(A/N) Hey there, NicKenny speaking, launching our newest fic! Many of you are probably familiar with the one-shot fics that we have accompanying our main fics, and this here is our latest one, serving as an companion to In the End, You Always Kneel, and any sequels that it may or may not have in the future! This opening one-shot features Sinthea Schmidt, written by the wonderful Silz, and I hope you'll all enjoy it.

After this, one of our admins for ITEYAK, Alex (zxskunkmuffinxz), will be taking over the running and updating of this fic – I'm simply here to kick us off!

Crossbones

Sinthea Schmidt of District Six

Written by Silmarilz1701

"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art...It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival."

― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

It was hard, living in one of the poorer areas of District Six. Sinthea Schmidt was born out of wedlock into bad conditions. Her mother had died in childbirth. Sinthea's father was the renowned Red Skull, the lone Avenger Games victor of District Six. He had abandoned Sinthea to live with Susan Scarbo, her mother's mother – who was a terrigen addict – many years before, and despite her grandmother's pleas, she had never forgiven him for that.

When Sinthea turned seven, she went to work in one of the many transportation factories located in District Six after school finished each day. There they assembled trains, hover-cars, anything that moved, all for the Capitol. Despite these harsh conditions and obviously hard child labour forced on them by the Capitol, Sinthea didn't grow up disliking the rich citizens of Marvel's central city.

But life in the factory was hard. Sinthea didn't have any friends before she went to work there. It just so happened that about a month into her first year of working in the factory, she finally met someone her own age.

Sinthea had packed her lunch for that day in a small paper bag. It was a simple peanut butter sandwich on rye bread. The bread was stale and her small canteen of water was already almost empty from the first half of the day. It was eleven o'clock, time for her lunch break. She got a whole twenty minutes of free time. She couldn't afford to take any more time off – after all, Grandma Scarbo didn't work. Sinthea's factory work was what brought in all the money.

Well, that and her thieving.

Sinthea sat down in the large lunch hall surrounded by teenagers and adults, the only little kid as far as she knew. As she quietly dug into her sandwich, she averted her eyes from all the adults and teens in the room. It was fortunate enough that the factory owner even allowed her to work here for a reduced wage; most kids worked selling wares out in the streets, or begged, until they were old enough for full time factory labour. But apparently being the daughter of the Red Skull, even if said father refused to admit to it, had its advantages.

"Hi there."

Sinthea stopped chewing and looked up at whoever was talking to her. Amazingly, she found herself looking at a small boy. He had tan skin and black hair. He was covered in dirt, and his hands were all greasy from working the factory wheels, she assumed. In his right hand he held a paper bag too, and he put it on top of the table across from her.

"I'm Brock," he smiled, "What's your name?"

"Sinthea," she said, still too surprised to really be on her guard.

Brock nodded, "Do you work here too?"

Sinthea nodded silently, pulling her sandwich closer in towards her chest as Brock sat down. She noted that on his paper bag was a skull and crossbones symbol.

How odd.

"Do you like pirates?" he asked her enthusiastically when he caught her staring at his bag, "I do! I want to be called Crossbones, and sail the seven seas!"

Sinthea just stared at him.

"We could call you… Sin! Sin sounds like a good pirate name!"

"You work here now?" Sin asked him suspiciously. "I've not seen you around here."

"Just started a week ago. They put me up in the machines. Where do you work?"

"I'm down on the Belt," she replied, "Have been for months now."

Brock looked at her curiously, "My mommy had to 'pull strings' to get me to work here. We know the owner. How come you work here?"

Sinthea glared at him. She narrowed her eyes and refused to answer him. Instead she went back to chewing her sandwich. Finally, when he obviously wasn't going to take her silence as an answer, she snorted.

"It pays good."

"Okay, whatever you say, Sin," he nodded, "Well, I better get back up to the machines. Things can't run without me!"

"Whatever, Crossbones," she said back, annoyed at his use of her new pirate name.

Sinthea finished her sandwich and carefully folded the precious paper bag up into a square, sticking it in her pocket. She didn't dare throw anything away. Once that was done, she headed back down to the Belt, as the workers called the moving conveyor belt process that was on the first floor of the factory.

She clambered down from her seat and walked to the old elevator that would take her down a floor to the Belt. Several other workers were there too, teenagers mostly. The boys laughed at her as she got inside the elevator car.

She spent the day at the Belt, finishing up around eight o'clock that night. When Susan Scarbo came and picked her up outside the factory, she was tired and let out a big, seven year-old yawn.

"How was your day, Sinthea?" Grandma Scarbo asked her as they walked along the road home to their little house.

As the trees passed them by, tired little Sinthea shrugged. "I met a boy."

"Oh dear," Grandma Scarbo said, pretending to be horrified. "You're much too young for that!"

"Not like that," Sinthea crinkled her nose. "Ew!"

Susan Scarbo laughed. "What was his name?"

"Brock. But he likes to be called Crossbones," Sinthea explained, "And he wants to call me Sin! Says it's a Pirate Name."

"Sin! I like it," Grandma Scarbo nodded, "A name worthy of any Avenger Games winner. Just like you'll be someday."

Sinthea nodded, "Yes ma'am! I'll win those Games, you know I will! Just like daddy."

"Just like daddy."

"My mom got these for me last week," Brock told Sinthea as they lay in Sin's room on her wooden floor, papers strewn out all around them.

The item in question was a bright new box of eight crayons. It was like magic for the little kids – they had never even seen crayons before. Sinthea had decided she liked Brock very much, and looked forward to every day off they got, which wasn't many. Today was a Reaping Day, but at seven years old, neither child was old enough to be selected, so they had a play-date instead.

Today they were making flags for their pirate adventures. As Brock had told Sinthea, he had recently gotten a pack of crayons, and each kid chose a colour for their flags.

"I want red," Sinthea told her friend. "You can have any other colour, but I get red."

"Alright," he nodded. "I'll take blue."

Sinthea got to colouring her flag. On it she drew a big, red skull with big red eyes. Brock peaked over her arm to look at her drawing as he drew a large, blue skull and crossbones symbol.

"Is that because of your dad?" he asked her curiously.

Sinthea looked at him in surprise. "How do you know about that?"

"I heard your Grandma and my mommy talking last time I came over. I think it's so cool that your dad is the Red Skull! Your dad's a victor!"

"Yeah." She nodded, but her face was sad.

She never saw her dad. The one time she'd tried to talk to him, he'd told her he never wanted to see her again. She just wished that something she did could impress him.

"Shall we try out our flags?" Brock grinned. "Come on! Our swords are in your kitchen. Let's go!"

They attached the flags to broom handles and brought those along with their swords back behind the big, old house on Chain Road. It was bright outside, and the house backed up to the large square where the Reapings were held each year. The two kids watched as twelve year olds and older lined up to have their DNA recorded and matched, filed into the square, and lined up for the Reaping.

They loved to spar with their wooden swords, swing from the trees, and fight evil monsters. Sin especially enjoyed Reaping day though, because she liked to watch her father sit up on stage. It was the only time she really saw Johann Schmidt. He looked so professional up there, so strong. She wished she could be one of those lucky tributes called that day.

"Hey, guess what?" she whispered to Brock as they stood watching the names getting called. "That's gonna be me one day."

"I believe it," Brock nodded. "You're so strong and fast, Sinthea."

"Come on," she nodded, tearing herself away from watching the Reaping. "I heard there's a sea monster over there. We should go kill it!"

"Aye, matey! Let's be off!"