(A/N) HAPPY HUNGER GAMES AND MAY THE GODS BE EVER IN YOUR FAVOR!

Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games or PJO.

Chapter One: Defeat

Leo POV

At first, all I could register was the excruciating pain and the guilt, which was even more painful than the agony itself. My guards, two buff Laistrygonian Giants, had broken both my legs to discourage escape after that last attempt. Even then I doubted I'd be able to dart away from these huge monsters. They dragged me down the dimly lit, cold, dark, hallways; each guard carrying one of my arms. I didn't even bother to try and walk or thrash as they dragged me down the corridor; life was over. The seven had been beaten.

I remember the defeat like it was yesterday, though it had been well over a month ago. I had pushed the Argo to into the fastest speed it could go as the rest of the seven, Nico (who had shadow-travelled back to us right after he delivered the statue, Reyna, and Coach Hedge to Half-Blood Hill; insisting that he wanted to help us fight), and I watched in horror as Porphyrion, the Giant king, sacrificed two demigods. We had not known them, for the Giants had given up trying to capture us and had easily captured two other demigods that they managed to get their hands on. Both had been young, roughly fourteen. They had looked so terrified when the tip of Porphyrion's spear had punctured their backs and went through their hearts, coming out of the other side. They had died with their eyes open.

The image of their sightless, glazed eyes had burned onto the backs of my eyelids. Every time I closed my eyes, there the corpses were; staring at me with a lifeless gaze. There had been blood everywhere, spilling across the stones on Mount Olympus (the real Mount Olympus in Greece, not the godly Mount Olympus in the Empire State Building.) The earth had begun to shake and tremble, chasms splitting open in all directions and earthen tendrils swirling out of them. The brown tendrils had merged to form the silhouette of Gaea. She threw back her head and cackled, making the ground shake violently. She turned to look at the Argo, which I had slowed to a halt in midair. Her eyes were no longer closed; they were open and shined with a green light.

Gaea had risen. We had failed. Her hair was a mass of leaves, vines, and earth and it floated around her shoulders as if she were in outer space. Her dress was made of leaves, with a breastplate made of bark. Her fingers had gnarly wooden claws that were chipped and splintered. Her skin was pale and had assumed a greenish tinge. Her lips were the only things that weren't green or brown; they were a blood red. She was a giant; towering taller than two Empire State Buildings stacked on top of each other. She made her children seem like midgets.

"You're too late measly demigods. Now watch as the world falls to the power of Mother Earth!" she cackled wickedly and raised her hands. From the chasms from which she had formed poured forth a horde of monsters, all howling and screeching for blood. Arai and griffons took to the sky and swarmed our ship. We couldn't have possibly killed them all; because every time you killed an arai a curse was settled upon your shoulders and the griffons were too many. Some even carried Cyclopes and dracaene on board with their claws.

I was quickly pried from the wheel and I staggered through the monsters who were mobbing the deck. I felt claws shredding my clothes and ripping at my skin, turning it into minced meat. I screamed in agony and tried to swat them away, but my hands didn't do a very good job of fending off monsters. I tried to pull a hammer from my belt, but my main magic weapon, the thing I held dear, had been torn from my waist and was probably scattered in tiny shreds all across the deck.

I screamed again and shielded my face and eyes as the monsters swarmed me. I looked up to see Jason bending over Piper, who had collapsed onto the ground. Blood was trickling from the corners of her mouth and her eyes were closed. I had no idea whether she was breathing or not. Jason had a wild gleam in his eyes as he slashed savagely at the crowd of monsters with his gladius, shielding Piper with his body.

I screamed his name until my throat was raw and shoved my way through the mass of monsters towards him. My best friend looked up from Piper's seemingly lifeless body and a look of relief spread across his features. His face was marred with scratches and bruises and that little scar on his lip had been split open once more. He looked absolutely terrified, because he knew what I was thinking; this was a battle we could not win. I ran next to him and took over the job of protecting Piper and gave Jason the opportunity to hack through any monster that dared come close. An arai screeched and sliced her claws across his cheek, causing my friend to cry out. He turned her to powder but immediately collapsed onto the ground, screaming. Blood began to seep out of his pores in an awful sight that was not to be beheld. He just kept screaming and screaming; his wails of agony rising over the sound of chaos.

