, listening as Nolan hits down or warns him to duck under whatever rope he couldn’t quite hit.

Falcon laughs triumphantly, pulling Nolan into the elevator and slamming the doors shut as it begins its ascent. “That’s what you get for programming the reaction laser training in the training center to Hermes’s noose attack!” He yells out. “Bold of you to assume Hermes wouldn’t teach me that one!”

He looks over at Nolan, who slides down the rusty walls to the ground of the elevator. “You good?” He asks, looking at the blue haired Career.

Nolan grits his teeth. “Breathing.” He stares at Falcon. “Angus got hurt from that spider. When I came down here, he was coming around though.”

Falcon nods. “Good. We’re not f*cked. Honestly, we’re going to be fine. Once one twin dies, the other will follow then it will be smooth sailing.” he smiles and repeats himself. “Smooth sailing.” He glances at Nolan. “So why did Sable choose to split our group? What the hell’d you tell her?”

Nolan shrugs. “Sable… I honestly just think Bull asked her too. So that and a mix of overconfidence.”

Falcon smiles, messing up Nolan’s hair. “Well Sable has a favorite sibling. And a least favorite, that one’s me. Kind of deserved.” he glances up, looking at the faint sunlight before looking back at Nolan. “So Talon, he jumped?”

Nolan nods. “Yeah. Sable and Bull were kind of getting jumped by a bunch of us and he showed up. He knew he wasn’t going to make it home. It was all self sacrifice trying to give the twins more time.”

Falcon smiles bitterly. “A little out of character of him, but then again, I left a sixteen year old, it’s been two years. Maybe he grew up.” Falcon was quiet for a second, before frowning. “Oh yeah. Sorry for killing your mom and stuff.”

Nolan laughs, before stopping suddenly and clutching his stomach. “Honestly, that was a favor. Maybe when we get out of here, you can get some more family lore, though take it with a grain of salt, it’s all inference.”

Falcon grins, pulling Nolan out of the elevator. “Come on, time to climb!”

Nolan sees the spider first, barely having time to yell out to Falcon. A spider, as big as a pickup truck, comes running at them from the open gaping hole that connected the pit to the place where they had fought the massive spider.

Falcon spears it through the abdomen, just before it bites him. “Don’t want purple juice on us.” Still, he looks around, frowning. “It’s spinning. Nolan, the arena’s spinning?”

Sure enough, it was the arena itself swaying back and forth, a big beam from above slamming down.

Falcon doesn’t hesitate to throw Nolan over his shoulder, grabbing ahold of one of the remaining beams, and beginning his ascent. Of course, it’s hard to pull yourself out of a pit like this, let alone with a grown man’s weight over a shoulder. So it should come as no surprise that a spider leg successfully reached out and threw them onto one of the rocky overlooks, sending a tumble of rocks flying down at them.

Thinking quickly, Falcon shoves Nolan into a small cave, and barely makes it next to him before rocks shatter over the entrance.

“Blue boy?”

“I’m… Okay. You?”

“I think I hit my shoulder.”

Normally, we would turn on the darkness vision cameras, except, there was no light to amplify for the viewers. After brief deliberation, we turned it onto heat sensing mode so you back home could see what was happening.

Falcon rubs his shoulder. “Blue boy, how's the injury?”

There was silence for a second. “I- I don’t think it’s fatal. It just hurts like a motherf*cker and I can’t stand right. I need time. I need- I need help.”

Falcon moves over to one of the boulders blocking the cave entrance and begins trying to shove it back. “Nolan, I think if you come and move this with me, we can get it off.”

There was a brief moment of tension, before Nolan sighs. “Falcon, I don’t think I can get up, let alone shove a massive rock over. I can’t- I just can’t, okay?”

“What do you mean, you can’t?” Falcon asks sharply. “You’re the Career! You trained for this sh*t! So what the hell do we do, if we can’t move a rock? Do we just die down here?”

More silence from Nolan. Falcon goes back to attempting to push the rock over. “Falcon?” Nolan says calmly. “I think… I think I’m happy to stay down here in this pit. I don’t think I even want to go home, really. It’s kind of calming.”

“Excuse me?” Falcon says, moving over to stand above Nolan. “I’m sorry, what happened to mister ‘I’ve got to see my daughter’? What happened to him? You can’t just give up now!”

Nolan takes a breathy gasp of air. “I don’t know, Falcon. I guess I really do like… the color purple.”

“You’re sick.” Falcon whispers. “You’ve got it in your bloodstream. You’ve got the purple.”

Nolan laughs, but it comes out as a slightly manic wheeze. “Let’s not call it ‘the purple’. That’s a dumb name. And I really think I’m going to be happy here. No more pain. No more effort. Just… just purple.”

Falcon shouts angrily, kicking Nolan in the leg, but as he does that, the ground shakes some more, sending him falling forward into Nolan. Pushing himself back up off of Nolan’s thighs, he reaches out, gripping the sides of Nolan’s neck. “Blue boy, please. Come on. You gotta snap out of it. What about Venus?”

Nolan looks at him for a second. “I think… I think her mom’s capable. Smart woman. Look, Falcon. Between me and home stands a few key people: Sable Robbins, Invidicus Willis, and my baby brother. I don’t want to kill any of them, and I don’t think I could kill two of them. Look, I fought Sable during that fight between the Careers and ten. I would have died so quickly without help. I can’t find it in me anymore to keep going.”

“Nolan.” Falcon tells him. “Why did you come down here?”

“To get you out.” Nolan says.

“Because?”

“Because…” Nolan hesitates. “Because I could feel the pit calling me. I knew it was calling me. It’s been calling me since I left Hermes’s body swinging on that rope.”

Falcon pulls Nolan to his feet. “Again, the biggest difference between the two of us is the number on the back of their jackets. Your allegiance to Hermes is above all, above this pit, right? This pit killed that man.”

“The government killed that man.” Nolan says dully. “They told him to dance, he gave them the best show, and they killed him for performing.”

“Nolan, the government doesn’t need to kill you, because you’re killing yourself.” Falcon tells him. “Nolan, I’m done running. I need to get back to my family. Can you be done running too? It’s so easy to give up, to just lay here and do nothing. To just sit and accept what’s coming your way. You’ve got to fight it. You’ve got a family back home. I’ve got a family back home. If you won’t do it for yourself, do it for them. If you won’t do it for them, do it for me. And if you won’t do it for me, Do it for Hermes. Because people like us can’t keep running. We need to fight it. Are you going to fight with me, or just lay there and let the f*ckers who killed Hermes Graves win?”

Nolan was silent for a second, and the pair stood there, Falcon’s hands still on the sides of Nolan’s neck. Slowly, Nolan reaches up to take Falcons hands off. “For her.” He whispers. “I can do it for my Venus.”

Nolan goes to help Falcon with the rock, the pair slowly shoving it off. Falcon pulls himself up and looks back into the hole at Nolan, who had retreated back into the darkness, his face the only thing glowing. “Come on.” Falcon says, extending his hand. “Come on Blueboy. Let’s go back with the others.”

“I can’t climb out of here.” Nolan says. “Trust me, Falcon, I can’t climb that ropes course.”

Falcon smiles. “Then we’ll just go back through where this wretched pit connects to the spider place. Come on. No excuses, we’ve both got people to see.” After another second of Nolan’s hesitance to leave the pit, Falcon sighs, leaning in and picking him up. “I swear, use your big Career muscles for once.”

As the pair finally exited the pit, Eve was the first one to move over to the pair of them as Falcon places Nolan down. Falcon seems to try and hug her, but she immediately moves to start looking at his shoulder. “sh*t, I wish Sable was here, she would know how to fix it.” Eve mutters. Finally, she looks up at her brother, and gives him the hug. “You’re alive, that’s what matters.”

Angus, who was now standing, yet seemed to have a headache, moves over to pat Falcon on the pack as well. “Yeah, no more entering the holes. Maybe we should just leave this place.”

Cassidy Fletcher didn’t move to see Falcon, rather dropping down on the ground next to Nolan, hugging him tightly. “Thank you for going down there again.” She whispers. “You did well.”

Nolan smiles at her, and frowns. “Cassidy, I swear, I have no idea what’s gotten into me. I just… It’s like there are more voices in my head than just my own. I don’t want to worry you, but can you get the medical kit? I want to bandage myself up. It hurts to stand and breathe.”

Cassidy nods, but before she could get back to Nolan, Falcon had helped him over to her. “Come on, Blue boy.” Falcon tells him. “Let’s assess the damages.”

“I think it’s better than it looks.” Eve tells Nolan. “It shouldn’t be life threatening on it’s own, but I’m more worried about the-”

“Purple?” Nolan asks. “Yeah. My- My mind feels heavy. It’s hard to explain.”

Eve smiles. “Like when you’re really really tired, so tired that even walking makes your head hurt? And all you want is to sleep?”

Nolan nods enthusiastically. “Yeah! It’s been like that for a few days. And when I was down there, it was like the heaviness left. Honestly, I think I just need to distract myself. I’m more worried about Elizabeth.”

Nolan sighs, looking around the group. “I mean, this will heal. Give me a day, and I’ll be fine.”

Angus taps Falcon on the shoulder. “He’s staying isn't he?”

Falcon nods. “Yeah. We’re keeping Blue boy.”

Speaking of Elizabeth, Flickerman and Ruby both audibly gasp as the camera turns back to her.

“Shush. Shush.” Elizabeth was wrapping Midus up in her jacket. “Stay quiet.” The Camera zooms into Elizabeth’s arms, where her veins were bulging outward, and dark purple in color. They seemed to die down a little below her shoulders. Her long fingers seemed to jolt randomly, and her right eye had seemed to pick up the habit of twitching.

“I know. I know.” She whispers to the baby. “You see, I’m in a dilemma here. I don’t want to hear the drip. What better place to go than the volcanos? Except what if that’s what the pit mutts want me to think? No, I think it’s better to stay right here, against the wall. I am a better tribute than Blaze Vilmeer, I will hold on longer than him.”

She places Midus down. “You see, your mother is dead. Your father is dead. And I must, must get home. Which means you will die. However, that’s just what the pit wants me to think. Maybe that’s not my own thought. All I know is that I will hold out longer than Blaze Villmeer. And I deserve to go home the most. That will keep me sane. Purple or not, I’m going home, and there’s nothing this pit can change about that.”

Midus makes a cooing sound, reaching to be picked up, and Elizabeth does, and moves to rip some corn off. “I’m trying, Midus. This is nothing that I can’t handle. You’re going to need to be strong for a while. When your food runs out, I assure you that I won’t have that much more reason to hold off.”

“She’s insane.” Ruby says. “Actually clinically insane. Her arms are purple.”

Romulus laughs nervously. “Well, she’s got the victor’s mentality. Speaking about victors, if you had to pick somebody who you think will win, but you can’t name a District one female tribute, who?”

Ruby frowns, thinking. “Maybe Urban? And I feel like I’m betraying my whole district here, but you can’t deny that the twins have something going for them.”

Flickerman changes the camera to the mentor room. “What about you guys? Porsche? I know you said Finn before, but he’s not in the running!”

Porsche laughs. “I mean, maybe I’m with Bee on this one, Aspen’s got things going for her! I just can’t see how she’d do a final fight if she was forced from the bunker. Maybe with enough Sponsor money…”

They trail off, staring into space as Dallas Fowler begins talking. “Well if I can’t choose any of my tributes, I’d go with my second favorite to win: Sable Robbins!” He jumps down from his perch to fistbump Mignon. “She’s been my second pick this whole time! I’ve got money riding on her and-”

He stops himself from talking for a second, hesitating on his words. “And Valerie Willis. Third pick for victor.”

Genuine shock in the mentor room, as Dallas shrugs, adopting a defensive tone. “Well I’m not allowed to bet on my tributes! And you expect me, Dallas Fowler, to NOT gamble on the tributes? I’ve been gambling on these games since I won mine! Won lots of money from betting on Mako and Ruby, mind you!”

“You’re the president, you shouldn’t be gambling on tributes.” Jupiter tells him.

“Well I wasn’t president when I bet on them!” Dallas laughs. I think for the first time in years, we were truly seeing Mr. Fowler uncomfortable with the situation.

“Wait, so at the start of the games,” Achilles says. “YOU placed money on Valerie, from the interviews alone?”

Dallas nods. “Yeah. That's how placing bets work, Heels.” He stares at Achilles, who was sitting on the floor next to some boy who must have been in his academy year. “You didn’t place money on her? I’d have thought you did?”

Achilles shrugs. “Wasn’t aware I could, considering we were both from two. If I had known, I would have. I just didn't expect it from you.”

The boy on the floor next to Achilles frowns. “What do you even like about Val? She’s insane.”

Dallas scoffs. “Insanity wins the games, kid. You think I would have won mine without doing stupid sh*t? I like the whole Willis family’s style. Purple or not.”

He frowns at the kid. “What’s your name?”

The boy blinks at him. “Charybdis. Charybdis Armani. I rank first in the year.”

Calista comes over and pats the kid on the shoulder. “My nephew. You’re not meant to be here though. I thought you were staying in two? Orien said he was still in two.”

Charybdis shrugs. “I arrived here this morning. Me and Cygnus are here while the others are in District one. We’ll be joining them once the games are over.” He stares at Cipher. “They want to go back home. Real home.”

Dallas glances between the kid and the two District two mentors, trying to decipher more, before giving up. “Blaise!” he calls out.

“I think he’s with Oak.” Styx says, coming back into the room. “Can Mr. President spare the time to talk to sponsors? Because there’s a few out there who really like Falcon.”

Dallas nods, leaving the room. Achilles turns back to the boy. “I thought you and Valerie were close?”

The child scoffs. “Kinda. But just because that’s a friend of mine doesn’t mean I can’t call it like it is: Valerie Willis is insane in the head. Remember the time the cops showed up to drag her back to the ward?”

Achilles shushes him. “Not on camera. On camera I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Ok, picnic time’s over.” Sable says. “Come on, we all have to actually do something now.”

Briar smiles. “Where are we going?”

Sable shrugs. “I was thinking we could actually check out some of the arenas, a little tour if you do.”

