Soli Deo gloria

DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Doctor Who or the Hunger Games. Second chapter! And things will be explained, don't worry. :3

Rose hung close to the closed ladder door. She didn't see any people there, and it seemed a good place to be when the spaceship stopped. She had to find a way to escape. She had to. She exhaled and decided to just follow the girl (for she looked like the only normal person on this spaceship, even if she sounded like she was going to murder people). She sat, getting her breath back, her knees drawn to her chest, her eyes darting about on occasion.

She had listened to the Doctor. Well, kind of. She had stayed near the TARDIS, but now she was being shipped off to wherever this spaceship was going. The place must have people, for the girl was wondering how many she'd kill. Why did she want to kill? That was what Rose was wondering. Were they going to a battle of some sort? Surely not, for the man had been dressed like a clown and the girl wore ordinary clothes.

Suddenly Rose felt the spaceship come to a stop; the windows were blocked and lights came on. She looked up to see the clown and girl coming toward her. She was hidden behind the wall, but she still felt wary as she watched them go down the ladder.

She stood up and looked around. There was no one else that she could see. She would have to follow them. Staying here didn't seem like a very good option, especially when suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she saw people carrying weapons coming toward her.

They were away a bit so that they couldn't spot her, and so with a gulp and a prayer, Rose hurried to the ladder as it rose up once more and went down on it. She saw a tunnel of sorts. The clown and the girl were walking through it, so she decided to quickly follow them.

She followed them, staying in the shadows and trying to keep her breathing quiet as they walked through the tunnel. They went through many twists and turns; Rose thought that they were going underground. They were definitely walking downhill; her hands along the walls grew damp with underground water.

Finally she saw the two go through a door; she hurried and caught the door before it completely closed. The room through the door had tables, chairs, and sofas. There was a comfortable looking chair and a small buffet. A shower was there as well.

Her eyes were concentrated on the two people, though. She could barely see through the crack in the door, and so after nearly fifteen minutes, she quickly slipped through and hid in one of the corners, which was actually very dark. The clown was zipping up a zipper on the girl, who had changed her clothes into a blue diving suit and a purple ring filled with a strange liquid.

"You can go now, Flastia," snapped the girl as the man finished zipping her, "I don't need you here anymore."

"But I must make sure you go in the tube—"

"I'm not an idiot, Flastia. I'm not going to be stupid; I'll go in the tube like everyone else does—gosh, Flastia!" snapped the girl. She growled as she said, "I don't need you. Go away, I want a few minutes to myself, and I don't want you to ruin it!"

"Fine," said Flastia, who sounded like he was asking a question. Rose raised an eyebrow at his strange accent. "I'll be leaving." He turned as he opened the door, "Uncultured district swine."

The girl sneered at the man as he closed the door. Rose became aware that the door made a clicking noise, and with a gasp, she rushed to the door. Her hands on the knob, she began to frantically try to open it.

"C'mon, c'mon, please open! Oh, please, open!" she yelled, pounding on the door.

"Who the hell are you?" the girl yelled.

"Open! Oh, please, open!" shrieked Rose. After a moment, though, her hands slipped from the knob in shock, and she turned dazedly around.

"Who are you?" shrieked the girl angrily. "What are you doing here!?"

"I'm—I'm Rose," Rose managed to choke out, "and I need to get out of here."

"Well, Rose, the only way out of here is through that tube," said the girl, and she pointed to a glass tube that had a bottom that looked like it could be an elevator. The girl's eyes grew sharp as she hissed, "And that's my exit!"

"You can only use it once?" asked Rose.

"Yeah, and while I'm gone, you can get caught by the Peacekeepers," said the girl as she rapidly hurried toward the plate. She stood carefully in front of it and turned gloatingly toward Rose.

"Peacekeepers?" asked Rose. "Where am I? Who are you? What are Peacekeepers?"

"I'm Cashmere and the Peacekeepers will take you for obstructing the Hunger Games," said Cashmere sneeringly. "So I suggest you get ready for hell."

Rose, thinking rapidly, knew that she didn't want to go with a bunch of Peacekeepers. "Take me with you," said Rose suddenly, as if she was surprised by the idea herself.

