"Now, Cato dear, I'm going to have to ask you to close your eyes…"

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A/N: Alright, I know it's been a few days, but I just started college! I'm just finishing my first week of classes. We just got moved into our dorms and I found myself with a spare hour, so I tried to push this chapter out.

Chapter Three: Tests

When I first walked in, I expected everything was going to be alright. Calpurnia didn't look much different than any of the other Capitol bimbos who frequented my district, and she didn't inspire any more fear in me than a mouse to a lion. But the trouble with mice? When you aren't looking, they can get into all sorts of trouble.

"Can I open them now?" I asked. Only silence answered my question. She must have scurried away. I opened my eyes to find my world completely changed. The woman and the desk had vanished, and the room was encased in an eerie light. I heard the sound of the Capitol woman's voice call out from the walls where there must have been an intercom of some sort.

"Let's see how well you conquer your fears, shall we?" she said, a lilt of excitement creeping into her voice. I suddenly felt the urge to strangle her. Whatever this place was, it felt like a smaller, one-man version of the games, and I didn't want any part in it. Everything felt surreal and strange, but even worse…

Something under my feet was moving.

The walls were changing right before my eyes, turning bumpy and golden in color. They rounded off into strange hexagonal shapes, oozing a dripping liquid.

I jumped back to avoid the growing sensation that I was doomed, only to find my feet landing on something slippery. I fell right to the ground, surrounded by something sticky sweet. The ground where I had been standing previously started shaking, creaking, cracking, until suddenly a massive swarm of over-sized Tracker Jackers came zipping out from the cracks in the floor.

Remembering how much agony I had felt when Katniss had unleashed them upon my tribute group during the games, I curled into a ball on the ground, trying to avoid the stinging sensation as they flew around me. The humming buzz of their wings was almost too much to bear, and when one flew close behind my neck, I fought hard not to scream as I anticipated the horrors to come. I could feel the tips of its wings glancing across my skin, but I didn't feel anything more. They weren't stinging me. Confused, I slowly stood up, cautious as to why I hadn't been stung yet when I was so clearly surrounded.

Casting my eyes around the room, I could see that the entire area had been turned into one big nest, and I was standing at its center. Everywhere around me, all I could see was colored golden and black. Except for one thing, a weird thing to be seeing under the circumstances…

And suddenly, I knew why they hadn't been stinging me. They were after my brother. Frade was falling feebly to the ground, the beasts surrounding the air, encompassing him. But his voice still rang out, "Cato! Cato! Help me! Please…" he begged. "Please! PLEASE!" His yells grew frantic, as I fought the sticky ground, trying to get to my feet, unaware of how he could have gotten here.

The boy who cried at a paper cut. My poor, helpless younger brother. They were swarming around him, puncturing his skin with their stinging needles. How could he hold up to so much pain? I thrust myself to my feet, my shoes squelching against the honey-coated ground. Frade's voice was going quiet, and I was growing increasingly desperate.

"Please, Calpurnia! Stop this! You're hurting him!" I yelled frantically, hoping she could stop this madness.

The Capitol woman didn't answer; I didn't know if she was even listening anymore, if she was around, if she even cared. It was only me. I was the only one who could save my brother, and I couldn't get there in time. I stepped forward again slowly, and felt my foot strike painfully against something metallic, hidden beneath the surface of the nest. Reaching down with a growl, I felt around for the sharp object, my hand encased in the golden liquid until I struck up against something solid and deadly pointed.

My sword. It was the same one I had used in my Games, and I grabbed for it with a feeling of elation. With this, I could do anything. It took all of my strength to pull it from the sticky substance, and when I pulled it out I knew I had done the wrong thing.

All of the Tracker Jackers had left my brother, turned towards me, and flown closer with deadly accuracy. They knew that I had turned into the enemy, and I was planning to kill them. The first one stung my left shoulder, its legs clinging to my coated skin. I stabbed at it viciously with my sword, slicing it in two. The others followed after, enraged by their fallen comrade, coming ever closer.

I glanced to where Frade had been standing moments ago, and now all I could see was a faint glitter in the air. A shimmer, of sorts, like a chink in the wall just behind where he once stood. Was this what the Director had meant, about illusions?

The buzzing enemy was upon me now, shimmering slightly like the spot my brother had been, and as I felt their stabbing stings here and there, the pain brought me to my knees. I tried to comfort myself as my vision distorted, and the walls around me melted and shrank, my brain flooding over with the hallucinations.

"It's just an illusion…Only an illusion," I told myself softly, my arm feebly stirring, trying to cut, stab, slice at any enemy I could reach.

"IT'S AN ILLUSION!" I yelled, hoping that my last thought could be some form of answer, and it was.

The sensation of agony ceased to exist. Once the realization struck me, it was as if nothing had ever happened. I was standing back in the same room I had stood in moments ago, as if it had all been a dream. The desk was across from me again, the woman looking up at me from behind her glasses, setting her papers down.

"Oh, you've done marvelously, Cato dear!" she called out to me, walking over as if to hug me, her arms spread wide, a smile gracing her face.

"You've got some brains in there after all, saying as this is what the Director was worried about, that you might not have the intelligence for the job. Most career thugs don't, but I'm so glad you figured out that everything was an illusion, so very glad!" She came closer, arms reaching through the air, but I wasn't about to touch her.

