Holly was used to the drill by now. She stepped through her room's door as if she was leaving for the commons, only for it to lead to the blank-white prep room. A platform, as white as everything else in the room, rose from the floor. On it lay her gear- a Neutrino 3000, her helmet, and pleasantly, a set of mechanical wings.

These should prove useful. Being stuck on the ground all the time sure can get annoying.

She tightened the strap on her helmet and buckled on the wings, snapping shut the clasp across her chest. She slipped the Neutrino into her leg holster and walked toward the far wall, which opened onto the arena.

It was an unusual scene, one Holly had not expected. By the Master of Games' description, she would have assumed the setting would be something modern, with the mansion placed in the center of a park, or perhaps on a private island. Instead, she stepped onto what looked like a bizarre combination of a medieval city and the architecture of the Renaissance, wrapped around the edges in shadow. The streets were cobblestone, but a tight, well-paved fit. The buildings were clearly European in design, with clay-brown shingled roofs, and seemed to be of a much more modern design than the streets. Holly turned around and found the source of the shadow- behind her, the door to her prep room having disappeared, was a massive wall. In fact, the entire city seemed to be surrounded by them. They were easily more than forty meters in height. They dominated the skyline, casting their dark forms over the extremities of the city they protected. Down the streets Holly could see no obvious trace of any form of mansion.

"This is going to be a long round, isn't it?" she said, to no one in particular.

She fired up her wings and began to circle the perimeter of the city at low altitude, looking for a street that might give her a fair line of sight to her goal. Across the rooftops, she saw flickers of light popping in the distance.

People are finding each other. The battles are beginning. Good thing I haven't-

A massive impact knocked her out of control, sending her spiraling toward the ground. Muscular limbs locked around her, pressing sharp steel to her neck. The street amplified the attack, cobblestone working in tandem with her foe. Her helmet's heads-up-display shattered into a crystalline mess. Holly wrenched her head around and flung her Neutrino up, squarely between the eyes of her attacker. Fight-or-flight was subdued by recognition, and the elf lowered her weapon. The girl did not move her swords.

"Mikasa?" strained Holly, short on breath thanks to the girl's crushing grip. Mikasa was silent, her eyes seemingly observing far away events. Holly had seen that look before, whenever Katniss stumbled over the name of the Master of Games, or whenever she strung an arrow. It was the look of a person being tossed into hell a second time.

The girl slowly uncoiled herself from the pin, but continued to keep a sword on Holly's throat.

"Why?" she hissed, pulling her scarf down from over her mouth.

"I don't know," said Holly desperately. "What are you talking about?"

"Why here?" elaborated the girl.

"Want to tell me where here is?"

Mikasa stood, sheathing her swords, and looking across the city. She gave a short sigh.

"This is Shinganshima. This was my world."

"Is that so?" said Holly, lifting herself off the ground. No sooner had she finished standing than she found another sword at her throat.

"I'm not letting you get away that easily. You're behind this somehow," said Mikasa with quite a bit of certainty.

Holly rolled her eyes. "I'm behind this? What makes you think that?"

"Because you are a small titan."

"For the last time, I'm an elf. Could you stop going on about that? I don't even know what a titan is."

Mikasa raised her sword and pointed above Holly's head.

"You really think you're going to get me with that one? The whole dramatic, 'look, it's right behind you' shtick?"

The girl drew her other sword, and sprinted in the opposite direction.

"Okay. I know where this is going. I'm going to save myself some time and skip the whole 'see, I'll look behind me and prove it's not there, holy crap it's there' bit. I'll just skip to the running."

Holly leapt forward and engaged her wings, jetting just out of reach as a huge hand tore a chunk out of the street where she once was. Holly spun and observed the creature as she landed on a nearby rooftop. The titan, as Mikasa had called it, resembled the mythical giants of yore. For the most part, it was human in shape, even though its proportions were ungainly. The bare body was covered in blemished peachy skin, but it seemed devoid of any of sort of reproductive organs. Its dull, searching eyes pointed to a distinct lack of intelligence as well as shame. Its head was covered in a mat of greasy-looking long blonde hair, and it wore a terrifyingly wide smile filled with pearly-white, flat teeth.

"That is exceedingly unsettling!" called Holly. The titan realized it had missed and located the elf. It began to advance toward her rooftop perch.

"Hey, Mikasa! Is there any way to, I don't know, kill this thing?" as Holly shouted she realized that she didn't know where the girl had gotten to. She looked around frantically, spotting the girl running toward the creature down an adjacent street. Holly caught the titan's motions out of the corner of her eye and jumped in time to avoid a swipe of its hand. She engaged her wings and picked up altitude, floating just out of the titan's reach.

What is she up to? thought the elf as she watched Mikasa dash at the creature.

Mikasa jumped into the air, and cables shot from the bulky machinery hung around her waist and embedded themselves in the buildings lining the street. She swung forward, propelled by some sort of vapor trail. As she reached the apex of her arc, the cables detached from the buildings and retracted into the device, flinging her at breakneck speed toward the titan. Its arm was still bent over the building that Holly had been standing on, exposing its broad back. Mikasa twisted in mid-air, and extended her swords. A chunk of flesh fell from the titan's neck, and it slumped over the building, steam rising from its limp body.

Holly flew to where Mikasa had landed, where she was surprised to find that the girl had survived such a fall. In fact, she seemed no worse for wear at all. She flicked the blades, shaking off the blood that coated them.

"Any particular reason for the neck-shot?" asked the elf.

"Only way to keep them down," said the girl, sheathing her swords.

"Okay, I get it. That's why they gave you that doohickey," Holly said, motioning toward the 3D Maneuver Gear.

"That's right."

"So… what's the plan then?"

"Plan? You think I'm just going to team up with you? I still think you're responsible for this."

"After that thing tried to kill me?"

"Maybe you could be useful as a distraction."

"Even if you know this place like the back of your hand, you're not going to be able to do this alone. Besides, we worked together before," persuaded the elf.

Mikasa gave her a venomous look.

"Follow me," she said, walking toward the walls.

"Where are we going?"

"Home."