"What? No!" said Cashmere indignantly. "Why would I have to help someone like you?"

"Look," Rose said, thinking fast, "you have to go kill people?"

"Yeah, it's the Hunger Games," said Cashmere, as if it was obvious, "twenty four people go in, one comes out. Broadcasted live for allllll to see."

Rose's eyes grew wide as she said, "You—you mean that twenty three of them—?"

"Die. Yeah, and I intend to win," said Cashmere, pointing to herself, "and if you join me, which you will not, I'll have to kill you."

Rose knew there was only one thing and one person who could ever be able to get her out of this situation. "Cashmere," she said slowly, "you don't have to kill anyone. Look, I have this friend, the Doctor—"

"They don't allow doctors in the arena," said Cashmere.

"No, no, his name is the Doctor. If you get me out of here, he can help us, both, in the arena. Look, I'm not sure he'll be able to save me from the authorities"—she wasn't so confident that she'd make it unscathed if she got caught by people in this country, wherever she was—"but he can save me from the arena, and you too. You just have to let me go in the tube with you."

Cashmere frowned as she said, "No one can beat the Capitol."

"But the Doctor could beat the—the Capitol," said Rose, "he could save us. You just need to help me get out of here and not get captured by the . . . what do you call them?"

"Peacekeepers," replied Cashmere quickly.

"Yes, whatever, these Peacekeepers. With him, he can help me, but the only way for him to do that is to know where I am, and the only way he's going to see me is if I find a way out of here!" If the Doctor just managed to look at a TV and see her . . . .

"Tough luck, then," said Cashmere, and she started to step on the plate when Rose shouted, "PLEASE! You have to listen to me! If the Doctor sees me, he can save me, and I'll make sure that you get saved too!"

"You don't defy the Capitol," said Cashmere darkly, and she stepped onto the plate and turned to Rose, her arms folded.

Rose looked at her, her hands shaking, and then she stomped forward, saying, "Doesn't matter, I'm getting on there."

"No, you're not!" yelled Cashmere, but Rose started to enter the tube, despite Cashmere's pushing and shoving and punching. "Get out!" yelled Cashmere.

"No!" yelled Rose, and she managed to squeeze in long enough for the clear door to swirl around the tube and click into place. Rose sighed as they began to go up. It was very scrunched, but she had managed to get on.

Cashmere looked at her with a face filled with murder as she said, "Hold onto me!"

"Why?" asked Rose.

"Do it now or else!" shouted Cashmere.

"Okay . . ." said Rose and she hugged Cashmere very tightly as they emerged, the tube vanishing from them.

"You move at all and you're blasted to bits," seethed Cashmere, and Rose felt a shiver of fear run down her spine. She held on even more tightly to Cashmere and closed her eyes, not daring to look around to see where they were.

She heard Cashmere muttering something angrily under her breath as a voice filled the air. "Ladies and gentlemen, let the Seventy-fifth Hunger Games begin!" rang through the salty air and Rose dared not move. She only did a minute later when a gong sounded and Cashmere immediately shoved Rose away, causing her to fumble and disappear into the ground.

Rose gurgled and shrieked when she realized that Cashmere had pushed her into water. She instantly flapped her arms about and using her feet, pushed herself back up to the surface. She sucked in breath and looked about, panicking inside. All around her was water, nearly nothing but. Looking around, she saw a small strip of land and immediately swam to it, launching herself to it.

Using it to keep afloat, she climbed onto it and looked about. It seemed like the piece of land she was on was part of a wheel. She blinked, gasped, and looked around. She was standing on a gigantic wheel floating on top of water.

How was this possible?

Making things even stranger, on top of the sandy center of the wheel was a cornucopia. Rose gasped and looked around, seeing the water go on for hundreds of yards.

Not only was there a cornucopia and a wheel, but there was a bunch of other people in here as well beside herself and Cashmere. There was a man missing an arm and a girl with a long dark braid standing on the cornucopia's beach along with a man in his fifties and a very handsome young man. All of this was starting to get confusing until Rose saw the handsome young man kill the man in his fifties with a trident he had picked up from the cornucopia.