She glances at Bull, who had been quietly tapping his fingers together for the past thirty minutes. “Come on. Maybe we could go hunt Bancroft.”

Bull groans, pulling himself to his feet. “I guess. I was just thinking, how long can these games go on? Realistically there has to be a limit, right?”

Sable frowns. “I guess so. I mean, I’d assume they’d allow for eight weeks max. 56 days. The normal max is 28, right?”

Bull nods. “Yeah. That was the whole problem with Lagoona’s games: they got to day 25 and there were still a good seven tributes left, none of the alliances seemed ready to split up, multiple tributes seemed perfectly satisfied with hiding the whole time, and the Careers just sucked at finding them.”

Briar frowns. “I was like, 8. Didn’t they do something with the trackers?”

Sable nods. “Day 25, announcements came on saying that if there wasn’t a victor by the end of day 28, they would detonate the trackers on all living tributes, and there would be no victor.” She smiles. “Of course, the ones from two and Lagoona were too busy being pacifists, one tribute was still unconscious from three days prior, two others were completely unphased by the announcement and stayed hidden, and the guy from one was already trying his hardest.”

Bull grins broadly. “Day 27, they decided to display the location of every tribute in the arena. But on the last day, there were still three tributes left, Lagoona and that guy from two in their alliance, and the guy from one. Then the alligator mutts came. The games didn’t end until 11:50 something on the night of day 28.”

“What was the final fight?” Briar asks.

Sable smiles. “Alligator mutts showed up, Lagoona got dragged up the rockface, but hit the alligator off. She was unconscious. Boy from Two and boy from One weren’t so lucky. They both managed to climb to the shore, but Two got mauled and was going to bleed to death. One got badly hurt as well, but not to the same extent as Two. And with the literal countdown clock above them, he was desperately trying to get to Lagoona. Somehow the boy from Two convinced him that he couldn’t reach her to kill her before the games would end, so either both the boy from one and Lagoona would die, or Satin Valentine would have to kill himself in order to save her life.”

Bull frowns. “Boy from two-Asmodeus- died about thirty minutes before Satin did, and the tribute from one kept trying and trying, maybe praying that her condition was severe enough to kill her, until 11:57 PM, where he decided that he could never save himself, and he wasn’t going to take her down with him. He had made progress closer to her as well, I think if he just had a few more hours, he could have done it.”

“And our tributes died in the bloodbath!” Briar exclaims in mock happiness. Sable high fives her, pulling both of her siblings with her towards the exit.

“So, we’re just going to waltz in there and kill Sable and Bull?” Magnet asks. “Because you’ve been saying that for an hour now, but we still don’t have an actual plan.”

Bentley shrugs. “I don’t know, ok? There’s three of them in there, I think we just gotta attack them before they know what happened. It doesn’t matter how big and strong they are if they have an axe in their skull.”

Valerie nods. “I mean, Magnus-”

“It’s still Magnet.”

Valerie shrugs. “Same thing. Look, what other plan can we make? We’re not going to face them up close. It might not be super brave, but it’s the smartest choice to just kill them from afar. The only downside is that it’s far from interesting, and that might make the gamemakers f*ck it up for us.”

Magnet blinks at the pair. “I just don’t understand why I’m here. If you're just going to throw axes, why the hell am I here?”

“Don’t make me think about it too much.” Bentley tells him. Suddenly, she shushes the group, gesturing towards the corn. Turning around the corner was Spud, then Spindle, then Sireena.

“Maze out!” Spud declares. Valerie glances at Bentley, who was raising her axe. She shakes her head, pulling out her box of matches. In the mentor room, multiple mentors seem to sigh.

Bentley immediately smiles, looking at the trio below them, then at Valerie. *Wait, the corn?* She mouths to Valerie, tapping the maze beside her.

Valerie nods, before speaking. “Whatever happened to Grove?”

The three tributes below look around for the voice, and Valerie slides down the corn to land in front of them, blocking their exit from the maze, Bentley coming behind them. “I had a nice little talk with him before the games,” Valerie asks mockingly. “He said he’d be with you?”

Both Spud and Spindle go to pull out their knives, but Valerie stops them. “No, you’re staying alive for a little longer. At least this one here will.” She gestures to Spud. “We’re going after the Robbins twins. And I think instead of an axe to the head, I’d much rather burn them.”

Never breaking eye contact with Spud, she slowly reaches to light another cigarette. “Want one?” She asks, widening her eyes in mock innocence.

Spuds eyes stare at the lighter, and at the packet of matches. “Where’d you get the lighter?” is all he asks.

“I got beer too.” Valerie ignores his question. “Not enough to get seriously drunk. I’m a Career, Eleven. I get what I want. But more Importantly, I know how to win.”

Bentley clears her throat. “The way the games work means that they don’t exactly just let tributes that the camera cares about just get killed. It’s gotta be visually interesting. Chances are, they’re not going to let us just throw an axe into their heads. Burning them alive, however, great.”

“So burn 'em, yourself.” Spindle finally speaks up. “Look, Spud’s with us. You can’t just wave a little lighter in his face, and expect him to drop like a dog. Thanks but no thanks.”

“Spindle, right?” Magnet finally speaks up. “You know, I’ve been following the ten pack for a while. I just assumed you knew what happened to your sister Stitch.” He stares at Spindle. “It was gory. Gutted like a pig. Alive.”

He, with more trouble than Valerie had, gets down from the corn. “I mean, There’s only a matter of time before you have to fight them.” He stares at Spud. “With the Career pack split, you’re probably the highest profile individual. Wouldn’t you rather have the upper hand?”

Valerie stares at Spud. “Of course, you don’t actually have a choice. Either you selectively sit here until we chase them out of that arena and then chase them into this maze, burning it as we do, or we force you too.”

Spud smiles. “How ya planning on doing that, little girl?”

“I’ll kill Eight first.” Valerie responds quickly. “Then have a little fun with Four here. I think she could do with a Joker smile. So I’ll chop her there, then break her nose to f*ck up her whole face. Chop her lips off, too. Then if you still won’t go in there to save her, I’ll kill her then kill you and do it myself.”

Spud moves closer to Valerie. It wasn’t that he was a particularly tall tribute, but since Valerie was 5’2, he was still half a foot taller. “If I go in there.” He says. “I want your matches. I want you to guarantee that these two are free from getting hurt. You’re going to let them go. We’re all keeping our weapons.”

Valerie doesn’t miss a beat. “Sure. In fact, if these twins do die because of you, we won’t just be letting them go, I’ll send them off with more weapons. You’re welcome to walk right back to us once you're done. Sable’s made some armor, she’ll fry.”

“That’s not quite how it goes off.” Spud says. “She can run.”

Bentley laughs. “Oh, the gamemakers tend to make things more dramatic. My father’s Rule 25: Anything that could be deadly, expect the danger to be amplified. Bees? Really toxic. Swimming? Somehow you’ll always have either an undercurrent or a really fast tide. Fire? You bet it’s going to be hotter and leave worse burns.”

She smiles at Sireena. “Your little criminal will be all safe and sound. This corn is going to go up like crazy, even more if the gamemakers want to play around with the whole pyromania backstory.”

“It feels like an ending.” Spindle says suddenly. “It seems like the perfect narrative ending for Spud’s ‘character’”

“Maybe it is.” Spud says. “Look, I’m in. Give me a Cig.”

Leading the new, even bigger group, out of the maze, Valerie opens up the packet, handing one to Spud and one to Magnet. “Do any of you want one?” Valerie asks, glancing around.

“You only live once.” Spindle says. “But those look foul.”

Bentley sighs, reaching into her jacket, and producing one of the vapes that Invidicus had picked up for Urban. “It’s Raspberry.” She hits it once, offering it towards the pair. “Probably won’t taste as bad as those.”

“Still good.” Spindle says. “So’s Sireena.”

Valerie stares at Bentley, a smile curling on her lips. “Bingey! I thought you didn’t do those?”

“Oh, f*ck you.” Bentley tells her. “Please, I’ve only done it once before. But now’s a better time than any. I don’t do addictions like you do.”

It was much later in the day, about 7 PM. Mercedes was very very insistent on taking her nap, and was passed out cold.

“Don’t take this badly,” Urban says “But what’s wrong with her?” He gestures at Mercedes. “She was such a bubbly person. She still is, it’s exhausting. But she gets so Tired.”

Ferrari hesitates before shaking her head. “Urban, that’s the only thing in the whole world I can’t tell you. Dad doesn’t want it to get out, Neither do her mentors. If or when she tells you, it will be on her own accord.” She looks at Urban, moving to sit across from him in the little shade spot they were in. “My father, give it to me straight, Urban. What happened?”

Urban sighs. “Not much to say. It was horrible, personalized, and targeted. To be honest, I was more looking at the rest of the pack. The second he started dying, everything fell apart. Invidicus ran off crying, Nolan looked like his wife of 30 years had asked for a divorce, Bentley was dying on the ground, Valerie was the only one acting like a real Career. She tried to go back for him. I think he had accepted that he was going to die though. He had all the choice to leave.”

“He knew he wasn’t coming home.” Ferrari says. “Hermes knew that he wasn’t getting out of this alive.”

Urban looks at her. “He thinks- he thinks they’re going to kill you. Because you’re his kids. He thinks that they’ll kill you to punish him.”

Ferrari blinks at Urban. She doesn’t argue, sighs sadly, and begins to cry, moving to be held in Urban’s arms. “I just can’t feel so alone anymore.” She says. “I knew. Of course I knew. I just thought that maybe, maybe if I just left him physically, I could literally walk away from it.”

“You can’t do that with a rulebook over your shoulder.” Urban tells her. “Come here. If it matters, I don’t think they’ll kill you. I think you could genuinely flip things around. You’re the best candidate for a victor, Blondie.”

“You know what, Urban?” Ferrari tells him. “I know that I can beat any tribute here in weaponry. I know that if it came down to it, I could outfight those Robbins kids any day, through technique. But the one thing that I lack in here, the thing that Hermes had been pointing out since as long as I can remember, I don’t have the spirit. I don’t have the sheer will to keep fighting, to hold onto these rules. So I let go for a second, and that f*cks everything up. Or I follow these rules forever and ever, and I just lose relevance on this camera, until people just want me to stop talking.” She looks closer at Urban. “I’m so much more fun back home, I promise. It just feels like no matter how hard I try to make the odds in my favor, they never will be.”

“I was never meant to volunteer.” Urban says slowly. “It was always going to be Nolan. I was just allowed to f*ck around and do nothing. Two years ago, the biggest wakeup call slammed on my head like a ton of bricks. Do you know how hard it is, to begin trying and realize how difficult it’s going to be to beat some of these kids? You know, I still shouldn’t be here. There are just better people, who decided that they wouldn’t volunteer this year. And even after all of them leaving, I came in second in the mock games that decided things. My friend Titus came in first. He knew that I would die at home, if I was to not volunteer. So he backed down. It’s all a big game of bluffing, Ferrari. Every year, the Career tributes walk into this arena, and they smile, and they laugh, but we’re all scared. We all have that little sliver of doubt in our minds. I believed I could win when I entered. It’s just been a month away from home, I haven't gotten a good night's sleep for weeks, and it’s not fear of other tributes, or guilt from the murder. I’m just so tired of putting in all this work, and these games going on and on.”

Ferrari runs her hands over the shaved side of his head. “It’s against his rules for you to be here right now. I think I’m going to break that one though.”

Urban smiles faintly. “I’m glad. It’s really strange. I remember thinking every year how it was possible for tributes to form such close friendships in the few weeks they meet someone. Yet I’m never going to be able to forget you, Ferrari Bancroft. I won’t forget your hair, or your eyes, or your laugh. Or even the way that when you’re nervous, you squeeze your eyes shut for just longer than a blink. Etched into my mind forever, you will be.”

About two hours later, Romulus and Ruby were discussing a new murder mystery show, arguing over who they thought was the killer, when Styx Cleemont enters the room, a grim look on his face. “What now, Styx?” Asks Flickerman. “Look, do the kids need more peacekeepers? Are they loud again?”

“They’re going to need a therapist.” Styx tells him. “Ten minutes ago, Oak Costiks walked into the center of the training room, took a handgun out of his pocket, told everyone that he was done, and shot himself in the head. In front of about 300 children.”

Flickerman and Ruby stare at him silently. “Is he… is he dead?” Flickerman asks quietly.

Styx nods. “Dal- our president has already gone and admitted Blaise Singh to a hospital. I don’t know the details, but he really hasn’t been doing well since watching Hermes die.”

He moves closer and places a note on the desk out of camera view. Ruby’s breath hitches. “Ruby, go.” Romulus tells her. “Go see him.” He looks at Styx. “Are you going to die too?”

Maybe it was a bad attempt at a joke, maybe it was a genuine question. But Styx shakes his head. “No. I have work to do, as does Blaise. I honestly didn’t- I didn’t think Oak would do it.” His voice catches in his throat, and he stares at the camera. “I don’t know what to do without him.”

Oak had won the games before Styx had. They were the same age, and the pair of them, both quieter in nature, had been close. In fact, that whole friend group of victors—Hermes, Cipher, Blaise, Styx, Oak and Zephyr— had fallen once Hermes disappeared, but Oak and Styx, they were the pair that just… clicked. Their friendship never once wavered from the minute Styx decided that he would die for that District seven baby to live in his games. Though their friendship was built on quiet little moments, something so easily overlooked, it was one of the constants of the victor world.

Victors were allowed, unofficially required, to travel around Districts to create content throughout the year with other victors while the games weren’t on. If you, the viewer/reader of this, are too young to remember, I’ll tell you that Styx would spend the entirety of March in District seven each year. Honestly, it was one of the biggest shocks when Styx told Blaise to take his body if Domita had killed him. But to be fair, Oak wasn’t exactly available, being far too busy with sponsors.

Styx stares at the camera. Flickerman seems to make a move to pull him back, but Styx speaks, his voice ringing with barely controlled anger. “Oak Costiks is dead. Cipher Maarlon is dead. Domita Mickinny is dead. Zephyr Laimvell is dead. Glitter Panyne is dead. Blaise Singh wants to be dead. Hundreds of District two citizens are dead. Somebody tried to kill Achilles Hart. Mako Sullivan is laying on his deathbed, clinging to life as we speak. Our Hermes is dead. The only reason I’m not dead is because I’ve got to finish what he wants from me.” He looks away from the camera, at Romulus Flickerman. “If they won’t listen to the dead children, then they have to listen to their celebrities.”