Well, not in the way she wanted me to. I lunged forward and before she could move, I had her locked, one hand on her jaw and the other at the top of her head, exactly how I had killed Chip, and very nearly killed Peeta. Easily able to snap her neck.

"I hope you saw my Games, Calpurnia. I hope you remember what happens next, once I've trapped you. Because if you or anyone else in this damn hell-hole ever uses my brother against me again, I will not hesitate to remind you very, very clearly."

I could feel her take a deep gulp under my hands. It took every ounce of willpower I could to release her, and she stepped back, rubbing her jaw with a disgruntled look on her face. I needed her alive so I could get my answers.

"Now, you're going to tell me what this little test has been about, you're going to tell me whether or not you have my brother, and you're going to tell me exactly how everything is going to go from here on out, because if I have to play one more little game or do one more little test, I will take your life away from you like the feeble existence it is," I snarled, my eyes dark, while Calpurnia backed away slowly.

I moved towards her, and she continued backing up, until the door behind me opened gently and Rue stepped back in quiet as a whisper. Calpurnia took one last look at my burning eyes, turned around and ran from the room.

I strode to follow her, outraged, until Rue grabbed at the back of my shirt. Frustrated at her interruption, I shoved my elbow back into her stomach, watching her fall to the ground as I stormed from the room.

"Cato…" she said quietly, holding her gut, wincing at the force I had used. It was enough to distract me from my mission, and I turned around to spit a retort at the little girl. But for some reason, seeing her lying on the ground, I was reminded of my little brother. That would have hurt him too, to be thrown down so hard. I bit back my words of anger, and sighed. Calpurnia was surely too far gone to pursue by now.

"What, Rue? You've been here longer than I have; don't you realize how ridiculous all of this is?" She shook her head, as I helped her back to her feet. "It's not as strange as you think. So much of the Capitol relies on illusion, Cato. The illusion of the Games, the illusion of death, of pain, suffering, the illusion of power," she said softly, glancing around as if someone could punish her for her words any moment, before continuing, "The illusion they've raised you to fall for. In eleven, we're one of the weaker Districts. We don't get the benefit of being close to the capitol, of getting better food, better sponsors, a better life. But we are much, much better off than you could ever know. Being separated from the Capitol by so many differences enables us to avoid the illusions. We know they're evil, we know their Hunger Games aren't a victory worth winning… But you've been raised to believe that being a tribute is the highest honor you can receive. It's not. It's a death sentence, as you've probably learned by now. And unlike the others in the Districts, you and I and the other supposed 'dead' tributes know the truth about their weapons. It's only an illusion. Once you realize that, it all stops hurting. It's all in your head."

Rue blinked slowly, as if to give me time to think it all over. "Whatever you saw during your test was just as tangible as anything else, but it wasn't real. You will learn to recognize the lies from the reality soon. It's all a matter of looking for a soft-spot, a sort of chink in the vision, a part where it doesn't seem to fit. Many people who have seen this falsely believe it's just a mistake in the object, a weakness. But it isn't. It's the location that the creators of this technology haven't learned to fully cover. It's like an artist who paints on a canvas, but he can never quite make it three dimensional, even if it looks as realistic as possible. It's the greatest sign that what you're looking at isn't really there. It's everywhere in the Districts, I've only learned it now because I'm privy to a lot of strange secrets in this place. Some of the Peacekeepers, the weapons, even some of the Capitol's own citizens are an illusion to make their control look stronger, more absolute. They are much more vulnerable than you've been raised to think."

I had walked slowly backwards while she was speaking, until my back was up against the wall. Rue was leaning slightly against the wall besides me. Somehow, when she explained it, everything seemed much more real to me than when the Director had. There really were illusions all around us. It was an impossible thought.

My world, everything I had always known, wasn't the same place I thought it was. The power that held the Districts together wasn't a strong chain, it was a weakening rope, and it wouldn't be long now before it would unravel and fall away completely. If only I could get to the surface, tell my people what I had learned… But they'd never listened. I know I wouldn't have, until I'd seen as much as I had today. The Capitol put bread on our table, fed us, respected us even. Why should we turn against them? Yet, if everything was as Rue had told me, then all of that was a lie. My District was living on a false truth, comforted by illusions and bowing down to the weakest of Gods, the God of corruption and greed.

I swallowed tightly. "So my brother…?"

"If you saw him in your test, he wasn't really there. He's safe."

I smiled gently in relief, and Rue spoke again. "Anyways, I just came to tell you that your test is over. Calpurnia sent in a job request for you during your test and it was accepted. You've been determined useful to the Director."

I looked sharply at her. "How so? What will I be doing?"

Rue smiled back at me, but this time it seemed a bit more of an ironic smirk than anything.

"You're going to spy on Katniss Everdeen."

A/N: I know the chapters seem a bit short right now, but once the suspense is done building and we get a little more into where this story is headed, they'll start getting longer. Right now, it's going from one main event to the next and I can only dedicate one chapter per thing so I can keep my muse going. And again, if anyone is interested in being a Beta for this story to check grammar, plot growth, and to motivate me in general, please feel free to say it in a review or PM. Thanks for reading, and don't forget to review!