Great. Now I had two friends to protect and no weapon. I summoned fire on my hands and blasted the wood around us in a circle, making a ring of protective flames around me and the bodies of my two collapsed friends. The monsters began to shy away from the wall of fire and melted into the crowd, looking for my other friends to snack on. Piper's eyes fluttered open and she sat up, coughing up blood. She saw Jason collapsed next to her screaming and her screams joined his.

"Sciron." Jason gasped between shrieks. "Cursed me. Slowly torn to shreds by turtle teeth. Turtle's poisonous spit causes bleeding pores. Hurts. Bad."

"Jason! Just…hang in there!" I pleaded. It was the best thing I could say. I could be a too-optimistic loser that said, "Everything is going to be OK" and crap like that. The thing was; it wasn't going to be OK. We were going to lose this battle; this was the one fight that the mighty seven could not win. I tried to fight off the monsters with Jason's gladius, but the sword was too heavy and I was clumsy and too slow. Pretty soon the pain became unbearable and I passed out on top of my friends.

-Ω-

My friends and I had wound up at the Great Giant Prison, which was housed in the crumbling remains of the Empire State Building just to torture us. It was only the four guys of the seven and Nico that resigned here. The girls had been taken off to Gaea's huge palace that was built on the remains of Athens to oblige as Gaea's servants. Our cells were underground, in tunnels that wound their way under the huge building. Huge chunks were missing from the walls and large areas were charred and crumbling. The entire needle on the top had been torn off entirely. Each of the one hundred-two floors had a new torture for us to experience. All of the walls had been on each floor removed to the floor one large room.

One of the three major ones was burning, which they did to my friends but simply chained me down and forced me to watch them and hear their screams of agony. The giants had plated the walls and floor with enchanted metal that wouldn't melt. A large pedestal rose up from the floor that my friends would be forced to kneel on top of. Their wrists, ankles, and biceps would be shackled to the marble and a thick metal collar would be worn around their necks to weigh their heads down. Their shirts would be removed and our main tormentor, Polybotes, would burn designs and words into their skin with a large metal spike that would be heated up in the huge fire pit that in one corner of the huge room.

Next came the slashing. Basically we were chained to the ground and any guard that just happened to be wandering on that floor could take a sword, one of many that lined the walls, and slice our skin until it was turned to minced meat. They'd let us lie there and scream our throats raw for an hour or so before force-feeding us ambrosia so that we could experience it all over again the next day.

Finally there was the mental torture. They'd chain us down onto a huge slab of stone so that our legs were together but our arms were stretched out, just like a person who was crucified. After hearing out our cries to not to, they'd put us under and feed us nightmares. Our worst memories would replay over and over in our minds and our good memories would turn dark. Voices chanted in our minds that the ones we cared for were all dead and they convinced us every m even though we willed ourselves to not believe them. We'd wake up screaming and they'd drag us to the next floor.

There were others, too.

They'd beat us with either clubs or their fists; each blow causing a horrifying bruise to form or even breaking bones. They'd bring us so close to death; so close we could almost taste it and Nico could sense it, then they'd force-feed us ambrosia so that we could live to survive another day of torture.

They'd also force our heads into a tub of water until we passed out. Our lungs would shriek for air and bubbles would stream out of our mouths as we screamed underwater. The water was salty and if we opened our eyes they would sting like hell. When we finally inhaled, water would fill our lungs and we'd black out. Through the water I could hear Percy's desperate cries. He's scream for them to stop, but his pleas would reach dead ears.

We were also strapped into chairs and electrocuted if we didn't give information; each time we were shocked the volts growing. I had no idea whether the worst part was the shocking or the fact that Jason was screaming his throat raw as he watched.

There were countless other tortures, but I couldn't list them all. We'd usually go through the pain together as brothers, but the utmost floors of the ruins of the Empire State Building housed the worst; the ones that you had to brave alone, for they were your fears and yours alone. A floor was dedicated to each of us; five floors for each of our fears.

Percy had said that one of his tortures included his guards shoving him into a tub of muskeg, where he'd thrash and scream until the mud filled his mouth and lungs and he'd pass out. Only then did they hoist him up. He would've died every time if some of the medics, who were children of Apollo that were brought from Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter, would perform CPR and mouth-to-mouth.