He turns to go, but as he reaches the door, he looks back at Flickerman. “You want another announcer with you? Because I’m sure you could find someone. Achilles maybe.”

Romulus shakes his head. “Styx, just please leave. That’s six dead victors. Just please let me handle this alone.”

“Nero, let me check your veins again.” Invidicus says. He had told his brother about the poison from the pit and how it had infected Elizabeth. Nero sighs and sticks his wrist over to Invidicus. “You’re ok.”

“Do you think Eliza is?” Nero asks. “Not that I care, I’m just wondering.”

Invidicus sighs. “I don’t think she ever has been. She’s very obsessed with doing better than Blaze, so I think she’ll make it. Honestly, if I see her face in the sky, the world might as well be upside down.”

Nero nods, chewing on his dinner. “Do you think she could win?”

“I think she’s going to.” Invidicus says. “She’s put in so much work, I don’t see how she couldn’t.”

There was more silence between the pair before Nero spoke again. “Did she cheat?” He asks. “To volunteer?”

Invidicus stares into the darkness, reaching with his good hand to lightly touch his wounded shoulder. “I- I don’t know anymore. Possibly. Kinda. It’s complicated.”

Eventually, Invidicus sighs again. “You need an explanation. Elizabeth told me that she knew she could win. Of course, volunteering and winning a quarter quell is extra honorable, so just about everybody thought that it would be great.”

He smiles slightly. “A rumor starts going around that there are girls messing around with a newer drug, allegedly unable to be detected by the sensors. It was meant to heighten your perception, make you more energy efficient, and by extension, help you win. Seems genius. I think it was Valerie that actually told her about it. If it’s drug related, Val knows a guy.”

He looks back at Nero. “So Elizabeth tells me that she’s faced with the dilemma of either cheating, or facing everyone at a disadvantage. She tells me that she figured it out: as long as she controlled the market, who’s to say what she put in those things. So Elizbeth simply figured out how to make this new drug, then tinkered with the formula a bit. A drug that was meant to make you almost superhuman now made you dizzy and feel sick.”

He stares out at the bodies of the misfits whom he still hadn’t moved out the cave. “Of course, there’s no way a participant could have gotten those inside the locker rooms right before these mock games started. That’s where I came in. as long as I was a registered peacekeeper, I was able to get around. How I managed to get a job guarding the female locker room was another problem, but I made it happen.”

He looks at Nero. “The way Lizzy put it, only people planning to cheat would end up getting these drugs in their systems. The way she put it, she was just acting as karma to these girls. They would have been fine if they hadn’t tried to cheat first. So technically, Elizabeth didn’t do a single thing that qualified as cheating: She didn’t take anything, and she didn’t forcibly injure another player. Everyone who took those, took em on their own free will. So yeah, she didn’t cheat. She just bluffed and lied her way to victory.”

Nero sighs. “Do you wish she hadn’t?”

Invidicus shrugs. “You need to look on the bright side, Nero. We’re both more noticed than we have ever been in our lives.

Later that evening, the three eldest members of this District ten pack were awake. Angus and Falcon because they were meant to be on watch, Nolan because he couldn’t sleep.

“I was a punishment baby.” Nolan eventually says.

“Excuse me?” Falcon asks, laughing.

Nolan grins. “Darius Thornton was set on volunteering. However, like an idiot, he got drunk, got behind the wheel, and broke both of his arms, stopping him. Safe to say, the parents were pissed. The day he got discharged from the hospital, he went straight into a punishment marriage. Punishment for both of them. Eighteen years old, Darius Thornton was heir to all the riches of the Thornton family. His parents said if I didn’t show enough promise, all of that would go away, and he would be thrown to the streets. By nineteen, he had a son.”

He smiles at the stars. “When I was seven, a convenient tragic murder happened. My Grandparents were killed. In his mid twenties, he came to seize the entire Thornton legacy, a family worth billions, thirty two different properties, racehorse, and close connections with the capital. You’d think by then he might lax on the training, but no!”

He shakes his head, still smiling. “Darius had everything except for the thing that ruined his life. The volunteering. Even after all the money, all the press coverage, all he wanted was a victor. It just got worse and worse: I was worked harder and harder, and Urban was just neglected.” he smiles at Falcon. “Your turn if you want it?”

Falcon’s smile dies down. “I mean, you watched it. I guess I was the accident baby.”

He stares out at the pit. “I turn 24 on the third of September. That’s three days before my dad’s birthday. So he was nearly 19 when he had me. My mom on the other hand…” He face twists up in confused remorse. “I honestly can’t think of when her birthday was. But she was forty when she got here, and he was 42. 18 and 16 when I was conceived. Mink later told me drunk that they were just on again off again dating. In the good District ten way, once she found out she was pregnant, he was indeed the father, they were set to immediately get married. So I guess arranged marriage too.”

He stretches. “I think my parents actually loved each other. They were both sick in the head at times, but I think they loved each other. Of course, he hit her at home, but Mink wasn't a good person. She used to hold me against a hot towel rack when I was bad. It’s hard to think of people who you know did so much wrong, yet know they were so full of love at the same time. But yeah, accident baby. For the first sixish years of the marriage, It was open. It closed shortly after Talon. Honestly, you would get much more information about the family out of Eve, or best case Sable.”

He glances at the two others. “I’d love to tell the world what they want to hear, that Aries Robbins was Satan all around. He wasn’t. Don’t get me wrong, he was a bad man, but most of my memories with him, especially the ones where I was really little, he was really nice. Aries immediately accepted Eve when she came out, he’d keep going to work, which seems really small, but it means we had some money, he let us all do our extracurricular activities, and would defend any of us if we were accused of something, no questions asked.”

He grins. “Of course, it was Sable who would walk down the streets with Eve, making sure everybody knew if they were to insult her, they would be dealt with. It was Sable who paid all the bills and went grocery shopping and took us to doctors. She dragged everyone to all their sports and quite literally kept us all alive. She would have made a good mom.”

There was silence before Angus finally spoke up. “I don’t… I don’t really know.” He glances over at the pair, before looking towards the sleeping children. “I mean, if anybody does the math, they would come to the conclusion that when I was born, my Mom was eighteen and my dad was mid twenties.”

He itches his boots. “I mean, we all know my mom was a strict strict catholic, yet grew up around very unsafe people. Of course, she wouldn’t tell the children anything, but I figured she was sex trafficked, somehow ended up getting out, got pregnant and then had me because she was against Abortion. There was no shotgun marriage like Aries’s and Minks, Null had nobody. I don’t think my parents got married until I was two. So either I’m not my father’s son, or he just put off the marriage.”

He sighs. “It’s all guesswork. They wouldn’t ever answer any questions about it, I guess I was always a big mama’s boy. Never really close with dad. Then middle school comes around, all my siblings are so much younger and they all love papa, my mom’s too busy with all the young kids for me to be around, so I turned to people who actually wanted me: The peacekeeping force and the Robbins family.”

He glances at Falcon and then back at Nolan. “Talon Robbins was my best friend. It feels really sh*tty to say it, it feels so wrong to announce how much I cared about him, so I’m not going into it. Like how all gangs work, there’s an inner workings, and scruffy f*ckups around the edges. That was me. I was a very rebellious young teenager. Spent so much time at the Robbins house it wasn’t even funny. I turned to the army when I realized Circe was just like me, and was heading straight towards Eve.

“All of a sudden, she would be hitching rides with me, and sneaking out, and smoking and doing drugs, and I realized that I didn’t want that life for her, and finally saw that while I had been so obsessed with being young and angry, Circe and Cassidy and Tanner really just looked up to me. And I hate it. I ended up spending lots more time around peacekeepers, joined the JROTC, and just prayed it would make those two turn out better.”

He scoffs. “Clearly Circe was too far gone, but I hope I got my twins in time.”

Falcon sighs. “Sable used to make them smuggle stuff for her. Guns, drugs, you name it. I left a while ago, but I remember how haunting it was to see two ten year olds sitting around at the club, talking about cocaine.”

Angus groans. “Of course Sable did.”

“Sorry.” Falcon says. “I bet I bought drugs off of them too.”

“Of course you did.” Angus tells him tiredly. “You’re a Robbins, it’s in your blood.”

DAY 25

“Are you sure about this?” Valerie mutters to Bentley. “I mean, I know I can run faster than anyone here, Magnet included. But if we do walk straight into Sable, he’s f*cked and we kinda need him.”

Bentley nods. “Yeah. Look alive, Willis! We’ve come this far. I can handle these three. They like me more anyways, Hermes kid privileges. Take the kid from three, scope around the entrance of this arena. He [Magnet] said that your Invidicus was around, so stay low. He could get violent.”

The pair were discussing the best idea of how to bring Sable Bull and Briar to them, and Bentley had brought up that Invidicus could know. Magnet had told the pair that he had been severely injured by Finn, so both girls had come to the conclusion that Invidicus was no threat, yet could be useful.

Valerie nods. “I don’t think he will. Invidicus doesn’t like resorting to violence.” She smiles over at Magnet, who was sitting awake. Spindle was also up, and had been quietly listening to the conversation, not having spoken a word since Oaks death had been announced. “Come on Magnus! Let’s find us a Career!”

“Wait.” Spindle says suddenly. The three other awake tributes look at him as he stands. “I want to see Invidicus. We talked a bit during training.”

Valerie blinks at him and he shrugs. “It’s also easier for Bancroft here to keep these two from fighting their way out. Because if Spud tries anything, we all know I’d side with him. Safer for everyone, and I get- I get closure or something I don’t know.”

Valerie shrugs. “Fine by me. Magnus, Spinal, let's go!”

“Spinal?” Spindle asks Magnet.

Magnet shrugs. “She knows our names, she just doesn’t want to use them.” He smiles suddenly. “Valence, isn’t it your birthday today?”

Valerie frowns. “Is today the first? Because then yeah. Fifteen, baby!”

Walking into the arena, Magnet gestures to where the Misfits had been staying. “There.” The trio hikes up the area, Valerie glancing around in the darkness. “Magnet, look in.”

“Why me?”

“Your jacket’s black, it blends into the night.” Magnet shakes his head, tossing the jacket at Valerie, who sighs, peering in the cave. She frowns at the pile of Misfit corpses, and then frowns, seeing Nero next to Invidicus. Moving out the cave, she shakes her head. “No, we ain’t talking to him.”

“Why not?” Spindle asks.

“He’s got Nero with him.” Valerie says. “And I don’t want to see him. It’s just not good to get mixed up with dragging around Nero.”

“He’s your little brother, right?” Spindle asks. Valerie nods and Spindle frowns. “What’s so bad about it? He scored a five, Magnet scored a five, I scored a five. Not much difference.”

“They were nice to him.” Valerie says. “Magnus, you were cheated.” She shakes her head again. “Look, it might come to you as a shock, but I’m not a sociopath. I don’t like the kid, but he’s still my little brother. I don’t want to drag him into this Sable mess, and honestly I’d rather all I knew of his death was his face appearing in the sky. Best case scenario when I win, I won’t even have to look up how it happened.”

She glances at Spindle. “I mean, I don’t give two sh*ts about him, and if it came to it, yeah I’d kill him, probably while smiling. I couldn’t care less whether he’s dead or alive, I just don’t like the idea of him getting murdered. And that’s what it’ll come to.”

“What if just I go in?” Spindle asks. “You two can sit outside. We get our info, I’ll make up some bullsh*t about fighting Sable, won’t even mention that you’re here.”

“What if he gets mad?” Valerie asks.

Magnet scoffs. “As much as I’d like to tell you that your older brother’s a prime specimen, his shoulder’s busted. It’s sheer dumb luck that it’s not infected and he didn’t die of blood loss. I bet if Finn had ten more seconds, he would be down an arm.”

Valerie nods. “Do your worst Spinal.” Spindle smiles, turning and moving to walk into the cave.

Spindle too, frowns at the bodies, before coughing. “Invidicus. Invidicus?” After no answer, he grabs one of the longer branches, and pokes at the Career. “Come on, don’t tell me you’re dead.”

Invidicus woozily opens his eyes, seems for a brief moment to try and move his broken arm to get to some knives before noticing that it’s Spindle. “Oh, Spindle. Hey.” Nero had also been woken up, and eyed the tribute from eight cautiously, picking up his knife.

“Hey.” Spindle says. The pair stare at each other, wondering if the other was a threat. Invidicus tries to stand, but Spindle shakes his head, sitting down in front of him. “Reena’s missed you.”

Invidicus smiles. “You really should have been here a few days ago, would have saved my arm.” he frowns. “Where is Sireena?”

Spindle shakes his head. “Look, Invidicus. This is going to sound insane, but do you have any idea where Sable is?”

Invidicus blinks and stares at Spindle. “You need to avoid her? I’d recommend leaving? Leaving and heading left.”

Spindle shakes his head. “Think I’m going to kill her. Bull too.”

“You’re insane.” Invidicus tells him. “Insane. Don’t do that.” He stares at Spindle. “Look, I had a run-in with her. She practically ragdolled me. I have never felt so powerless in my life. Bull’s even worse.”

Spindle sighs. “Allegedly they got my sister Stitch. I can’t let that slide. And maybe I’m tired of fighting. Spuds with me.”

Invidicus’s brow creases with worry. “Do you think you can handle it?”

Spindle shrugs. “Maybe. It’s something that we need to do. I gotta do something.”

Invidicus sighs. “They might have gone off towards the abandoned city arena.” Then he frowns. “I mean, that collapsed, so maybe they’re heading out towards the main exit.”

He glances at Nero. “Maybe we could go with you. We could outrun them, but would be good distractions.”

“You go, I’m not doing that.” Nero says flatly.

Invidicus hesitates before shaking his head. “Guess we’re not doing that.” Nero frowns, but lets Invidicus keep talking to Spindle. Invidicus stares at Spindle. “Look, it’s a death wish to fight them. Are you still with Sireena? And have you seen my sister? Either of them.”

