A/N

By Alan Gilfoy in the world of Suzanne Collins. After saving their siblings from the Reaping, Gale and Katniss are winning the Games together. A sequel to Gale's Hunger Games, Gleam In His Eye, Beautiful Plans and Glato Versus Everthorne from Gale's perspective.

Chapter

I had the bow drawn on Glimmer when we saw Cato charge, sword drawn of course. Then he saw Glimmer's imminent death and angrily thrust his sword into the ground. What the fuck is going on here? "I can't do this anymore," he screamed in a voice full of raw energy.

I figured I'd take advantage of the situation and re-aimed the bow at Cato. "I got this," I called to Katniss.

I had expected Catnip to throw some knives back at Glimmer, but instead she stood up with one of those knives in her hand resting at her hip. "Hold your fire." I could tell she knew what she was doing.

I wasn't sure about Cato. Might as well go ahead and ask, I thought as I said "What's your game, Two?" in his direction.

"I finally love someone and I'm not gonna watch her die! Where's the honor, glory and pride in this? Fuck it!" A career district rebel!? I raised the District Twelve respect sign. He probably didn't understand it, but other people would, and I hope he understood the apparent truce of taking my hand away from my weapon. Katniss quickly followed me in making the gesture. Cato and Glimmer imitated it imperfectly, but well enough.

As Glimmer's hand went up, she added "You're right. The people we care about are more important than the Capitol's usual order of business." I appreciate rebelliousness as much as anyone, but the Capitol is going to drop the hammer on those people. The Hawthornes and Everdeens knew how to get into the woods and I hope they had the good sense to, but I obviously wouldn't know if there's anywhere to hide near One and Two.

Cato continued talking with "Though I saw it all around, I never thought I could be affected – it's so strange the way things turn. I kept on seeing myself as one of the few to live, not thinking about the many to die whether or not I was amongst them."

Maybe the Capitol couldn't contain rebellion this time. The Capitol would have moved quickly to censor such talk, but I wondered how much of it had slipped into the broadcast. I couldn't be the only person fed up with living under Snow. Katniss' mourning and Cato's love-fueled rage could be what it takes to finally make the country boil over. I sensed that the audience was already put off by the doomed lover and perhaps doomed mother scenario; twenty-three deaths a year hadn't fazed them, but people are odd, especially Capitol people.

I gave Snow, Crane and the other evil bastards credit for making the two-victor offer. I hoped to outplay them, and I figure Haymitch thought the same. I doubt The Capitol had expected such maneuvering from Cato and Glimmer.

The Gamemakers unleashed several muttations that resembled wolves. Apparently they hoped they could take care of us with the arena itself. The mutts started galloping towards us. I handed the bow and arrows back to Katniss. "Glim, get your machete!," Cato shouted as he retrieved his sword.

"So you have a pet name for your new girl?," Katniss inquired.

"Lustre thought of it first. Yeah, Everdeen, she has a younger sister too, you know," he replied with equal sarcasm.

Catnip countered Cato's apparent hypocrisy or lack of repentance. "So did Rue and Thresh, and so does Gale." The Games were all about dividing the districts, so The Capitol would probably be glad to broadcast this exchange.

"So did Clove too," Cato shot back. "Flavia Hawkins, I wish we hadn't thought that was necessary." I could almost feel the Capitol broadcasters cutting us off again. Cato was going for broke. He was now saying what I had always wanted to say, so I was only too glad to join him.

During the conversation, Glimmer and Katniss had been gathering the throwing knives to hand to me. I kept my mace and the knife I already had in reserve. Cato had a few big spears that he was also holding onto for now. I glanced at his pile of weapons and couldn't resist the sarcastic comment "Are you compensating for something?"

Cato muttered "Wanna know what happened to the last guy who said that?". With him, the anger was no idle threat.

Glimmer also answered, yelling back with a very enthusiastic "Oh no, no problems there!" Well, she would know.