Speaking of, the two camps were now prisons. Every demigod had been captured, including the Hunters of Artemis. The barriers had been destroyed and New Rome and the cabins at Camp Half-Blood had been burned to the ground, replaced by specialized cells to house children of certain gods. Outside of the doors of the Aphrodite/Venus cells were earplugs for the monsters so that they couldn't be effected by charmspeak. The Hermes/Mercury cell had no windows or locks, for the crafty demigods would simply steal the keys off a guard, pick the lock, or somehow escape through the window. Instead they had one of those one-way walls that Percy had described when Nico accidentally gave him over to Hades and the god had imprisoned him.

All of my memories, even the ones of Calypso, who had been brutally murdered right in front of me, had turned dark. There was no happiness or hope in me anymore. No jokes, no smiles, no laughs; just a shell of what once was the happy-go-lucky Leo Valdez.

As I was dragged down the hallway, I knew that there was no hope left. We'd be tortured until we died and that would be that. The world had crumbled; all mortals and animals, including mythological ones such as pegasi and unicorns, were dead except for the ones that Gaea kept in brutal zoos that baby monsters and their parents could marvel at. The gods had been cast into Tartarus, which was now devoid of all monsters unless they died of old age, to be tortured for the rest of eternity. Even with my broken mind I knew that there was no hope left. It was over. Evil had overcome the good for once.

-Ω-

Percy POV

I curled up next to Jason and wrapped my arms tightly around him. Nico leaned against my back and Frank was pressed against Jason's. It was so cold and dark. Our breaths came out in puffs of steam and I knew that our clothes, which were torn to the point where only strings were holding them together, offered us no warmth. My fingers and toes began to numb, but I didn't care. My chest was warm against Jason's and his hand grasped mine. Our cheeks touched and I felt silent tears trickling down his face.

We were on the edge of insanity, but Polybotes wouldn't let us go. They wouldn't let our sanity leave us, because then we'd finally be free. Inanity was Heaven, for it would let our souls leave these wretched bodies, even if it reduced us to blabbering freaks. It would be the time where we could be…peaceful.

Everything hurt; both mentally and physically. I wanted to kill myself, but there was nothing to kill myself with. I wanted them to get on with it; drive me insane or kill me, I didn't want to suffer like this. It hurt so bad I found myself crying silently along with Jason. He didn't deserve this torture. He was younger than me and I felt an urge of protectiveness, even though he was a few inches taller. I squeezed his hand encouragingly, but he didn't squeeze back.

We'd tried everything; from starving ourselves to trying to anger our guards so they'd beat us to death. That was not the case. They fed us so scarcely that whenever they did feed us they held us down and forced the food down our throats. And no matter how angry they got, they always force-fed us ambrosia and the wounds would heal.

A special part of my torture aside from the muskeg was a little thing Polybotes liked to call "Wishing you were never a demigod." It was the exact thing he'd threatened to do to me when I was defending New Rome. He had guards chain me to the bottom of a tank of water and then he'd squeeze into a suit and mask so that none of his skin touched the water; therefore it didn't turn to poison. He'd climb into the tank and sink to the bottom. Then he'd beat me. He'd beat me so hard and so much I could feel my life slipping away. He'd lash me and hit me as if I was his punching bag.

Right when I thought I was going to finally be free of my body, he'd stop. Then, no matter how much I willed it not to, the water would heal me and my energy and essence would return into my body. I'd scream and wail and sob. I'd been so close; so close to being unrestricted, yet the opportunity had slipped away from me. One more lash from his whip would've ended my miserable life right there, but he wanted me alive.

I didn't want to be alive. Not at all. You may call me the almighty Perseus Jackson; Hero of Olympus, destroyer of Kronos, slayer of armies, survivor of Tartarus, but to me I was simply a plaything for the Giants. They'd do whatever they wanted to me, and I would be obedient and not resist while they beat me and threw me a round like a doll. That's what I was, a doll. A lifeless, soulless, hopeless thing that you could take your anger out on. What's a doll going to do? Nothing at all.

I snuggled closer to Jason and buried my head into his shoulder. I felt my tears soaking his back and I felt his tears do the same. People always say 'You have so much to live for' or 'Life's worth living.' The problem is that life isn't worth living if you have nothing to live for.