Rose let out a scream and started to look around frantically for land, real land, not this strip and definitely not that beach. All in her immediate vision was water, but in the background, she could see a beach and some dense greenery.

She had to get to that beach, but would she have to swim all the way? She straightened up, ready to swim, when she saw a woman a few yards away holding onto one of the plates. She looked dazed, and a bit crazy looking. She was shaking, and Rose knew that it was just a matter of time before she went down. Without a thought more for her own safety, Rose ducked under the wood and started to swim around the edge of the wheel toward the woman.

She just reached the woman when another woman popped up. She had short brown hair and looked very mad at Rose as she said, "Get before I kill you!"

Rose looked at her, shocked for a moment, but realized that the woman didn't have a weapon. "What are you going to do? Drown me?" asked Rose as she bobbed up and down, the shaking woman nearly slipping off before both Rose and the woman hurried to get her.

The other woman yanked the shaking woman toward her and said, "Let go, I need Nuts, now get!"

Rose looked a bit confused as she said, "You need 'nuts?'"

"Her," said the woman, "NOW LET GO BEFORE I DO DROWN YOU!" And that's when Rose saw the determination and danger in the woman's eyes. Still, she gulped and remained calm as she said, "No."

"Johanna," a voice said, and all three of them turned to see a man holding up a man who looked a bit worried and nerdy and had black hair. Rose gasped when she saw that the man was stabbed in the back with a knife. In the man's other hand was an axe. "I've got Beetee."

"Yeah," said Johanna, "and I'll have Nuts when SHE LETS GO!"

"Hey, what are you going to do to her, anyway?" asked Rose, not about to be abandoned, "what?"

"I need her, NOW LET GO!" shouted Johanna. "LET GO!"

"Please, c'mon, I-I . . . let me come with you!" fumbled Rose.

Johanna looked at her incredulously and hissed, "No!"

"Please, I need your help. The—the Doctor, please, if you keep me alive, he can help me and you, all of us!" said Rose, though she didn't even know what she was saying.

"The Doctor?" Johanna said, and suddenly she realized that Rose was not supposed to be here. "Who are you? How the hell did you get here?" Her voice grew so quiet that Rose could barely catch what she was saying. "Doctor? Is he with Haymitch? Are you supposed to help us?"

"Wha—what?" said Rose, and she realized that Johanna was now not screaming at her to let Nuts down. "Yes . . . YES! He's—he's with Haymitch," she whispered frantically, "they—they have a plan."

"How come I wasn't told of a doctor?" asked Johanna.

"Johanna! C'mon!" yelled the man holding the nerdy man as he came closer. "The Careers are going crazy!" Rose suddenly realized that she could hear screams and such and the water around them was slowly turning red.

"He's new, he just came on this morning," gasped Rose.

"I wasn't told anything," said Johanna, and she turned to the man holding Beetee and said, "Blight, you know her?"

"No, but she says she knows Haymitch. She must know the plan," said Blight, struggling to hold onto to Beetee, who was looking bad with a wound in his back.

Johanna snarled and said, "Fine, you can come with us." She let go of Nuts and said, "You can babysit Nuts."

"All right, I will," replied Rose.

Johanna turned back with a scowl to Blight and said, "Where's Katniss and Lover Boy?"

Blight shrugged, and Johanna began to look around frantically. Rose looked around as well, though she didn't know who Katniss or Lover Boy was. "Great, now we have to go find them," seethed Johanna. "Let's get to shore and find them!" Rose was not sure why they needed Katniss and Lover Boy, but decided not to question Johanna or Blight, for they seemed to be the leaders and she needed them to keep alive.

They all managed to get to shore. Blight had the knife from Beetee's back in his belt as he said, handing her the axe, "You lead."

"Fine," said Johanna in her angry voice, which Rose started to take as her normal voice.

With that, the strange five headed into the forest, Rose helping Nuts, who she found out to be really named Wiress, Blight supporting Beetee, and Johanna walking ahead of them, hacking at the vegetation with her feet.

They said nothing. Even with all the cameras Rose was sure they had that would be watching them, there was another reason they didn't talk. Rose was not sure what time of year it was here, but it was freaking hot. She was sweating bullets and Wiress was getting harder to hold onto. At about two in the afternoon, they stopped for a breather. "All right, we need to eat something," said Johanna, and without more than a, "Stay here," she headed out into the forest.