“Honestly I don’t even know what your sister looks like.” Spindle tells him.

However, as the sun rises and Spindle and Invidicus talk, and Valerie and Magnet sit outside, Sable Bull and Briar make their way to the exit of the arena. Half tired with sleep, when the trio walks outside the arena and see Spud, Sireena and Bentley, they don’t even recognize them as enemies for a second. Bull even nods towards Bentley, who was standing completely frozen clutching her axes. Then Bull blinks. “Oh wait!” he tugs on Sable's arm, bringing her to look back at the tributes again. “We’re meant to kill them! I completely forgot!”

Spud and Sireena are quickly awoken, Bull looming over them, as Sable picks Bentley up off the ground. “Why the f*ck didn’t you run?” She asks, still not ready to start being scary again.

“You didn’t stab!” Bentley tells her.

Sable quickly seems to get back into character. “Ok, it’s like 6 am. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Where’s the rest of ya?”

Bentley glares at her. “Doing your mom.” She frowns, staring into Sable's eyes. “Hey, I can lead you to them. We don’t have to make it messy.”

“Can we loot them?” Briar asks suddenly. “Bet they’ve got something.” She stares at Sireena, frowning slightly. “I mean, you’re not exactly nobodies.”

“You’re a nobody.” Spud tells her. He goes to stand up, but Bull puts a hand on his shoulder and slowly puts him back down again. Again, I need to stress the fact of just how BIG Bull Robbins is. He made just about anyone look wimpy in comparison, so two skinny tributes, both about a foot shorter than him, looked like nothing.

“Pockets.” Bull says, sticking out his hand. “Now.”

There was a brief second before Spud attempted again to shove Bull out the way, making a run for it.

He doesn’t get two steps before Bull’s fist collides with his head. “Just hold him, Bri.” Bull tells her. “Eleven, you even think about hurting our little sister, Sable’s going to f*ck you up.” He glances at Sable, who was still staring Bentley down, the pair seemingly trying to play mental guesswork. Bull looks back at Sireena. “Empty your pockets.”

Sireena blinks at him. “Please don’t hurt me.”

“Pockets.” Bull says again. “If you keep f*cking around, I’m going to snap you pretty little neck.”

Sireena sniffs, and with shaking hands takes off her jacket, opening pocket after pocket, showing Bull that there was nothing in there. Eventually though, the knife comes out, and Bull hands it to Briar. “Keep it at his throat. You good over there, Sable?”

“Uh huh.” was all Sable said. For Bentley’s credit, she really wasn’t getting psyched out.

“Gift from my District.” Sireena says when Bull gets the perfume bottle. “Nothing in there, it just smells nice.”

“What a useless sponsor gift.” Bull tells her. “Here.” He steps away from Sireena, moving next to Sable. “What we doing with it?”

“Smash it.” Sable tells him. Bull doesn’t hesitate, and Sireena flinches as the liquid and glass shatter all over the ground.

“Where’s Willis?” Sable eventually asks.

Bentley stares at her. “Watching you both right now.” She struggles against Sable's arms. “Put me down and I’ll tell you. Just kill her first. I f*cking hate Valerie.”

Sable puts her down, eyeing her suspiciously as Bentley slowly raises her hand, pointing up. The second that the twins look away, Bentley, instead of trying to escape, shoves Sable and with probably all of her strength, kicks Bull in the nuts.

Bancroft packs a punch, Bull goes DOWN SO FAST.

Sable slams Bentley against the ground again. “Worth it.” Bentley tells her. “f*cking worth it!”

Sable grabs her knife, yanking Bentley’s hair away from her neck. She was about to stab when she came across the clasp of a necklace. “Oh?” Sable whispers mockingly, unclipping it and dangling it in Bentley’s face. “Is this a tribute token? A gift from Daddy?”

“Give that back.” Bentley demands.

“You’re not in the position to order me around.” Sable tells her. “I think I’m going to keep this. It’ll be on my neck while I tell Ferrari how we murdered you. How you screamed.” Flipping Bentley onto her back, Sable sits on her, leaning down, knife pressed against the child’s neck. “In fact, they don’t pick up bodies here. I think Ferrari would love to see you again, my name carved into your neck. Because deep down, you know that the Bancroft name means nothing to me, and being Hermes’s child won’t get you any sort of free pass. I’m going to make you cry.”

She glances at Bull, “Go loot Eleven for me. Maybe if Sireena’s a good girl she can stay alive for a bit after this. Keep an eye on Briar while you deal with him. Don’t let anyone hurt her.”

“Don’t touch me!” Bentley yells and struggles as Sable happily hums, cutting into her collarbone. “Stop it! I- Valerie! Valerie! Valerie!”

Any tribute around that little cave area sits up. “Is Valerie near?” Invidicus suddenly asks. “Is that Bentley?” Outside the cave, Valerie was already yanking on Magnet to start moving.

Invidicus starts getting up. “Valerie?”

Spindle shoves him back down. “Trust me, I bet we found Sable. And if you think for a second Valerie would go back for Bentley, trust me she won’t. If I see her, I’ll send her your way. Just wait here, OK? You’re not fighting Sable. You’ll both die there. Trust me. Spuds nearby, if it is the twins, we’re getting involved.”

“Invidicus, just stay here and pack things.” Nero tells him. “If we do hear someone coming, we can outrun them.” Reluctantly, Invidicus sits back down and Spindle runs out after the pair.

“Oh, sh*t!” Valerie whispers, yanking Magnet down beside her, yanking the jacket over their heads. “Is she getting murdered or something?”

“Shush.” Magnet covers Valerie’s mouth, and the Career quickly yanks his hand away. He points at Sireena, who had moved against the corn, sitting small and quiet.

Spindle, who had came down behind them, starts staring at Sireena, almost mentally willing her to look at them. He grips his knife. “Valerie, you have three axes. An axe to each of their heads?”

Valerie nods. “But think. Bulls too far off to straight hit him, and he’s the one I’m worried about. If I kill Sable, what’s stopping him from showing up? I’ve watched him take throwing knives, stab wounds, maybe an axe would work, but he’s insane.” Bull was around the corner with Spud, unable to be thrown at from Valerie’s position.

“He’s not immortal.” Spindle tells her.

“My bet,” Flickerman says. “My bet is that Valerie is perfectly fine with throwing an axe. She wants Sable to finish off those three first.”

Ruby nods. “Six dead enemies are better than three. In the end, everyone’s an enemy. There are no real allies in the Hunger games. Let ten kill Sireena, Spud and Bentley, then finish off Sable Bull and Briar. Work smarter not harder.”

Sireena finally looks up, locking eyes with Spindle. There was a second of staring at each other before Sireena began tapping on her hand. Spindle looks at her confused, but Magnet lets out a barely audible gasp. “Briar.” He looks at Valerie. “Give me an axe.”

“What?” Valerie stares at him. “Why?”

Magnet, in response, taps his hand back at Sireena. Sireena stands up and starts walking. “Where’re you going?” Bull asks sharply.

“Somewhere not surrounded by glass.” Sireena tells him. The words fall from her lips, moving closer to Bull. “I’m not going anywhere. You can see me better here anyway.”

As she talks, Magnet grabs an axe. “Magnet, what the f*ck are you doing?” Valerie asks, using his actual name.

Magnet grits his teeth. “My family is gone, Valence. I’ve got nothing left to live for.” He drops out from under the jacket, taking everything in for a second. “If you see Pexey, tell her that I love her.”

Magnet moves straight towards Briar, and the girl might have tried to run, but it was just too late. The axe collides with her head and she drops down. All tributes stop what they’re doing to look at her. “Sa…ble?” Briar whispers. Both twins turn to look at Magnet in horror, who picks up Sable’s battle axe, which had been left aside.

Back in District three, Magnet was on the outskirts with shipments. Really the only thing this kid had going for him was his stronger arms, the sleeveless interview suit showing that. At least now they come to use as he picks up that massive battle axe and holds it up triumphantly. “Come and get me.” and turn tail straight into the maze.

Sable screams in panic, already letting go of Bentley, dropping down at her sister's side. “Bri? Bri? Briar get up!” She stares up at Bull, her voice laced with dripping venom. “Kill him.”

Bull stabs Spud, slamming the boy’s head against the wall, before moving into the corn. Sable picks up Briar, whose chest was rising and falling rapidly as the life drained from her body and moves after him.

Sireena was the first to break the silence, rushing over to Spud, as the man groans, covering the back of his head. Spindle too, moves to help his ally.

“Bingey?” Valerie asks, moving closer to Bentley. “Bentley? Are you okay?”

Bentley starts pulling herself up to sit, Valerie using Magnet’s jacket to try and clot the blood. “Oh it’s not that deep, it’s not that deep.” Valerie whispers.

“She was just f*cking around.” Bentley says through gritted teeth. “I’ll be fine. Did she finish her writing?”

Valerie shrugs. “Kinda. We got SABLE ROBINS with one B. I’m pretty sure she misspelled her own name.”

She rests her hand on the side of Bentley’s face. “You called for me.”

Bentley squeezes Valerie’s forearms. “Well I don’t know what else I should have done.”

“You just assumed I would come?” Valerie asks.

“Well you did.” Bentley tells her. “I would have come.” she rubs the back of her neck, both girls standing up. “You did come.”

Valerie briefly hesitates, before wrapping her arms around Bentley and hugging her tightly. Bentley doesn’t hesitate to hug her back. In the announcing booth, Ruby shakes her head in amazement. “The world has stopped spinning.”

“Career!” Spud yells out. Valerie pulls away from Bentley and looks at him. Spud stands with his arms crossed over the stab wound in his stomach. “Is it bad?”

Bentley doesn’t hesitate to lie to him. “Yeah.” Sireena half sobs, hugging Spud tightly.

Spud walks over to the Careers. “Get me my matches.” He stares at them. “In fact, what’s something that conducts fire?”

“Electricity?” Valerie asks.

“Hairspray.” Bentley whispers.

Spud grins. “Drain my sponsor account, Thorn. I’m going to hell with a bang, and I’m bringing that f*cker with me.”

In the mentor room, Thorn hesitates before crossing to the panel, pressing button after button. It was like a little army of parachutes started falling from the sky onto the last standing tribute from District eleven. Valerie hands him one of the two packs of matches, and a cigarette.

Spud walks over to Sireena. “Don’t cry, sweetheart. Make it home.” He stares at Spindle. “Keep her safe and take care, okay man?” He extends a hand out, and Spindle grips it tightly, shaking it one last time.

Spud leans down to Sireena, a goodbye kiss. “I wanna see all four of us in another life. All four of us. Another life where we can really go to summer camp together.”

Sireena runs her hand over the cornrows that had been so neatly done before the games. “Thank you, Spud.” They kiss again, swaying back and forth for a second before she lets go first.

“I love you, ‘Reena.” Spud says. “I don’t think I ever told you that.” He turns back to the Career tributes, stuffs his pockets with hairspray and walks into the corn.

The four leftover stare at each other. “Cig?” Valerie finally asks. I don’t think anybody hesitated to take one.

Magnet Klein was surprisingly fast, especially for carrying that battle axe. I think Bull could have ran ahead and caught him, but stayed back with Sable. It left the tributes in a strange way: Magnet didn’t get caught, but he couldn’t exactly escape.

Spud had walked into the arena, shaking up the first can, blasting fire at the dry, dry corn. Quite as one could assume, it caught quickly. Spud stares at it for a second, lighting a second match and blasting the other side of the maze. A grim smile takes over his face as he starts moving into the maze, at every junction where the maze splits, lighting every new patch of corn. Surrounded by flames at last, Spud Owens was born to burn, bringing others down with him. There was a certain beauty in it.

Briar’s cannon goes off before Sable and Bull see the fire. Bull seems to try and stop, but Sable just keeps talking to Briar, trying to get her to answer her and keep breathing. Bull’s face curdles, and he moves ahead, yanking the axe away from the boy from three.

Before he could stab into Magnet, the boy was already up the corn. He laughs, flipping Bull off, before climbing down the other side. Bull doesn’t hesitate to start chopping down the maze wall with the axe, angrily.

Of course, those were not the only tributes in the maze. The first one to get surrounded by the fire would be the younger Wyatt, the ten year old boy that was completely overlooked for the 18 year old more obnoxious one from his district.

While it was like the fire almost bounced off of Spud, not burning the boy, Wyatt didn’t seem as lucky. Flames leaped off of the fire, burning at the boy's skin. 8 minutes later, the boy’s cannon also sounded.

It was about when Magnet was finally caught by the twins, Bull practically cleaving him, swinging the axe down on him again and again. He was shaking by the time he turned back around to Sable, still whispering in panic to Briar. “Mommy’s here. Mama’s here. Come on, you gotta keep breathing for me.”

She looks up at Bull, her face stained with tears. “You got him, right?”

“Yeah.” Bull looks around, frowning at the sight of rising smoke. “Fire.”

“What?”

Bull grabs his sister around the arm with his free hand and starts to run off. “Fire!”

Outside, Bentley’s group watches as the arena goes up. The maze was massive. It had taken four days for tributes to get out, and ended up taking about 4 hours to stop blazing.

Tributes all around began to panic, running aimlessly through the maze.

Cloth, with her mother Lace, end up skidding to a stop in front of Talissa and Troy. The four tributes look at each other, before continuing down a third passageway together. “You’re from eight?” Talissa asks them, laughing. Her and Spud, they were the only tributes in this flaming mess that were keeping their cool. “Because we’re from four! Talissa Goodwin, nice to meet you!”

“Zale’s kid?” Cloth yells.

“Yeah? He died a few days ago.” Talissa tells her, casually like it was the weather.

“We were allied for a bit.” Cloth tells her. She looks at the medical gurney that Talissa was insistent on pushing with dangerously sharp turns. “Can my mom sit on that? She’s old.”

“Sure!” Talissa says, laughing. “But I’m in charge!”

Carter and Casey were the first to actually escape again, as Carter had remembered the way to go. Casey had trusted him enough for them to run THROUGH the fire. Both tributes were burnt, but they ended up on the outside, right back outside the bunker. This time, they start walking towards where the library used to be.