-Ω-

Frank POV

Nico and I had let Jason and Percy curl up in the middle. We didn't care if we froze to death; that would be a plus when it came to living here. I could barely open my eyes. I felt Jason's breathing as our backs touched; it was rough and ragged just like everyone else's. All I wanted to do was curl into a ball and die. Hunger gnawed at my insides, but I knew not to get any hope; the guards force-fed us every three days and that includes a drink as well. I know it doesn't sound like such a long time, but its seventy-two hours. Now does it sound like a long time?

My piece of firewood had long since been confiscated and it was now somewhere in the wreckage of the world; collecting dust, since that's pretty much what the world was now. Just scraggly, leafless trees and bushes, dust, rocks, and dirt. A LOT of dirt. They knew that it would never be burned out there, so I could never just have Leo set it on free so I could kill myself.

The cell door squealed and Leo was tossed inside. He landed face-down and the door closed behind him. All of us turned to him and he didn't move. I thought he was dead, because good for him, then. But then he stirred. I knew he was at that excruciatingly frustrating point where you are almost dead but can't quite seem to die. Percy, Jason, Nico, Leo, and I started calling it the Edge. Well Leo was on the Edge and all of us pulled ourselves up using the wall and staggered over to him.

"Tried. Escape. Broke. Legs." He said hoarsely, his voice filled with pain.

"Leo!" Jason sobbed into his hands and his wobbly legs gave way. I tried to help him keep his balance, but I was as weak as he was and we both collapsed. Nico walked up Leo and placed two fingers on his temple. He frowned.

"So close, Leo, but not quite. You're on the Edge." He mumbled. Leo wailed and slammed his fists on the stone floor. He cursed and sobbed and buried his face in his arms.

"SOMEONE BEAT ME TO DEATH!" he screamed. He looked at us with begging eyes. "Please?" he whimpered. It wrenched my heart in two to see his large, brown eyes so full of pain. They had a broken look to them; like shattered glass that would never be put back together again.

"I would if I could, Leo. I'm so weak I doubt I could make you even wince, much less beat you to death." Percy sighed and helped Nico heft him up. Leo screamed, but all of us had had practice blocking screams out and they managed to prop him up against one of the walls.

Nico looked Leo straight in the eyes. In the dark his pale skin looked even paler. I could see the scars that Polybotes had given him through all of the holes he had in his black shirt. "Leo, I'm going to set the bones so that they don't grow back crooked. It's going to hurt." The son of Hades warned.

"NO DON'T SET THEM. I WANT TO DIE. I want to die…" Leo's voice cracked and faded into sobbing.

"It's not going to kill you if they grow in crooked. It'll just give you more time on the Edge and you won't be able to walk." Nico snorted. Jason, who was wiping the last of his tears away with his hand, knelt beside his best friend and held his hand. I could see how tightly Leo was squeezing Jason's hand; the son of Jupiter's fingers were turning purple.

Nico set the first leg, causing Leo to shriek. Jason tensed, but his eyes were shut tight so that he couldn't see Leo's look of agony. Jason's fingers were turning even a deeper shade of purple as Nico set the other leg. Leo continued to scream for a good five minutes after his legs were set, but eventually a worried-looking Jason managed to calm him down.

"Even though I know with all of the stuff that's going on this is going to be impossible; but try not to move your legs too much." Nico advised solemnly. That's when the two Laistrygonian Giants burst into the cell. Leo wailed and the Laistrygonian Giants made scary faces and pretended to lunge at us just to get us scared.

"Boss wants you." One of the big hairy brutes grunted. He didn't point to anyone in particular, so I supposed he meant all of us. I was thankful that I didn't have to go anywhere alone. With my friends, as broken as they were, I still felt protected and safe when I was around them. The other Laistrygonian watched us narrowly as Jason picked Leo up and carried him out of the cell and we followed.

There were only two guards. If we'd been at full strength, we could've taken them out easy. Sadly, between the lack of food and sleep and the torture our powers were weak. I haven't been able to change into an animal, no matter how small, since a week after we arrived in this torture facility. It simply takes too much energy and Jason and Leo haven't been able to conjure a spark of fire or electricity for just as long. Percy and Nico's powers remained dormant, since all the water in this place was enchanted for anti-Poseidon-spawn purposes and the floors were enchanted for anti-Hades-spawn purposes.