"Is she all right in there?" asked Rose, turning to Blight.

"She's Johanna," said Blight.

Rose nodded slowly, not exactly sure how just being Johanna qualified to her to go in the jungle by herself, and took a deep breath before she turned to Beetee, who sat on the other side of her. "How's your wound doing?" asked Rose.

"I don't think it's too deep," said Beetee. "It's a thick fabric to have been cut through."

"Well, I hope you feel better," said Rose quietly with a tiny smile, and he nodded and replied, "Thank you."

Rose's eyes noticed his bunched up hand and she asked, "What's in your hand?"

Beetee opened his fist to reveal a bunch of wire.

"Ha! Wire? You couldn't get anything else?" Rose turned to see that Johanna had returned fairly quickly, her hand filled with round brown things that looked like nuts.

Beetee quietly looked at the ground and Blight asked, "What are those?"

"Dunno, nuts or something, first thing I could find besides leaves," said Johanna.

"Are they poisonous?" asked Blight.

"Ask her," said Johanna, and Rose realized that she was looking at her. In a second, her hands reached up and caught the nut Johanna threw her.

"Try it," said Johanna, and Rose, frowning, carefully took several minutes to peel the hard nut. Once she had enough exposed, she took a nibble, hoping that it wasn't poisonous. If she didn't try it, Blight had his knife and Johanna had her axe and neither knew that she didn't know where the Doctor was nor what he was doing.

She instantly made a horrified face. "Tastes bloody disgusting," she choked.

"Feeling bad?" asked Johanna.

"No," and Rose coughed, "that's nasty!"

"It's food, it'll do," said Johanna, and she tossed some to each of them before saying sharply, "we need to keep going, now!"

Frowning, Rose stood up and helped Wiress up. She was already getting thirsty in this heat, but she did not want to stop and complain to Johanna and Blight, both of whom were hostile toward her, Wiress, and Beetee. She could only listen to them, hope to survive, and hope that the Doctor would figure out something for her rescue.


The Doctor could barely watch the bloodbath. He did, with blank and hard eyes, watching as these people, who looked so civilized on their plates, attacked and killed each other. He had leaned forward, searching for Rose, and saw her talking with an angry short-haired young woman next to a woman who was shaking.

"Rose, Rose," he whispered to himself. She had made it into the Games. It was just a matter of getting her out.

"She's talking with Johanna," said Haymitch. The Doctor shot Haymitch a quick glance before he turned back to the screen, his eyes searching anxiously for anyone out there who was trying to kill Rose.

After a moment, Johanna and Rose stopped shouting at each other and a man whom Haymitch said was Blight, who had a man in his arms struggling with a dark wound, started to talk to them. Within a few minutes, the four of them plus Wiress ("Johanna calls her Nuts," muttered Haymitch) swam to shore and headed out into the jungle, Johanna not looking too happy.

"Where are they going?" asked the Doctor as the screens turned to mostly the cornucopia. The cornucopia's beach began to become red as well as the water around it as the heftiest tributes that Haymitch called the Careers started to take down tributes with the weapons.

"They're going to go find my tributes and the ones from Four," said Haymitch, sitting back in his chair. He looked around and sighed, saying, "Damn, I wish I had some alcohol right now."

The Doctor didn't pay any attention to him. He kept his eyes on the screen in the corner that kept an eye on the group of five with Rose. She helped Wiress while Blight took care of Beetee and Johanna cut ahead of them. His hand went up and touched the screen where Rose was walking. How could he have abandoned her, just left her, in this strange Capitol? "I'm sorry, so sorry," he said quietly.

The room grew silent for a few minutes. The Doctor too, keeping his eyes on Rose, leaned back in his chair, his hands in a sort of praying position in top of his nose.

The two men watched as things grew quieter at the cornucopia. Everything was quiet until suddenly the door behind them flew open and a woman appeared between the Doctor and Haymitch, her hands on the back of each chair, her face turned to Haymitch. From what the Doctor could see, she wore a gold colored wig and golden colored clothes as she said excitedly, "Haymitch, Haymitch, did you hear? It's the talk of the betting rooms, it's the talk amongst the sponsors—goodness, it's all over Panem!"