I corrected myself with "Okay, nevermind that. Let's get back to business. Let's get on the horn."

We started running towards the Cornucopia. Cato and Glimmer hacked at a few of the mutts, but myself and Katniss didn't try getting shots in while moving at full speed, especially with the risk of hitting our newfound allies. I was able to stun a few of the mutts with my mace.

However, they were drawing closer. The bared fangs glistened in the early morning light. My still very sore arm was viciously wounded again. Glimmer cut its legs out from it. It was the first of the creatures to die. I stared into its eyes, which I found even more disturbing than the fangs. I couldn't quite place it.

Katniss was leading the race, bow moving rhythmically in her left hand, as would be expected of the runner who won the race for the arena's only archery equipment in the first place. She got to the Cornucopia first and shimmied up it as easily as expected, her climbing complementing her running.

From her newfound vantage point, she began to take shots at the mutts. Cato was furthest away from the Cornucopia, so the pack was converging on him. It took the combination of a well placed arrow and sword strike to bring down just one of them. Cato yanked the arrow loose and jammed it in his otherwise empty scabbard. Glimmer hacked at another, distracting it just long enough for her to make it to the Cornucopia. I wasn't too far behind her. I could handle climbing something sturdy like this arena centerpiece just fine, and I looked down to see Glimmer continuing to have trouble. Katniss seemed to be ignoring her in favor of teaming up with Cato on another mutt. I lent Glimmer my relatively non-wounded arm and we pulled her up, her leg just inches away from the jaws of an angry mutt.

While catching my breath on top of the Cornucopia, I counted the mutts. Seventeen plus the three dead equals twenty. That was the number of dead tributes. I realized it was no coincidence. The mutts' eyes were so unsettling because they resembled those of the fallen. I made eye contact with the smallest of the creatures. Its eyes were golden-brown and the hair was a darker brown. Rue. Its collar even imitated her token. The Gamemakers had managed to sink to an even further level of depravity. "The mutts are imitating the dead tributes!," I called out matter-of-factly. I would have held my tongue, but Cato had already loosed his, so I added "Is killing them once not enough for you, Gamemakers!?"

They must be having a rather difficult time trying to spin this. Were they presenting the four of us as having made a temporary truce? I doubted that; Cato seemed spontaneous but serious.

I knifed that small wolf to spare Katniss the trouble of killing even this twisted reincarnation of her little flower. Cato and Glimmer looked like they had made the same grim realization I had. The next mutt facing Cato was a small black one and he was not spared the torture of killing Clove again. He reached the horn shortly after removing his sword. He scrambled up the side without my help. He bowed slightly to hand some retrieved arrows to Katniss. "Your weapons m'lady on fire," he said with mock seriousness. I glanced at Katniss' quiver as she put them back. It looked like she had nearly all of her ten post-bloodbath arrows left.

After Katniss gave Cato a crisp thank-you, I had a question for him. "Okay, Cato, you wanted to create a diversion to save Glimmer, but why this one?"

"I wanted to make sure to get your attention," he said quite confidently.

Glimmer elaborated for Cato. "I could tell just how unhappy you were to be here. I wondered why we lacked that reasonable fear. Then I realized it was about more than just being scared – you hadn't fallen for the Capitol's lies as we had. We're all just pawns in their game. I started dreaming of revolution looking at my machete. Cato got the message. I am a positive influence on him, after all."

I was fast gaining an understanding and appreciation of both of them. Katniss might be a different story, since that woman does not forgive and forget easily, especially after trauma like Rue's death. Glimmer had only recently discovered the rebelliousness that I had known my whole life, but she was rather more eloquent about it. Rebellions needed that in addition to fighters.

I felt compelled to try and match her speech. We were surely done for, and I wanted to go out with a bang, at least serving a greater purpose. "Always remember this – we did exactly the right thing there. Enough is enough! Down with the Capitol! Down with rulers who torture us and send us to our deaths for their amusement!" Now what did the Capitol have in store for us besides arena hazards?