Spindle’s family, Jute, Velvet and Thimble were less lucky, running straight into the scare mutts, which were also attempting to move from this fire. Velvet yells in terror as one of the mutts grab her and throw her into the air. Jute and Thimble make the choice to leave her there.

Velvet cries out again, clinging to the corn as the mutt attempts to lift her in the air, only to be thrown down again. Turns out that mutts made from corn were flammable, much more so than a human. A big chunk of burning straw falls down on her face, setting part of her hair ablaze. Velvet extinguishes it by grabbing it with her hand, and pulls herself to her feet. She looks at the barking dogs, and starts moving after the mutts on their escape route.

Adrien Bates, Sireena’s father, somehow comes face to face with the ladder going up to the graveyard. The man begins to climb.

He pulls himself into the graveyard and looks around, coughing slightly. The chill breeze hits him, then all the bodies of the people from the bloodbath. Those were still all lying up there, and hadn’t decayed at all. Closing the trapdoor behind him, he stands up. He hadn’t even fully taken in his surroundings when a throwing knife hit him in the neck.

Gadget Lin walks over to the dying man and with a swing of her sword, finishes him off. She opens the trapdoor again, looks out at all the fire, then throws his body down.

Pexey freezes at the sound of the barking dogs, and then sees Velvet. The girl clutches her knife, but Velvet keeps moving. “Come on doggies!” Velvet coos at the dogs. Pexey hesitates before following the girl.

Soon enough, they were actually at the exit of the arena, but the dogs just sat there and whine, right at the exit. Both girls tumble outside the maze, quickly deem each other not a threat, and then stare at the dogs. “Why aren’t they moving?” Velvet asks.

“Lift them out.” Both girls turn at the District two accent, and see Elizabeth standing against the wall, baby in her hands. Her lips looked purple. She frowns at the tributes. “Did you not hear me? If you want the dogs to live, lift them out! In fact, it will win you sympathy points, they really love these mutts.

Five dog mutts get lifted through the maze onto the pathway. Velvet and Pexey exchange a nervous glance before looking at the Career. “Hi?” Velvet tries. “I’m Velvet. District eight. Scored a five.” she glances from the visibly sick Elizabeth to Pexey who looked like she was looking for spirits in the air. “I’m fifteen. And you are…?”

“Ellie.” Elizabeth tells her. “Elizabeth. But you can call me Ellie.” she stares almost hungrily at the pair of them. “District two. I scored a nine. Sixteen.”

She bounces Midus in her arms. “This is Midus. He’s my baby. He scored a one. He’s from one. Isn’t that funny? One from one?” She smiles, but the smile seems tense on her face.

Velvet blinks at her. “I thought that Midus was Gucci and Blazes kid?”

Elizabeth shakes the hair out of her eyes. “He- he is. He was at least. But Blaze didn’t deserve a baby and Gucci’s gone now. I’m taking care of him.”

Velvet glances at Pexey. “Hey, are you staying? Who are you?”

Pexey shakes her head. “No. I want to be alone. I’m staying alone.” the girl moves off down the passageway between the maze and the arenas.

Elizabeth watches her go. “It’s ok Velvet.” She says. “I need a friend. There’s something in my head. It’s so much better when I have someone to talk to.”

Velvet stares at her. “Sure. That's great, Ellie.”

Elizabeth smiles again. “Just one rule: We don’t like Blaze Vilmeer.”

In the arena, Jute and Thimble turn around and run straight into a dead end. They were the last two innocent people to burn in this fire.

Spud eventually comes to a halt, surrounded by flames. After yanking off the lid of the last canister of hairspray, the man, a boy truly, pours it over his head. He lights one last match, and his hands shake as he holds it in front of his face. His body still sticky-wet from the hairspray, he takes the match with shaking hands to his shirt and backs up against the flaming wall behind him.

Spud Owens laughed as he burned, a crazy delirious laugh that ringed out across the maze. He was a man who had killed eight people outside this arena, and would be credited with taking the lives of Wyatt, Jute, Thimble and himself. He was also a seventeen year old boy, who had gone to jail at sixteen, and came here with nobody. It depends how you look at it: psychotic man or a child who has fallen through the gaps in the system. Maybe it could be both.

Either way, Spud Owens laughs as he burns, sliding down the corn and laughing as the fire burns his clothes, then his skin. He reaches out with the final cigarette Valerie had given him, lighting it against his own skin, his laughter dying off as he looks at it in his burning dark skin. The cigarette would be the last thing he saw.

Eventually, Sable and Bull shove their way out of the arena. Where they stood had originally been maze, but it had burned down. Bull drops the axe down by Sable’s side and stands back, taking in the sights. He eventually looks back at Sable, who was still tightly clutching Briar, begging the girl to keep talking to her.

“Sable, she’s gone.” Bull says.

Sable ignores him, almost rocking Briar back and forth in her arms. “Hush little baby don’t you cry. Mama’s here. Mama’s here.”

“Sable!” Bull yells. “Sable, she’s gone!” Sable ignores him and keeps whispering some sort of lullaby towards Briar. “Look, I know it hurts.” Bull places a hand on her shoulder. “We can’t afford for the camera to see you like this. You need to get up. We need to go back around and kill them. Do it for Briar.” his sister still ignores him and Bull glares around the area. “It’s not your fault. You’re the last person who caused death for her.”

Sable stops whispering. “Yeah, you’re right. You were meant to keep an eye on her.”

“What?” Bull asks, taking a step back. “I was! He- he came out of nowhere! Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t have-”

“You were meant to be watching her!” Sable screams. She drops Briar out of her arms, staggering to her feet and turning to face Bull. “I told you to watch her! To not let anything bad happen to her!”

Bull stares at his sister. “And I’m sorry. I’m so so sorry. Look, we can grieve. We don’t have to go anywhere. Let’s bury her even.”

“My daughter is dead!” Sable yells. The woman was shaking. “My daughter is dead! And all you can say is ‘I’m sorry?’ of course I'm going to f*cking grieve! What the f*ck is wrong with you, Robbins?”

Something in Bulls gaze hardens. “She’s not your daughter, Sable. Briar was our sister.”

Sable stares at him. “I raised that girl. I was the first to hold her, I bathed her, fed her, cleaned up after her. All the back to school shopping, I planned her birthday parties! I did the parent teacher meetings! I tucked her in after all her nightmares! I- I explained periods to her, I drove her to her first date! I went through her first breakup with her! That’s my daughter! That’s my daughter! And my daughter is dead and it’s all your fault!”

She laughs slightly. “My Briar is dead! And Talon is dead! And my Philip is dead too!”

“Sable, no.” Bull’s face twists in pain. “Sable, please. Let’s not do this. I don’t want to do this! I’m not going to do this!”

Sable instead picks up her battle axe. “I’m going to avenge my family, Robbins. Which means that I must kill you, Bull. I’m sorry.”

Sable lunges towards him, the axe swinging through the air. Bull doesn’t pull a knife, he doesn’t even defend himself, he ducks and dodges, leaping away from the blade, trying to reason with his sister as she tries to kill him, corn still blazing in the background.

It was so strange, I don’t think that she was even trying to kill him, rather just scare him away. If Sable had been trying, that axe should have been making contact with him.

This goes on for fifteen minutes, Sable angrily swinging an axe around, more for the sake of the idea of hurting something than actually trying to kill Bull. Eventually, she staggers backwards, back over to Briar. Bull across their little clearing, about 20 feet away, standing against the wall that was still smoldering. “Hey.” Bull says. “You good? Are we good? Are we okay?”

Sable just stares down at the body in front of her, with the bloodied head and the burnt body. “Sable.” Bull says again. “Come here. I’m not going to leave. You’re going to need to kill me.”

He looks at his sister. “I don’t know anymore, Sable. I’m always going to pick you, pick you over anyone else. Over any of them, over my Sally. I’ll pick you over myself any day. And I know that you’d do the same. Right now you’re mad, and upset. But we’re Robbins’s, we’re all crazy. Come here.”

Sable looks up from Briar. “You’re right.” She says. “I know you’re right. It’s just that I’ve lost so many people. I want my babies back. I want Briar and Phillip and that baby I miscarried. You matter more to me than anybody else in this world, you always have. But there’s more to my world than that. I want to kill Bentley Bancroft, Bull. It’s not enough to kill her. I need to kill everyone here and keep going. They have hit me in the heart, cracking it all over. And if I lose you, it will shatter into a million tiny shards that will not ever come back together no matter who I kill.”

“It’s ok.” Bull says again. Sorry to speak in here again, but that man didn’t know how to apologize or empathize properly. There was something wrong with him.

“You’re good.” He tells her. “You do no wrong to me.”

It was a single spark, a left over ember that seemed to shoot off from near Bull, hitting that singular little tripwire near him. Sable realizes just before it happens, but can’t do anything as the flaming darts fly out off the wall near him. If he had been five feet to the left, Bull would have been fine. Instead, he gets hit by three darts: one in the right shoulder, one in his lower right arm as he had tried to turn away, and one that hits the man squarely in the chest.

Bull Robbins, the capital’s second in prediction to win, falls down, the cannon quickly sounding.

“Comedic timing!” Flickerman giggles. “But poor, poor Sable!” He smiles as Sable screams, and as the darts stop, she shakes Bull, begging him to open his eyes. “She is not having a fun day!”

He gets up and claps his hands. “And this marks the end of our Robbins twins-”

“Romulus?” Ruby suddenly asks.

Flickerman ignores her. “And Bentley and Valerie said that their alliance was based on his death! I bet your Ferrari is going to be happy!”

“Romulus!” Ruby yells.

Flickerman looks at her quizzically and then at the screen. “No way…” he breathes. Both Him, Ruby, Sable and Panem gasp in shock as Bull Robbins’s hand moves, yanking the dart out of his chest, his eyes opening and smiling triumphantly. Not the actions of a dead man!

The capital and districts alike all erupted into chaos, Flickerman yelling out. “Oh! Oh, he’s breathing! It’s a miracle! And on his heart monitor, it’s still not beating!” He pulls up all the tribute’s trackers, goes to District ten, Robbins Family and then Bull. A flatline was all to be seen and no location showed.

“That says disconnected.” Ruby says. “Did… did your darts break his tracker?”

Flickerman goes quiet for a second, zooming in on the injury on Bulls arm. “No way…” he says. “They would have had to hit it perfectly! But I guess… I guess we hit the off button!”

Sable was yanking the darts out of Bull, hugging him tightly. “You died, Bull.” She whispers in his ear. “Cannon and everything!”

“Sable, when I died,” Bull says, a sudden sense of urgency over his face. “All I saw was fire. Am I going to hell?” Sable goes quiet for a second before Bull starts laughing. “Get it? Because those were FIRE darts? Get it?” Sable smacks him around the head, and goes back to hugging her brother tightly.

Flickerman, after a notification, taps on the intercom. “Attention all tributes! For the first time in Hunger Games history, we need to tell you to disregard a cannon! That last one was not a true death. That tribute is alive!”

“And healthy!” Bull yells.

“And healthy!” Flickerman adds. He hesitates again before continuing “Seriously though, the trackers are what keep your cameras on you. So we’re calling for a few moments of no murder, for the second time this game, so that we can go fix that. And we’re picking up those dogs.”

The dogs all seem to perk up and start trotting towards where the twins are, and like what happened with Invidicus, the ceiling opens up, sending down three peacekeepers and a doctor. Plus the crate for the dogs. And me, of course. This was historical, I wanted to be there.

Bull laughs as he sees the doctors. He was clearly fine, honestly in better spirits than before the dart. “Is that an intercom? One that connects to the speakers here?” he asks the doctor.

The doctor nods and Bull smiles. “Can I make a speech? I really want to make a speech. Mr. President, can I make a speech?”

Comically, Dallas sticks his head out the hole in the ceiling. “Let him make the speech!” He yells. The doctor (Reluctantly) hands the machine over, and after fiddling with it Bull clicks it on.

“I want to thank me for getting far enough for this!” Worth noting that every tribute upon hearing Bull’s voice, seems to sigh in disappointment, but it didn’t seem like a shock that the man could rise from the dead. Ferrari’s reaction was the best. “I will be signing all of your tombstones!”

“What the f*ck are you doing?” Sable asks him, her voice also getting picked up. “What’s wrong with you?”

“This is a coping strategy, shut up, Falcon’s therapist told me about them.” Bull says. “Just to answer some questions! I always knew I was destined for greatness, I was born a Robbins. So I’m thanking myself OW! Sorry this hurts! Anyways, I’m thanking myself, I’m thanking Sable for making me stand in front of a bullet machine, wouldn’t have died without her, and I do need to give a special thank you to Ferrari Bancroft, you’re the reason I resurrected!” Cue his dramatic hand clap.

“You see, when I died, I saw Hermes in his true form dressed like Jesus, and he told me to kill you then banished me back to earth, so it’s your daddy’s orders!”

“Sable’s right.” Ferrari says in confusion. “What the f*ck IS he doing?”

“Beats me.” Urban says. “He seems shaken though.”

“I’m thinking a solo rap career after this!” Bull was saying “Should I sing a little song for you guys? It’s all freestyle, I do have to warn you, I’ve never rapped before.”

“Ok, give me the mic.” Sable says.

“This song is called ‘my dad’s a bitch!’ one, two-”

“You’re done.” Sable tells him, taking the machine away. “I think you ascended to godhood for a second.” She was quiet for a minute before talking again. “We’re going to come kill you, Bentley Bancroft. All of you, actually. We got that kid from three. In fact, Valerie Willis by association! How does that sound?”

“Can I have the mic back?” Bull asks.

“You need drugs.” Sable tells him. “Uh, Falcon I hope you’re doing ok, honestly hoping that some of those cannons weren’t the rest of all my allies, guess I’ll see when we all meet up. Contrary to what you might think- STOP RAPPING! YOU SUCK!- Bull is perfectly okay, this is a normal shock response. He’ll be fine, give him an hour.”

Bull plucks the machine out of her hands. “How long until this is over?”

“We’ll know in a minute.” The Doctor tells him.

“Story time! Let’s talk about Hermes’s dead sister!” a stern shake of the head no from Sable. “Or not!”