"What?" asked Haymitch, though he sounded very disinterested.

"Haven't you seen her? There's a girl in the arena who's not from any of the districts, HAYMITCH!" said the woman excitedly. "Everyone is going crazy! Do you think the Gamemakers will fish her out?"

"Well, let's hope not. I doubt she'll stand a chance against your Gamemakers," said the Doctor, and the woman swiveled around and let out a shriek.

"Effie, the Doctor. Doc, your worst nightmare," said Haymitch, sinking lower into his seat, his eyes still attached to the screen.

"Hello there, Effie," said the Doctor brightly, for he was nearly always bright when he met someone new who wasn't threatening.

Effie put a hand to her heart and said, "Oh, hello there, Doctor. Do—do you have any other names?"

"Nope, just the Doctor," said the Doctor, "and that girl who's in the arena, that's Rose."

"Oh, you know her?" asked Effie, fluffing up her wig as she looked at the Doctor. Haymitch turned his eyes slightly and shook his head at her.

"Yeah, she's my companion," said the Doctor as he straightened and bent forward so that his folded arms were on top of the volume panels on the almost tall bench-like structure in front of him. "She accidentally went into one of those hovercrafts and now. . ."

"She's in the Hunger Games," said Haymitch flatly.

"My goodness. What will the Gamemakers do about her, Haymitch?" asked Effie, turning to the mentor.

"For his sake," Haymitch said, jerking his head in the Doctor's direction, "hopefully they'll just leave her alone. After all, it's not like she's doing anything."

"But what if she wins? What happens then? How will she do the Victory Tours with no mentor—"

"I'm her mentor," said the Doctor, for he had already noticed that was what Haymitch was, and at the moment, he was acting like a mentor.

"Oh, good," said Effie, looking tremendously relieved as she looked to the Doctor. "I'm happy that she'll be all right." She leaned down and said, "Doctor, you never told me where you were from?"

"Ahhh . . . somewhere far away," said the Doctor, leaning away slightly.

"On the other side of the Capitol?" asked Effie, her eyelashes going up and down.

"Nah," the Doctor said, shaking his head. "No, um . . . just far away."

"Really?" asked Effie, and Haymitch sighed and grabbed her bow that she had tied around her skinny waist and pulled her away from the Doctor. "Haymitch!" said Effie, straightening and looking like she wanted to swat him.

The Doctor straightened and said, "So, um, do we just wait, then?"

"Until the end or until they need something," said Haymitch, standing up. Effie looked at him huffily as she fixed her wig. "I'm going to see if I can get some sponsors for these kids. We're going to need as many as we can get."

"What should I do?" asked the Doctor as Effie and Haymitch headed to the door.

"Act like a mentor. Keep an eye on them," said Haymitch before he let Effie go through. "Just . . ." he sighed and closed the door behind him.

The Doctor turned back from the closed door and looked at the massive array of screens. On them were several different angles. There were some sickly looking tributes crawling around. There were some hefty looking Careers dividing up the weapons; Rose was still walking with her group, and the Doctor silently wished that she would survive and not leave him.

"C'mon Rose, you can do it," he murmured under his breath when he saw her trying nuts, which didn't seem poisonous. After her group was all given nuts, they continued walking, leaving the Doctor's eyes to wander, knowing that Rose was protected by four other people, including a girl with an axe.

Haymitch's tributes, the girl with the braid and the blond boy, were walking with the tributes from 4, a handsome young man and an old lady who resembled a raisin. The Doctor regained his position with his fingers clasped over his nose when suddenly the blond haired boy hit some invisible force and was thrown back. The Doctor immediately straightened and started to call loudly, his eyes never leaving the screen, "Haymitch, HAYMITCH!"

At his voice, Effie calmly strolled in and said, "What happened?"

"One of his got shocked by what seems to be some sort of magnetic force field. He was the wrong kind of magnetic and he was rejected, and knocked out," said the Doctor, getting out of his chair and standing in front of the biggest of the screens, which portrayed the unconscious boy.

"Peeta!" shrieked Effie, and she instantly disappeared out the door to fetch Haymitch.