The monsters led us along through the underground corridors and onto the first floor. This was the only floor that didn't have a torture waiting for us. It was huge and a dracaene stood behind a desk reading a scroll, her snake-tails-for-feet and mass of snakes for hair wriggling and coiling. Percy had told us that a security guard used to sit there and you'd have to speak with him to get to Olympus, on the six hundredth floor. Unfortunately the security guard was no longer there and the elevators to Olympus were broken and beat-up; for Olympus was destroyed. Now everywhere you went you had to take the stairs.

"Wait." One of the guards grunted. So we did. The dracaene never looked up from her scroll and the Laistrygonian Giants watched us like hawks to see if we'd make any sudden escape attempts. But we were too broken to do that. Besides, where would we escape to? The barren, desolate wasteland that was once Earth? Certainly not. Camp Jupiter and Camp Half-Blood weren't even considered a home anymore. It was simple; there was no escape, even though the doors that led out to the remains of New York City were within sight.

That's when Porphyrion barged in, escorted by two other Laistrygonian Giants, though I doubt that the mighty giant king needed an escort; he had the world at his scaly, reptilian feet and with a flick of his wrist he could destroy it. He was at his peak of power. Gaea ruled by his side and the Giants replaced the Olympians on their Olympus; Mount Terra, though they called it the Capitol. The Capitol was basically the new Olympus, except more evil. Mount Terra lay in Rome; a huge jagged mountain that jutted in the middle of the crumbling ruins. On top was the Capitol; the meeting place of the Giants and Gaea, the throne room to be exact. All of the monster army's generals and commanders lived towards the bottom of Mount Terra so that they could be shadowed by the Capitol.

The Giants had individual palaces, though, and they destroyed their godly counterpart's homes as well; Neptune's (Poseidon, whatever) underwater kingdom was gone and all the other gods' homes were destroyed. Even Mount Orthrys had been demolished, though they still kept Atlas where he was. The titans still roamed the pit to wallow in their failure; the Giants had succeeded and they had not, though some chose to join the Giants' army such as Typhon, Hyperion, and Krios.

"Alright boys, I'm going to make this quick. As a present for my wonderful mother's birthday, I am holding something called the Hunger Games. You'll get to meet your girlfriends again, but sadly you'll have to fight to the death, along with five of some of the demigods who have joined my cause. Only one can be the victor, and they will be living in the lap of luxury, showered with riches and another plus: no torture and you are free to kill yourselves if you'd like. You have to get sponsors, though, because sponsors can pay to have gifts sent to you that just might save your lives. The more sponsors you have, the better." Porphyrion explained to us shortly. "First you have to spend a month in the Districts that we've created, though."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold up." Percy made a time-out gesture with his hands.

"So you're saying you're going to throw us into an arena to fight to the death with the people who've become like family along with five other strangers after living in these places for a month that you've created for us." He summed up.

"Pretty much." Porphyrion snorted.

"So no torture in these 'Districts' as you call them?" Percy asked curiously. The son of Poseidon seemed fairly excited despite the fact that he was going to be forced to fight all of us to the death.

"No torture." Porphyrion confirmed. He seemed fairly amused; he had a slight smile playing on his lips. Now I was interested. A place where there's no torture? As a guy who's been basically living a life of torture for a month I was beginning to feel anticipation gnawing at my stomach. It could be the hunger, though. Wait. I made a joke. I actually made a joke.

"Is there food?" Percy asked. I could hear the sound of five stomachs growling loudly at the mention of food.

"I can't promise that." Porphyrion admitted. I didn't care. No torture? Was in. Besides, there still was a chance that there could be food.

"Fine by me." Percy scoffed. "As long as there's no muskeg." He added.

"Any more questions?" Porphyrion asked. Nico raised his hand and Porphyrion pointed to him as if this were a typical school lesson.

"What exactly do we have to do in these Districts and how do we get sponsors?" Nico questioned.

"I'll tell you on the ride." Porphyrion answered, a grin spreading across his features.

"What ride?" All of us asked in unison.