Bull smiles. “Like, I don’t talk much. I talk a lot to Sable, but overall not much. I’m pretty quiet. Still gonna win though. I think we’re gonna come find you, Bancroft. All three of you!”

“Ok, that’s enough, that’s enough. Say goodbye.” The Doctor tells him tiredly. Poor man. He takes the little device away from Bull, turning it off. “Ok, there’s a problem.”

Sable frowns. “Is he going to be okay?”

The doctor nods. “Those darts were toxic, but you pulled them all out. It’s just that the tracker is completely broken. Fried. You’re legally a dead man, Bull Robbins.”

“Can I leave then?” Bull asks excitedly.

One of the peacekeepers laughed. “Not a chance.”

“Worth a shot.” Bull rubs his arm. “So why can’t you take this out and put a new one in?”

The doctor sighs. “To take it out would involve a vacuum, and tends to mess with someone’s control of their hand for a while. Wouldn’t be fair on you. Or the many MANY people betting on you. Most definitely a favorite you are.”

“So what?” Sable asks.

“We have two options.” The Doctor says. “And it’s his decision. Either we stick a tracking collar on him like a dog, so we at least get cameras constantly on him. Then we’d have to change batteries though, and it would be more difficult. Or, preferably, you just agree to be a really good tribute and let the drones follow you. They’re bigger than normal cameras, you can visibly see them, might ruin a bit of stealth, but there’s no tracking collar that beeps until the batteries get fixed.”

“We’ll take drones.” Bull says dryly. “Is that really all we can do?”

“Without injecting anything, yes.” The Doctor tells him. “And please don’t play dead as a joke. Your cannon has to be remote as well. We don’t want to make an announcement every few hours that you’re not actually dead.”

“Will keep in mind. That’s not something I’m gonna need to do.”

Sable and Bull watch as the peacekeepers, the doctor, and the crate full of dogs, rise up into the hole in the ceiling and close away for good. It would be the last time they would hear an arena announcement at each other’s side. “What now?” Sable asks.

“I don’t know!” Bull says breathlessly. (haha get it? Because he died?) he hits Sable jokingly on the shoulder. “You’re the boss.”

“Guess going into the maze over there won’t hurt anyone.” Sable says. “I mean, you survived death once, it’s going to take more than a little corn. There’s gotta be some tributes in there.”

She then looks back at Briar. “We should bury her first.”

“Well, he died! Kinda?” Valerie says, glancing around at the three other tributes.

“You two are f*cked.” Spindle says hoarsely. “Valerie by association. Do you think they saw me?”

“Doesn’t really matter.” Bentley says. “They’re more mad at me. Even though I didn’t do anything. If they have half a brain, they’ll see that Magnet attacked with a throwing axe. That’s kinda a calling card of me or Valerie.”

She paces forwards, looking at the burnt maze. A good 60% of it was burnt completely down, 20% was destroyed beyond being a maze, and about 20% still intact (Where Wyatt Murray, Issac Murray and Apothecary had escaped to). “It doesn’t matter what they think though, it’s just so much easier to place the blame on the Careers. They don’t even know for sure that Valerie was there. They already hate us, might as well use that hate.”

Spindle looks over at Sireena. “Look Invidicus Willis is in there. He’s got an arm that doesn’t function. We just lost Spud though, okay? And we’re gonna miss that crazy bastard, but we both have a game to win.”

Sireena looks at him, her face strangely placid. “Oh yeah. It’s not like I really loved him or anything.” a look from the other three causes her to smirk and scoff. “That’s survival, guys! If I truly loved him, I would have left him the minute I caught feelings! You said it yourself, Spindle. We both have a game to win. And Spud just took out a bunch of competitors for me? Work smarter not harder, I haven’t even needed to get my hands dirty.” She blinks innocently at the group. “I’m just a girl!”

“You’re Satan, that’s what you are.” Spindle tells her. But he stays by her side.

“Not like I have a choice.” Sireena tells him. “I’m a really really nice person. A hopeless romantic back home. I just gotta do what I gotta do to survive. And I’ll deal with the years of therapy after!” She smiles sadly. “I’ll miss him though. Spud was a wonderful experience.”

Valerie coughs. “Ok y’all. I’m still team hunt down the Robbins twins. But I’m also team “get as far away as I can from Invidicus and Nero. So what's happening?”

Bentley sighs. “You two,” she gestures at Spindle and Sireena. “Can go. As much as it breaks my dad’s rules, I’m not in the mood for murder. And I get the feeling that you don’t want to play Careers with us.” She glances at Valerie. “And I guess we’re going to keep trying to hunt down Bonnie and Clyde together.”

“We can really go?” Sireena’s eyes narrow. “Like actually?”

“Yeah.” Valerie says. “Actually it might be good for you to find Invidicus if you want Career protection. He’ll ally with just about anyone. Can’t guarantee he won’t turn tail the second he faces danger, but he scored a nine.”

“I think we’ll do that.” Spindle says. “I’ll tell him that you weren’t here?”

Valerie shakes her head. “Tell him the truth: That me and Bents are going to hunt down the twins. It won’t take much convincing for him to go nowhere, trust me. He’s the definition of the Fawn Response and a walking people pleaser.”

Spindle tugs on Sireena, smiling at the Careers. He would see one of them again, just not in such nice conditions.

As the pair of them disappear back into the Rapids, Valerie takes both of Bentley's hands, spinning the pair in a circle. “We did something!!!!”

Bentley laughs. “Ok. Can we do inventory? Like total inventory?” she grins. “I think we could be worse.”

“Invidicus?” Spindle peers through the entrance of the cave.

Both invidicus and Nero were already up, almost awaiting him to come back. “What happened?” Invidicus quickly moves, placing his good arm on Spindle’s shoulder. “Man, I heard so many cannons, then Bull died and-” He locks eyes with Sireena, standing behind the man. “Sireena?”

“Hi.” Sireena says. “We’re here to stay if you want it.” she glances at Nero. “You too. We got knives. Spindle’s strong and I’ve got allies all over.” she stares at Invidicus’s arm. “What happened? And why are we surrounded by bodies?”

Invidicus does his new little one-armed shrug. “This guy from twelve got my shoulder. I can’t work the arm anymore. I’m innovative enough though. I toughed out most of it.” It looks like he wants to say more, but he doesn’t. “So what happened out there?”

Spindle grimaces. “So while I was off talking to you, Sable Bull and their youngest sister walk straight out this arena, and attack Bentley, Spud and Sireena. Me, Magnet from three and Valerie go down there.”

“You were with Valerie?” Invidicus asks. “Where is she? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Sireena balks. “Valerie didn’t want you to show up. She… she knew how injured you were! She didn’t want you involved. She and Bentley are going off to hunt down Bull and Sable yet again. She doesn’t want you to follow. You’re too hurt for that.”

Invidicus blinks slowly. “She said that she was worried I’d get hurt?”

“Something along those lines.” Sireena tells him.”

Invidicus smiles. “She grew up so fast. But all those cannons?”

Spindle nods. “Magnet kinda revealed that he was super suicidal and just sacrificed himself. I barely knew the guy. But he takes one of Valerie's axes and runs the little one. Chops her head in, steals Sable’s War axe and runs into the maze. The twins chase him. I don’t think Briar was totally dead, but it was definitely really bad.”

He smiles at Nero again, and moves further in the cave. “Then Spud went in. Valerie gave that guy matches and he got hairspray. Ran into the maze and burned it down. Look out there when you have the time, it’s really burned. So that was all the cannons: people burning to death.”

“And now we’re here!” Sireena finishes up. “Only if you want us to be. We survived a Sable encounter, we’re risking it.”

Invidicus smiles and then hesitates, looking at Nero. “Do YOU want them to stay?”

Nero crinkles his little nose. “I don’t know, it’s your choice.”

Invidicus shakes his head. “But I’m asking you, Nero. I can’t make up for nine years now, but you’re stuck here, I’m stuck here, I don’t want you to spend your last days doing something you don’t want to do.”

“It’s not going to be my last days.” Nero tells him. “I’m winning. And they can stay. I don’t want to be the kid though. You all need to listen to me, or at least hear me out.”

Invidicus smiles. “Thank you Nero.”

“We’ll listen.” Spindle says. “My little brother Thimble’s your age. Kids have important things to say, you shouldn’t just ignore them because they’re shorter than you and their voice hasn’t dropped yet. They’re tough.”

“I’m a Career.” Nero says again. “And you bet your life that I’m going down swinging.”

“Like you said, we could be worse.” Valerie stares out at the pile in front of them. Between them they had one packet of cigarettes, a lighter, matches, three knives for stabbing—two straight, one serrated—, a singular throwing knife that neither of them were sure where it came from, Bentley’s vape, six throwing axes (Though one of Valerie’s had a crack in the handle), a flashlight, a box of bandaids, gauze, Bentley’s 16 oz water bottle, and Valerie's TWO bottles of alcohol. One was a 16 oz and the other was a 40 oz massive tumbler.

Bentley shakes her head at the alcohol. “You didn’t pack ANY water?”

Valerie shakes her head. “No, why would I? I thought we’d get more water in the city arena?” She then laughs, pulling out the tiny little 8 oz water bottle. “Got this?”

Bentley shrugs. “Worth something. But we should each be drinking about 91 liters of water each day to stay healthy.”

Valerie shrugs. “Well the sprinklers didn’t burn. Maybe if we walk far enough and then hit the ground a bunch we could fix up a permanent water fixture?” She frowns. “I mean, we survived those days in the maze on water only every few days, we can survive with limited water.”

Bentley nods. “Yeah.” she stares out across the burned mess. She could see the entrances to just about every arena from where they were, minus the pit, the formerly boarded up arena and where the hospital had once been. “We’re going to be ok.” She says. Valerie comes up next to her, the two girls surveying the land. Bentley hesitates before reaching out for Valerie's hand, and the other girl takes it, the pair staring out at the burned mess.

Falcon stares out into the corn. “Come on. I think a new arena is in order. We’re staying far far away from that pit.” He glances around. “There’s that one arena that looked kinda like a forest, and the bunker thingy.

Nolan sighs, smiling from his position between Cassidy and Eve. “I mean, as much as I’d love to see that bunker, I can pretty much guarantee you’ll see someone there.” He smiles around the group. “So, Bull’s alive! Sable too!”

Eve shakes her head in disbelief. “You think they could have actually gone after the Careers and something went wrong?” Falcon shrugs and Eve sighs. “I would bet money that not a single person from this family will die in a way that isn’t murder.”

“Wait,” Nolan turns so he’s walking backwards, facing Eve. “So you all didn’t think she was going to go after the Careers, and you all seemed to not believe that stuff about the pit for a second. You just let her lie?”

Angus shrugs. “It’s Sable. She wanted out. You ever get it into your head that maybe I don’t want to fight Sable as well? She’d kick my ass. She’s done it before, I made the mistake of trying to fight her drunk last year. Talon had to drag her off of me then carry me away. And even then, she was barely restrained. We fought for less than 5 minutes.”

“People just…” Circe starts. “Let Robbins do what Robbins wants. If you’re not some other influential family, you kinda pick a family to side with quietly and then stay out of it. I’m not going to pick a fight with Sable. If she wants out, she gets out. It’s better for everyone.”

“Couldn’t you have said something though?” Nolan looks at Falcon. “Like, you or Eve? She wouldn’t have hit Eve.”

Falcon shrugs. “I haven’t been a Robbins for a long time. My dad gave me 5,000 dollars and told me to bunk town. In a strange way, he was protecting me. There were people out for blood with me. I had peacekeepers on my tail, and everyone in that house would have been better without me trying to kill myself every few weeks.”

“Falcon was the favorite.” Eve says suddenly. “I mean, Dad cared about all of us in his own, albeit strange, ways. But Falcon, you were always his favorite until you left. Like, Dad loved Talon a ton, but you, you were special. I know that if I had tried to kill myself that much, Dad would have just let me do it. He would have let any of us do it, except Sable because he needed her. You were allowed to do whatever you wanted whenever you wanted. You could have murdered Briar and gotten away with it in his eyes. He’d help you hide the body.”

Falcon frowns. “Evelyn, you’re nearly ten years younger than me. You can’t have that many memories.”

Eve shrugs. “I do though. I was always Sable’s little helper. She’d be cooking dinner, I’d be cracking the eggs in the bowl. That means that I was around for just about everything with you. I was little, but not stupid. Too young to know what was wrong with you, old enough to know that there was a man who lived in the attic that I wasn’t allowed to talk to on my own. I knew you were my brother, but when my first memory of you is you coming back from a psych ward and looking like you had a permanent smile surgery, it’s strange.”

She shrugs. “I mean, Philip barely knows you, Falcon. He doesn’t even recognize you as a sibling. Sable Bull and Talon all know you as their brother, but to me and Briar? You're the guy in the attic. And I’m the girl in the basem*nt.”

It was now Falcon’s turn to shrug, as if Eve’s words didn’t have an effect on him. “Look, maybe Briar could have reasoned Sable out of it, but Eve couldn’t have. From as long as Eve could walk around on her own, Eve likes to be alone. Not like how I do, but you’re really comfortable staying in the basem*nt.”

“So…. our dad?” Troy eventually asks. The four tributes. (Talissa, Troy, Cloth and Lace) were now in the long grain arena, pushing the medical trolley down the path that Silo cut.

Cloth sighs. “Zale… I was staying with Zale in this city arena. Just the two of us. He told me he had lost you guys. Honestly we didn’t talk about our families much. It was kinda like having a roommate you hardly talk to. We were allied, and didn’t fear getting stabbed to death, but that’s about where it stops. He taught me to drive though.”

Troy frowns. “He was meant to teach me as well.”

Velvet and Elizabeth were walking now. “Oh my god.” Whispers Velvet, staring into the arena.

“Motherf*cker.” Elizabeth says, the awe on her face out of character. The pair stare into the pit arena. Had they gotten here 45 minutes sooner, District ten would have found them. Elizabeth walks towards the pit, holding Midus and Velvet hesitates before following. The pair (Trio if you count Midus) come to a stop at the start of the hole, both girls staring up at the hanging corpse.

“What happened to him?” Velvet whispers.