The Doctor watched, his knuckles white as they gripped the panel, as the handsome young man bent over Peeta, who didn't look like he was moving.

"Peeta!" yelled the girl with the braided hair, and she was shoved, nearly punched out of the way so that the handsome man could start performing CPR on Peeta.

The Doctor's stomach turned at the sight and he found himself whispering, "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon. . ."

Their other companion, an old woman, watched from her tree that she was propped up against as the girl breathed heavily and the handsome man began breathing into his mouth. Effie and Haymitch burst in, Haymitch first. He lunged toward his chair and watched, saying, "What the hell happened?"

"Peeta hit a magnetic force field. With him not being the proper magnet, it propelled him. I think his heart stopped," said the Doctor.

"Finnick is KISSING him!" Effie shrieked.

"He's performing CPR, princess," Haymitch grumbled quickly, his eyes on the screen.

The three of them watched, spellbound, as Finnick pumped at Peeta's chest and breathed into his mouth, bringing his lungs back to life. They waited anxiously for minutes, the Doctor's knuckles growing whiter, Haymitch's face more sullen, and Effie's face purely frightened.

Within several minutes, however, Peeta let out a little cough and Finnick leaned back. The girl with the braid shoved forward and says, close to Peeta, "Peeta?"

He replied weakly and Haymitch let out a breath as he said, "The star-crossed lovers remain."

"Oh, thank goodness," said Effie, fanning herself with her hand. "I-I need to sit down." She walked over and sat on one of the beds behind the Doctor's chair.

The Doctor, a thoughtful frown on his face, slowly sat back down in his chair, his eyes still on the biggest screen, his thought process saying that they would only show Rose if something was happening within her group. His eyes looked about the girl and Peeta and he said softly, curiously, turning to Haymitch, "What do you mean? Star-crossed lovers?"

"You haven't heard of the star-crossed lovers?" asked Effie, surprised and loud, who, seemingly fully recovered, went on tiptoe (a hard feat in high heels) and took her place between Haymitch and the Doctor. "They're only the most famous couple in Panem! Oh, the star-crossed lovers. . ."

The Doctor said in a polite voice, "I wasn't asking you."

Effie nodded her stilted head and said, "Oh, Haymitch, tell him! Tell him! He must know about Katniss and Peeta!"

Haymitch sighed, one of his hand mopping his face, stopping at his stubbled chin. "Do you want to know?"

"I really wouldn't mind knowing," said the Doctor, shrugging as his eyes flickered away from Haymitch a moment to look at Rose. She was simply walking, an arm around Wiress's shoulders to keep her up; her face showed a bit of frustration but the Doctor knew that she was keeping it all inside.

Haymitch sighed as his tributes started walking again and started to explain to the Doctor the story of the star-crossed lovers of District 12.

"That's amazing," said the Doctor after Haymitch finished, his face annoyed and his voice gone raspy.

"Isn't it?" sighed Effie. She had pulled up a chair between them and was looking admiringly at the Doctor. Haymitch threw her a look and then sighed.

"So . . ." the Doctor said, "she's pregnant?" He said this making air quotes.

"Yes," said Effie, and for the first time since the Doctor met her, she sounded tearful. "Isn't it just the saddest thing? Newly married, expecting a child, and then thrown together into the arena! A truly tragic love story." She pulled out a hanky and started to sniffle, dabbing at her eyes dramatically.

"Yeah, a kid," said Haymitch. He shifted around in his seat and said, "Poor kid."

The Doctor nodded slowly to himself. By the way that Haymitch had described that part of the story, he knew that it was fake. It was so blatantly obvious it was very weird of Effie not to have noticed that the whole thing was a setup.

The Doctor turned back to the screen, and he immediately saw Rose. She was with her group, in the corner screen. Left off, most likely not the camera being broadcasted to all of Panem, but she was still there, she was still walking and Johanna had not got into a fit of temper and killed her yet.

Rose smiled as they walked and the Doctor couldn't help but smile as well.

"You'll be all right," he said quietly, to her, even though she was very, very far away from him. He only hoped that the magnetic force field didn't get her first.

Yay! I hope you liked it, and thanks for reading!