Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games. I am not Suzanne Collins. This is not for profit.
A/N: This is a companion story to Peeta's Triumph. You don't have to read one to understand the other; they are simply two POVs that cover the same basic events.
It's not easy leading the Career pack. Even someone as powerful and intimidating as I am has to constantly keep an eye out for a knife in the back. I mean, if you look back at typical Games (and, as a Career, I have carefully watched the fifteen or twenty most highly contested Games) you'll find that the leader of the Career pack tends to be either the first or last Career killed, if he (or she) is killed at all. And when the leader is the first killed, it's always been by another Career in the pack. Well, except for that once, when the Career leader was chasing the Tribute from Nine (who looked pretty unexceptional, except the boy could run. He could run fast and he just kept on going. When I watched the tape I kept waiting and waiting for him to stop and he didn't. He might have won the Games that year simply by outrunning everybody if he hadn't been bitten by a snake.) when they both fell down a ravine and the Career broke his neck.
Actually, one of the things watching the tape teaches us is that Careers are just as prone to stupid accidents as any of the other Tributes. They may teach us how to wield a sword or spear, but they don't do much in the way of teaching us how to run safely over uneven ground. Fortunately for me, I don't seem to be accident prone. Of course, the other part about accidents is that while all of Panem may get a chuckle out of watching someone fall on their face or walk into a tree branch, usually the other Tributes aren't around to see it. So really it's all about how you spin that limp or bruise to your pack.
I'm keeping a tight rein on my pack. It's a good one, despite the loss of our male Tribute from Four at the bloodbath (I guess I don't have to worry about being the first Career to be killed). I supplemented with the male from Twelve, though, so we always have two Tribs for lookout (at least for now, but usually the Career pack stays intact for at least four or five days) while they others sleep. It's amazing what a difference getting decent sleep makes. A couple nights of sleep deprivation and suddenly Tributes who might be dangerous start making really bad decisions.
I've had my eye on Peeta (our supplement) since training. He's clearly strong—you only have to watch a guy take down an assistant at the training center once to know you need to pay attention—but he seems so, I don't know, unmotivated. And if being a Tribute in the Hunger Games don't motivate you, what does? And when he announced his interest in his female counterpart, well, I suppose it was a good move from a sponsoring standpoint. But no one says things like that going into the games. It makes you look weak to the other Tributes, because if they've got your girl, they've got you. Of course, that is what makes him such a safe ally for the Careers. Well, as safe as they get, anyway. He's promised to help us to either track the girl or to avoid her. He says that it is our choice, that she is dangerous and tracking her could easily lead to our deaths. She has the training score to back up his claim, but I don't think she can easily take down five Careers. Plus, we have Peeta. He says his feelings aren't returned and we can't expect to get to her by threatening him, but we can see about that when the time comes.
I wouldn't have taken Peeta anyway, if he hadn't offed District Four. But a guy who can take down a Career at the bloodbath and come out without a scratch is a valuable enemy. You know, keep your enemies closer.
Hunting with the pack is exhilarating. We deal with several of the Tributes in a couple of days, and then there is a lull in the action. This is typical for most Games. We've cleared out the incompetents, and those left are either real physical threats or those adept at disappearing into the woods. Or both, of course. We tracked District Twelve for a while one night, but eventually I decided rest was more important. Let's see how she does in a day or two without much sleep.
When we do find her, though, it's a surprise. We are out looking for District Five (the girl—I'm pretty sure she is in the "adept at disappearing" category) and District Eleven (the girl—I know exactly where the boy is and I definitely want him to be tired and hungry when we run into him). She's heard us first, which is basically unavoidable when we run in a pack, but it's even worse with Peeta. What I said before about being able to run over uneven ground? He can't. He sort of clomps, with plenty of trips and stumbles. But she isn't moving quietly either, which surprises me until we find her up a tree and it's clear from the way she is moving that she is injured, probably her leg. She's pretty sassy for a girl with an injury and five Careers looking up at you, but it's the way to bring in sponsors and you know, I don't think she even realizes it. I'm sure the Capitol people are eating this up. Under normal circumstances I would find her amusing, but I'm tired today and worried about the pack turning on me, and are there any more abnormal circumstances than the Games? I'm starting to feel my temper, and I know, Clove knows, my mentor knows that I have to keep my temper if I want to win this thing (which is why Clove is always needling me, no doubt). When Peeta suggests we wait her out I agree. She's not going to get much sleep up there in a tree with a bad leg. I confidently expect some rash decision-making from her pretty soon.