Elizabeth doesn’t respond, instead asking her own question. “Velvet, can you hold onto Midus for me?” Before waiting for an answer, she hands Midus over, and hesitates before tossing her jacket with all of her things in it down as well. “The Careers were hurt here, Velvet. It’s where I hurt my leg. There are some horrible horrible things down there. But someone’s been here since we left.”

She looks at Velvet, who was still staring up at Hermes’s corpse. “Velvet, can you start talking? There’s something inside my head. I never left this pit.”

“We can leave?” Velvet says. “I’d really like to leave. There’s a dead man hanging here.”

Elizabeth shakes her head. “No, I know that I’m safe here. I’m standing on the edge, Velvet. Can you start talking now? And I have a bottle of pain medication: pass me a pill.”

“What the f*ck?” The District ten pack had finally come to see the true extent of the burned down maze. “What?” Eve says again, as if someone could explain to her what had happened here. “How would somebody even begin to do that?”

Angus examines some charred corn. “Bet it was eleven. Pyro guy. You think he’s still alive?”

Falcon shakes his head. “If he did this? Nobody’s alive after doing this. He’d have to be on the ceiling or something.” he glances around again. “Come on, let’s all just walk until we get to the arena. I don’t like being out in the open.”

Suddenly, he frowns. “I see people!” in the distance the pack could make out the silhouettes of two people. Unbeknownst to them, it was Bentley and Valerie, who were staring right back at them.

“It’s not worth it.” Nolan tugs on the taller man's arm, and his eye twitches, something that it had been doing since he had been pulled from the pit. “Trust me when I tell you this, if they’re anyone worth fighting, someone else is going to get them.” Even though the group could have walked on the charred ground, it was almost like an unspoken rule that they kept to the path.

“They’re going.” Valerie says, a hint of relief in her voice. The two girls were between the volcanic arena and where the trenches used to be. They had walked out further into where the maze had been, and had fixed up their water system.

Bentley stares out at the ladder leading up. “That’s where the cornucopia was, right?” She asks, glancing at Valerie.

Valerie nods. “Yeah. I’d love to go explore that with you, however the dead body at the base of the ladder with an arrow sticking out of him, makes me feel like something’s up there.”

Bentley smirks. “I guess.” She stares at Valerie before continuing. “Did you ever, at any moment during these games or before, ever think that you wouldn’t win?”

Valerie laughs. “Maybe for a second when I went back for your dad. Like a tiniest moment where I thought I wouldn’t be able to pull him up and we would both fall to our deaths. Then I was good again. I know I’m going home, Bents.”

“How?” Bentley asks her. “Really, Valerie: How do you have that much faith in yourself?”

Valerie shrugs. “I just know I am. My academy year teacher won the 497th at 14, and now I’m older than he was. If he could do it, why can’t I? I’m strong, I’m fast and I have the spirit. Your dad told me that anyway.”

Bentley stays quiet for a minute before speaking again, her words coming out with a taste of disappointment. “My dad… my dad thought you could win too. You want to know something? You were third on his list of most likely victors. Third! And he wouldn’t explain it to me or anything. The only people he put higher than you were Sable. Then he put your sister at the top of the list. That’s his most likely pick: Elizabeth Willis. And you’re third. I don’t even make his top ten.”

She laughs, but it’s clear that this list had hurt her. “I mean, I don’t get it! I scored higher than you, there are so many people that are older and stronger than you! More skilled than you! And then you just stare it all down with no regards for it! God, it just makes me want to punch you in the face!”

Valerie frowns. “I’d rather not be on his list at all, if I have to be under Elizabeth.” She was quiet again, the pair sitting down to watch the anthem. “Look, Bents:” Valerie eventually starts again. “I’m going to regret saying it, but I’d give up EVERYTHING to be you. You’ve just had everything. I’d kill to have had a dad that worried about me and took me to the doctor over a fever. Instead I got cocaine dad. Your family gives a sh*t about you, Benny. Invidicus locked me outside to die in an air raid and he was the nicest family member I have. I can’t eat any food at home because either it’s expired or Elizabeth put something in it. And then I can’t eat food outside of home because I’m just scared that something’s in it. I live off of foods from vending machines and canned meats because I’m so f*cking scared of being poisoned to death. At least when I was hanging around in a jail cell waiting for my mom to pick me up, I knew that someone was looking for me. I know you always had a house to go home to, Bentley. I’ve been kicked out for weeks at a time. I WISH I was you.”

She hesitates again, looking closer at Bentley. “You’re also… really really pretty. You look amazing.”

Bentley smiles. “You’re the first person to ever tell me that who wasn’t my parents. Thank you. Feels really nice to know me as something other than the ugly sister.”

Valerie holds one of Bentley’s hands, staring at the taller girl, laughing slightly. “You are so much more than just a sister, Bentley. I would have hated you back home, but here… the arena does something to you.” She hesitates again, nervously cracking the knuckles of her other hand before continuing. “And I didn’t mean ‘you’re pretty’ in a girl's girl way. I meant it in the way that I have dated women, and you’re the most stunning girl I’ve ever met.”

Bentley laughs incredulously. “You would date someone who looked like me?”

“No, Bentley.” Valerie squeezes Bentley’s hand slightly. “I’d date you.”

Bentley blinks twice. “But back home-”

“Now, if you gave me the chance.” Valerie tells her. “I’d date you. Willingly. Happily. And I don’t know if you swing that way, but I would-”

Bentley closes the gap between them, kissing Valerie, the pair sitting there in the darkness. After Bentley pulls back, she looks at Valerie. “I really wish I’d done that sooner.”

“Yeah.” Valerie tells her. “Same.”

In the announcing booth, Ruby SQUEALS. “Ferrari owes me so much money. Ferrari owes me so much money!” She turns to look at Romulus, who shakes his head in disbelief.

“I did not see that coming.” Romulus says. “I didn’t see it coming at all.”

DAY 26

“You can run.” Eve tells Nolan suddenly. The group had gotten to the meadow arena, and the pair were keeping watch. Eve stares at Nolan. “I mean it, you can go.”

Nolan shakes his head. “I’m actually really happy here. I’m almost certain the Career pack is split up by now. This is both the safest place for me and the place I’m most wanted.”

He had been working on another letter, and he turns to look at Eve. “Do you know if for girls it’s a Bat Mitzvah or a Bar Mitzvah? My Ex wife is jewish and my daughter will probably be raised that way if I die.”

“I think it's a Bat Mitzvah.” Eve tells him. “Aren’t you young to have an Ex wife?”

Nolan sighs. “Look, kid. I got thrown out of home at 18 having never worked a day in my life, and not even knowing how to drive. Big Career muscles don’t help when you're starving with half Blue hair because your roots have grown out and you can’t afford to dye it fully brown. It was the first girlfriend I really had, I was stupid and young, she got pregnant and we tried to make it work. It obviously didn’t.”

Eve nods. “Nice to write the letters though. How many do you have left?”

Nolan shrugs. “Well this one, one for when she moves out, and one for her engagement. I wrote the wedding one already, but I don’t like it. There’s not much I can do about it, it just doesn’t sound right, so I’m hoping to nail the engagement one.”

“Bull, you good?” Sable asks. Bull nods, staring off into the distance. Sable sighs. Yesterday the man had been so talkative right after nearly getting murdered. Today, he hadn’t said a word. He shakes his hands out again, and stops, bending down to untie his shoes. “God damn it, Bull.” Sable says, smiling slightly. “Guess we’re not beating that record.”

Pretty quickly the shoes, and socks were off, tied by their laces around the belt loops in Bulls pants. The man had already lost the shirt and jacket, now the shoes as well. “Keep your pants on.” Sable tells him. “And keep the shoes, Okay? If we end up in some sort of arena like the city again, they’re going back on.” Bull nods, staring off into space again.

“Are you feeling alright?” Velvet asks, looking at Elizabeth. You don’t look it was probably what the girl wanted to add. Elizabeth was a girl of a pale complexion, but she looked sickly white now. Her fingertips were now purple, and the wound on her leg was strangely not infected, rather just… purple.

“Fine.” Elizabeth says again, rocking Midus. With a slightly shaking hand, she runs it through her hair, undoing the ponytail that hadn’t left since the start of the games, or if you look into the girl, something she hadn’t been seen without for a good five years. “My head just hurts, that’s all.”

“You need water.” Velvet tells her. “You have to have sponsors for water.”

Elizabeth shakes her head. “I don’t… need water. I need… I need a headcount. Who’s left here, Velvet?”

Together, the duo came up with 40 tributes left in the arena, and began making them into little alliance groups. “Worst case scenario, Urban Mercedes Valerie Bentley and Nero are together. Because you’re not going back to them?” Velvet asks

Elizabeth nods. “I feel like at least someone’s split off. We know that probably Valerie and definitely Bentley nearly got Bull killed. The pair definitely pissed Sable off. I think it’s possible that Urban is solo and those four are stuck in a shaky alliance.”

It seems to do her good, to think logically about things. “And then Sable announced over the speakers to Falcon about when they’re ‘all going to meet up.’ so the pack is either split and coming back together soon, or Sable and Bull left on their own and are just trying to scare us.”

Velvet nods. “And then… Well we know Pexey is alone. And you told me last night that the kids from twelve were with this man from nine. Then Silo is likely with his family.”

“Your brother?” Elizabeth asks.

Velvet shakes her head. “I think Spindle ran off with Sireena, and my living District partners have to be nearly dead. Super super skinny that’s the most memorable thing about them. They looked like corpses. And from seven, I don’t even know who Aspen is, let alone who she talked to during training.”

Elizabeth smiles pridefully. “I memorized all the tributes. If Hermes could, so can I. But yeah, no idea where that girl went. Wyatt from five left with his sister, but didn’t seem that happy about it. It doesn’t really matter, that little girl isn’t dangerous and neither is his father. Wyatt however… I’ll figure it out.”

She stretches, leaning backwards. “And for four, Sireena is with Spindle, but we don’t know where Talissa and Troy are. It’s a shame, I liked Talissa. Dumb girl, but nice company.” she glances around again, a glimmer of annoyance on her face. “And then from three we have Gadget. And her brother,” She adds as an afterthought. “Could be anywhere, likely together.”

Elizabeth stands again. “And Invidicus. My brother is either sitting on death’s door unconscious or he found someone to tend to his wounds. It’s a miracle he didn’t cry himself to death.”

She’s silent for a second before speaking again. “I’m not heartless.”

“I know.” Velvet said, even though just about everything this Career had done around her proved her to be heartless.

“I’m talking to everyone.” Elizabeth says. “I- I care about others. But I volunteered with the full knowledge that to win would mean my family would die. And I couldn’t care less about what happens to Nero or Slate. I want Valerie dead. But my mother and Invidicus? Mixed feelings on Ma, but Invidicus? He was a good ally. For the sh*t everyone throws at him he just takes it. He could have easily been the crazy one, you know?”

She glances at Velvet before continuing to talk. “I mean, I’m right: Ma enlisted him in the peacekeeping the second he turned 16. The man wears clothes from the goodwill and gets sh*t for it. He gets harassed over it in school. I’ve seen him go hungry more than once, Ma would make sure that all of us had food and when she wasn’t looking he’d give his to the rest of us. Nobody thanks him, they just give him sh*t. He has the right to be the crazy one and he just doesn’t. The man just sits there and wants what’s best for everyone. And I’m not crazy either, Velvet.”

She runs her hand through her hair again, laughing incredulously to herself. “I mean, maybe I am now? There are more voices in my head than just mine now, Velvet. And they all tell me to jump into that pit. But I know better because I’m not crazy. And I’ll see home again. I have a baby to care for.” She rocks Midus in her arms, smiling at him. “That’s your daddy's corpse down there! It’s good to laugh, I didn’t like him that much either. I’m better than Blaze Vilmeer.”

Velvet eyes the Career curiously. The girl had spent the games in the maze, and before the games, she had just been known as “Pretty,” with her dark brown curls and brilliant blue eyes, a spill of freckles across her nose and perfect red lips.

What she wasn’t was a particularly strong tribute, she had scored a five, but I feel like at least one point was a pity point. The girl did happen to follow survival training well in the training center, but had never found a chance to use those skills. She was the reaped tribute of her family, and hadn’t cried. She’d actually smiled more than other tributes, albeit nerves probably played a part. That’s really all we know about Velvet. Pretty girl, but didn’t weaponize it like Sireena did. Instead, she was here with a Career that was slowly turning purple and seemed to talk to herself sometimes.

“How close do you think Bull Robbins was to death?” Apothecary asks, walking in step with her brother.

Wyatt shrugs. “I mean, close enough that it got read as he died. I bet he was thrown off of some cliff and they thought he would have splatted but then he just got up. He’s funny like that.” He smiles at his father. “I mean, maybe he was actually pretty hurt. I mean, I could kill him either way, but it would be nicer to fight him injured.”

Spinning around, he pulls his knife out, enacting a battle scene as they go. Suddenly, the man stops moving, turning around and putting a hand over Apothecary’s mouth. Everything was silent until the sound of corn under foot could be heard. Wyatt knew who it was. “Run.” The whisper was barely audible, but Wyatt shoved Apothecary hard, away from the footsteps. It seems to dawn on Issac who the footsteps belonged to as well, but at a shake from Wyatt’s head, stays. It would get him killed. “Sable!” Wyatt calls out in a strangely sing-songy tone. “We were just talking about you!”

Sable and Bull turn the corner to stare at Wyatt and Issac. “You look great!” Wyatt tells her. “And Bull! Where’d the shirt go?” Bull doesn’t answer, instead looking to Sable questioningly.

“This guy was meant to kill Urban Thornton for me.” Sable says. “Thornton or Vilmeer.”

Wyatt scoffs. “And who do you think killed Vilmeer? The guy barely put up a fight!” he grins at the twins. “So this is my Dad! Where’s the rest of you guys?”

Sable ignores his question. “Nolan Thornton told me that Blaze Vilmeer died in the pit. And that your grimy little” she uses a word offensive towards personnel from District five “hands had nothing to do with it.”

“Well…” Wyatt falters. “Well look: Nolan Thornton is a liar. You don’t believe I could have done it?”

“No.” Sable tells him. “No I don’t. In fact, I told you to leave with Sireena, didn’t I? So you could keep an eye on Spud? Guess who started a fire and burned down most of the maze? Where were you? I offered either staying with the District ten pack or tailing Spud. And you said that you wanted to stay with Atom so tailing Spud it was. So tell me why,” She tosses her axe back at Bull, taking out her long knife. “My sister is dead?”

“Put that down!” Wyatt tells her. “Look, give me another chance. I can have whoever you want dead in less than three days. I didn’t score an eight for nothing, I’m good. Atom was trying to get me to take the kid with us. That’s why I got held up: I had to kill him and then leave Apothecary alone. Miracle that kid’s alive.”

He stares at Sable. “Look, I ain’t scared of you, and I think I’m the only one in this arena that can say that. Unless you want to speak?” He looks at Bull, who just stares at him blankly. Wyatt frowns. “What the f*ck happened to you, bro? You're all mute now? Answer me!”

“He just doesn’t feel like talking.” Sable tells him. “Fine. One more chance. I see you have a knife, kill your dad.”

“What?” Wyatt asks, scoffing again. “That’s a trick question. You Robbins care more about family than anything. You wouldn’t dream of killing a parent!” Sable laughs bitterly, showing Wyatt Aries’s tribute token. Wyatt shakes his head. “Not doing it, Sable. You wanna fight me? Because I can fight you. You don’t scare me.”

“Okay.” Sable tells him. “Issac, right?” Issac nods. “Start running. It’s a game of tag: when his cannon sounds, I’m coming for you, and whatever allies you could have.” she glances back at Bull, who was already smiling. “You’re not needed.”

“Ladies first?” Wyatt asks. “Go on, hit me. Hi-” Wyatt Murray was on the ground before he could finish his sentence, knife four feet away, hands behind his back, Sable on top of him.

The woman yanks him to his feet, then up in the air like how she had with Nolan and then Invidicus. “I’m going to kill you, Wyatt.” Sable whispers, leaning in close to him. “But I want you to die knowing that Amber Cooper would have 100% allied with you from the beginning. I want you to die knowing that it’s your own arrogance that got you killed and your father killed.”

Wyatt stares at Sable, panic actually filling his eyes. “Sable, look I’m sorry. Give me one more chance. That’s all I ask. One more chance. I- I’m eighteen, I don’t want to die!”

Sable smirks. She still held him up by one hand, and she brought him down to be on her level. “Most importantly I want you to die knowing that wherever you end up, either heaven or hell, never to double cross a Robbins again. Because deep down, you’re nobody and you know that I’m somebody. And you can’t do anything about it.” She snickers, and just to prove her point, kisses Wyatt on the mouth. “There’s nothing you can do about it.” She tells him again, before stabbing him in the gut.

As Wyatt falls to the ground, pleading for Sable to show mercy, Sable rips his jacket off and then takes the black shirt. I think for a second we all thought this was going in a different direction, before she picks up her battle axe and slams it into his head.

Sable turns around to Bull and smiles brightly as the man’s cannon sounded. “Black shirt! Just what I wanted!” Bull blinks at her with mock disappointment and touches his lips. “I was asserting dominance? But more importantly, I want his black shirt, and either you help me take the armor off or I’ll get it off myself.”

Bull rolls his eyes, before lifting the armor off of Sable. After changing into Wyatt’s old shirt, Bull gestures after Issac and Sable nods. “Yeah, we’re going to get him.”

“Do you think something’s wrong with him?” Ruby asks. “Maybe the dart affected something in him.”

Flickerman shakes his head. “I mean, Sable seems to treat it as fine. He probably is just thinking.”

CAPITAL NOTE (FOR PUBLIC VIEW, NOT EXTREMELY IMP. JUST FOR OPEN VIEWING)

Bull Robbins was fine. What we deduced came in as the same as what Hermes had thought. After viewing the finale, I just figured that maybe people would like to see the only other one on one between something like Hermes and something like Bull. This took place the nights before the interviews down on the sponsor floor.

The Camera flicks on to see Hermes quickly moving down a hallway, visibly angry. “Ferrari? Ferrari, we’re leaving! I draw the line somewhere and it’s here!”

“Your girl went to bed.” Hermes turns around to see no one, but the voice was coming from under the stairwell. After moving closer, it appears to be Bull, burning up his reaping day clothes. He hadn’t expected Hermes to walk in, and frowns. “I said that bitch went back to the District one rooms all upset about someone.” After Hermes still doesn’t walk off, Bull reveals a knife. “Go find your kid or go back to the party? Leave?”

Hermes frowns. “Why aren’t you at the party?”

Bull hesitates before deciding to humor Hermes. “Was. I was with Sable. It got loud and she didn’t want to leave Briar alone. I’m out here until she comes and gets me.”

“You’re going to be out here for a while.” Hermes says. “Someone tried to spike what Briar was drinking. They’re safe!” He says quickly as Bull gets up. “But Sable’s reasonably angry. I sent them to the film rooms. You’d be using the wrong stairs to get up, I could show you the way.”

Bull shakes his head quickly, hesitating on his words before, with visible distaste, to ask Hermes: “Can I call her down here? I’m not walking through the halls alone. It’s too loud and there’s to many people and… I’m just not doing it without her.”

Hermes sighs before standing. “You want to use the elevator?”

“What elevator?” Bull asks, before Hermes swipes a key card across a seeming brick wall, revealing a door.

“There shouldn’t be anyone on that hallway, and we could from there enter the staff hallways and avoid everyone out on the District two floor.” Hermes says. “And honestly, I don’t even know if Sable went to the room, but I hope she did. I said I’d meet her after making sure Ferrari was out.” He walks into the elevator waiting for Bull with an extended hand. After a brief hesitation and then the sounds of Sireena laughing with some other person, Bull follows.

“I don’t do handshakes.” Bull says, backing as far as he could away from Hermes.

“It’s the first time I saw you without her.” Hermes says, changing the subject.

Bull shrugs. “I do everything with Sable. She’s the social one. You see the pair of us, you see her, but I don’t do things alone.” He shakes his hands out, before moving to unbutton the shirt he had on. “I’m sorry, it’s just touching me and I don’t like it touching me.”

“I don’t mean this as an insult.” Hermes starts. “I was just actually wondering, are you autistic?”

Bull shrugs. “I don’t see how that matters to you. Maybe. Probably. We don’t have time to go and get ourselves diagnosed with every illness in the world. Sable thinks that’s it though. She says no Robbins could stay as quiet as I do and look as good as I do without some sort of mental tomf*ckery.”

The elevator had stopped, and Hermes hesitates before using said card to open up yet another secret passageway. “I had to find some way to get around to get what I wanted.” Hermes says. “A little arguing and begging, I got my victor card updated back in ‘78. And now I’m a tribute, they just haven’t removed me from the system. It’s nicer in these hallways anyway.”

Hermes stops just before a door. “Bull, before you go, just know: Not a day goes by that I don’t wish my sister got out instead of me. I was angry, and turned on her in the minute. Then she was dead.” He glances at Bull again. “You won’t ever turn on Sable, she’ll be the one to turn on you. When it becomes your turn to play Aphrodite Graves, stick by Sable.”

Bull stares at him. “You know I’m doomed.”

“You both are.” Hermes says. “Either run now, or stay with her until one of you is killed. That would be funny, making me die just to create a new one from me?” he smiles, but it was a poor attempt at humor.

Bull frowns. “You’re not coming home either, are you? Neither of us are.”

Hermes smiles. “No, Bull. But I have three kids and you have your sister. And don’t doubt that Sable doesn’t want you out alive. I wanted my sister out more than anything.”

“And then you brutally murdered her as she begged to know what she did wrong.” Bull tells him. “Aphrodite Graves only did what Careers were meant to do. You broke the rules and then got her killed.”

Hermes stares at him. “I didn’t want it anymore. Don’t let Sable not want it anymore. Also Bull,” he says as he opens the door. “Check up on Tanner for me. I haven’t seen her since she got that stuff in her eyes. I do hope it clears up in time for the games to start.

END NOTE

Sable and Bull found Issac within minutes, but Apothecary had gone down a different path, leaving that girl alone.

Ferrari and Urban watch as Mercedes carries the final bucket of water up the hill. “Is it too heavy for her?” Urban asks.

“No, she’s a strong girl.” Ferrari tells him. “I just don’t like the idea of her being alone.”

Mercedes arrives and plops the bucket down. “So do we have a game plan now?” Mercedes asks, looking at the group. “Because who are we looking out for?”

Ferrari frowns. “I want to stay here. It’s not a nice arena, but we’re managing. And if you guys are correct about these being modeled off of past games, then this is probably the 64th, the 96th or the 177th. But if I’m right about it being the 96th, we’re in the part of the arena that was never destroyed by any arena events. So we’re safe unless some mutts pop up. And I hope that that doesn’t happen.” She was right of course, this was the 96th. Hermes taught her well.

“Otherwise, we need to think of tributes.” Ferrari says. “And I think I’m going to end up fighting at least one of those twins, probably Bull. And I think that I’m one of the only tributes that can handle it.”

Urban nods. “If it came down to a squaring up fight, the list of who would be ok at fighting them would be short: You of course, me, I guess Nolan, their older brother maybe. Possibly that guy from five. I don’t know. Bull’s been stabbed, shot at, punched, and nothing seemed to even make a dent. Maybe it would be smarter to go after the girl first and then get him.”

“Sable isn’t just ‘the girl’ Mercedes says. “Remember back in the amusem*nt park? She picked me up like it was nothing, re-routed from the Bancroft family, and proceeded to also take down Invidicus and Nolan. She was Aries’s second in command for a reason. I bet she’s in charge now.”

Ferrari frowns. “Did we get confirmation on Sable being second?”

Mercedes nods. “Aries said so, both twins said so, and then Cassidy Fletcher told me something along the lines of it. Speaking of Cassidy, I wouldn’t be surprised to see her make it to the final 12. I would have really really liked her back home. I think she would have liked me.”

“Enough of that.” Urban says, looking around. “So we got Robbins twins on the list, apparently there’s still a ten pack, so that too, I want to murder Valerie, so that’s something on the list.”

“Forget the list,” Ferrari tells him. “I feel like we can regenerate strength here. You’ve got burns. If they wanted us out of this arena, they’d collapse it. We could just sit here until they collapse it or the twins show up. Then we can move on as we’re better rested. Talk a little too much about our personal lives so the camera likes us more while we do nothing.”

“That doesn’t sound half bad, actually.” Urban says. “I could get on board.”

With the District ten pack, groups were out hunting food. It was about 9 something in the evening and the camera was on Nolan and Falcon, who trekked through the meadow, looking around the arena. “It’s a beautiful one.” Falcon says. The pair had brought down a deer, and had stopped next to a pool of water.

Nolan nods. “I think this is actually the victor from twelves arena. Then again, I can’t really remember learning about his games.”

Falcon stares at him for a second before sighing. “Mare and Baron.”

“What?” Nolan asks, looking at Falcon.

“That’s why I need to get home. I need to see them.” Falcon looks at him. “I left the Robbins family household a while ago, I left town, moved as far north as I could without getting stopped by peacekeepers. It’s where I met my wife Mare.”

He hesitates again before continuing. “Baron was born back in March. My son. Aries’s first grandchild. His middle name is Aries, and when I get home I’m changing it.”

He looks back at Nolan. “You have Venus, right? Your daughter?”

Nolan nods. “Beautiful girl.”

Falcon looks at him. “That girl will never go hungry when I win, okay? When I get out of here, your baby is going to have just about anything they want from Uncle Falcon.”

Nolan squeezes his hand. “Thank you, Falcon. I- I’ll do the same for your Baron.”

Nolan watches as Falcon gets up and begins backing into the water. “You coming, Blue boy?” Falcon asks. “It’s boiling out here!”

“You’re gonna soak your clothes!” Nolan warns. Falcon responds by yanking off the jacket and throwing it at Nolan, then his shirt and then his pants. (Shoes and socks were already off before he went in.)

“Ew!” Nolan bats Falcons boxers out of his face as Falcon throws them specifically at him. “What is wrong with you! You know you’re on live camera, right?”

“You coming, Blue boy?” Falcon asks again, swimming further out into the smaller lake.

“The things you get me to do.” Nolan mutters before proceeding to go after Falcon.

“You are a grown man!” It was about five minutes later, and Falcon was spitting water in Nolans face. “Act like it! That stuff has diseases!” Nolan dives away from the stream, laughing. He shrieks as Falcon grabs him around the head and spits in his eyes. “Enough! Enough I say!”

“And you claim to be an older sibling.” Falcon tells him. “I’m pretty sure that I’ve fed every last one of those kids a spider at some point. Maybe not Philip.”

“Well I didn’t have much time to do that to Urban.” Nolan says. “We always had the nannies follow us around or I'd be training. I think I once locked him in a chimney before though after he cut my hair when I was sleeping. Really Urban hit me more than I hit him. I kinda wish I’d had a sister, she wouldn’t try to fight me all the time.”

“I don’t know,” Falcon tells him. “Sable and Eve could be just as mean as the guys. I guess when seven kids have access to drugs, guns, water, and a slaughterhouse, plus a lack of parental supervision, lots of stuff can happen. Lots of broken bones in that house. I vaguely remember Sable and Bull having matching casts after Talon shoved Sable off the roof. Bull thought her arm was broken so he proceeded to break his to match. Then of course, she was fine, so she ended up breaking her arm to match Bull. the things seven year olds do.”

He sighs, moving further out. “So Blue boy, were you a ladies man back-” He stops talking abruptly. “Eve, you put those down.”

Eve stands at the brink of the lake, holding Falcon’s clothes. Obnoxiously, she smiles and throws them into the water. “We’ll bring the deer back, I guess!” She yells.

“Could have been worse, I thought she was going to run off with them"

Her and Circe pick up the deer. “You can cut and clean this, right?” Circe asks. She smiles, looking up at the treetops. “We’re doing fine.”

“Circe, can you go pick some food that you know is non toxic?” Eve interrupts. “I don’t want just meat, maybe you can find some berries.”

“Um… yeah!” Circe says. “Love you!” She moves back into the forest and Eve turns back to the deer.