If only rash decision-making didn't take the form of dropping a tracker-jacker nest on us.
I spend the next hour evading tracker-jackers (not very successfully) and trying to figure out what to do about the pack. Marvel, Clove, and I make it to the lake. Clove is quickly incapacitated by the stings. Marvel will be soon. Peeta and the girls from One and Four? I don't know, but not with us. Probably I should leave them to their fate, but if they are alive and come to and we have abandoned them? Well, that's the end of the Career's alliance, and I don't want Four coming after me. I am starting to feel really bad, all dizzy and nervous, and I consider just killing Clove and Marvel now. But I want to find Peeta. I don't think he knew what was going to happen—he jumped and ran with the rest of us—but he isn't here now. If he is with the girl, they could kill the rest of us while we're down, especially if she is not stung. I need to know what to expect. I'm bigger than the others, too, so I might have a chance of doing something before the venom drags me under.
I can tell the venom is working as I make my way back to the tree. The ground feels like it's falling away from my feet as I walk, and my fingers are numb, but so far I am mostly functional. I pass the girl from Four (dead) and start to run when I hear shouting, bursting into the clearing at the tree in time to see the girl from Twelve springing away. I would follow her, but Peeta blocks me with a snarl. I almost laugh, despite the way my vision is starting to fracture. I have fifty pounds and four inches on him. I raise my sword and see that he is empty-handed. He doesn't meet my eyes, but when I lunge for him he sort of slides around my sword and steps into my body. Next thing I know I am toppled onto my back with my sword arm twisted so that I am forced to drop the blade. Peeta neatly pins me so I can't move and still has an arm free to take up my sword.
It's utterly humiliating. Here I am, the Career pack leader, and I'm about to be gutted by a Tribute from Twelve and by my own sword. There wasn't even a fight! And Peeta is so simple.
Or perhaps I am.
The venom is still taking hold of me, and I can see that he is fighting it, too. He's looking at me with horror, as though I am some sort of monster, and not just another guy. I wonder if I am hallucinating when he suddenly throws the sword away. I am too far under the venom to do much of anything now, but I think he actually climbs off me, and stumbles back towards the brush, away from the lake.
Fate is a strange thing.
Peeta backs away from me, but as he actually turns to go he trips and falls. His sudden scream makes me force my eyes back open, and I see him clutching his leg. He has landed on my sword, tipped upward where it landed, and gouged his upper thigh deeply. I think. It might be the venom taking over. But I'm pretty sure I'm not dead and I'm pretty sure that Peeta was just sitting on me with a sword, so I will take this version, even if it is venom-induced.
As the silky, violently-colored earthworms burst out of the earth around me and loop around and around my body, I decide to close my eyes and pass out.
Since I woke up and dragged myself back to the Cornucopia and lake, I have had to do some inventive damage control with the other Careers. True, I didn't just kill them all while they were gone, but they may consider this a weakness. Fortunately, I can tell them that I took Peeta out while I was gone. That counts for something; maybe even more of something than they realize (or it would, if it was true).
Clove is suspicious that I didn't kill him outright, but I tell her I was overcome with the tracker-jacker venom after cutting open his thigh. Considering where the cut was, I am surprised that he hasn't bled out already, but the Tribute from Three assures me that his face never showed in the sky. (Speaking of simple, why in world didn't the boy from Three just kill Clove and Marvel while I was gone? Though I guess I shouldn't be surprised. The Tributes from Three who have won in the past have never gone in for hand-to-hand killing.)
But for now the Career pack is holding together, or at least, those of us who remain are. I don't know how much long One will stay with us, now that his district partner is gone. There may be too much of a feeling that he is the outsider. And of course, he is. Right now, though, I will play the revenge card to keep us hunting the girl.