Hey guys! so here's the new chapter, sorry for the cliffy... again... and, I won't spoil anything, but SO NOT MY LINE!
And I've been forgetting to credit the person who helped me a lot with the arena, Sandraugia, a friend of mine who was all in for the snakes and the scorpions ;) Enjoy this chapter and please review!


Cas, you there?

Dean quickly made a decision. He scooped Jo up and, ignoring her protests, bolted towards the enemy.

"Scorpions!" he yelled, "Run!"

Him running, covered in blood, and carrying a half-unconscious girl was proof enough that they were in real trouble.

"Follow me," Cas breathed, running away as he watched the wave of scorpions rolling close.

Dean followed him and Balthazar without thinking twice.

"What if it's a trap?" Jo whispered weakly.

"It probably is a trap," Dean panted. "But on the other hand, scorpions."

Castiel ran in front of him, trench coat flying behind him like a pair of wings. He led them into a shallow cave.

Dean, carrying Jo, and Balthazar followed him, but they had to stop immediately, bare feet and shoes scraping over the hard, stone ground. The cave was barely ten feet deep and the scorpions were surrounding the entrance.

"Castiel you moron!" Balthazar swore. "We're going to get eaten alive by scorpions! We're going to die! Well," he shrugged. "The girl is going to die anyway."

Dean gave him a dirty look, but Jo was to blacked out to notice.

The scorpions edged around the entrance of the cave, but stopped there, clacking their jaws and tensing their tails.

"They're not entering." Dean breathed, scared. He could feel the adrenaline pumping through his veins and the little scorpion bites on his arms and legs started bleeding again.

He put Jo down on the ground and covered her in the blankets from their backpack. The fever had backed down a little but it hadn't broken yet.

"Maybe it's too cold in the caves," Balthazar breathed.

"It's barely ten feet deep." Dean said, getting up. "It can't be that much of a difference."

He subtly rested his hand on the hilt of his dagger. Balthazar noticed and mimicked his movements.

He shook his head. "Not tonight, scouts honour," Balthazar turned to Castiel. "How did you know the scorpions wouldn't follow us in here?"

"I didn't," Castiel shrugged. "I guessed that, since the fireflies wouldn't follow us either, the scorpions would stay from the caves too."

"You guessed?" Balthazar rolled his eyes annoyed.

"First things first," Castiel turned to Dean. "How long has she been having the fever and when was she poisoned?"

"She was poisoned three days ago and the fever started yesterday." Dean answered quick. He hoped Castiel would know something about the poison. "I tried sucking it out but apparently it didn't work."

Castiel nodded and pulled something out of the pocket of his trench coat, broke it in two halves and gave one to Jo. "Chew on this, it'll break the fever and ease the headache."

"Whoa-" Dean protested. "What if it's poison?"

"Don't you value the friendship we shared in the training centre?" Castiel frowned, insulted.

Balthazar smirked behind his back. "Tables have turned Cassie, the games are on and no-one is to be trusted anymore."

Castiel gave him a dirty look at 'Cassie', but didn't comment on it.

He nodded to Dean: "It's the moss we walk on, it has healing properties."

"How the Hell did you find out?" Dean frowned.

"We got hungry," Balthazar said. "And it fixed my migraine. The little white flowers are edible too."

"What little white flowers?" Dean asked. He felt like he had seen nothing of the Arena.

"The ones that disappear in the starlight." Balthazar said. "Oh- you two got the flashlights right? Well, congratulations, those were the only two goddamn flashlights in the entire Game!"

Dean grinned.

Castiel demonstrated that the moss wasn't poisonous by sticking the bigger half into his mouth and chewing violently.

"Okay, I believe you," Dean nodded. "Jo can eat the moss."

"Joy," She said weakly. She stuck the smaller piece in her mouth and started chewing, slowly and slightly disgusted.

Castiel unwrapped the bandage around Jo's wrist, jerking his head back from the smell of decay.

"Do you have more of this?" he held the dirty bandage up.

Dean fished their first aid kit out of his bag. "It's my last bit," he said. "But I kept all the dirty bandage so we can boil them."

"Recycling in the Games, what a mindset!" Balthazar mumbled uninterested.

Castiel took the bandage and spat the chewed up moss out on it, smearing it in Jo´s wrist wound. She groaned.

"Try to sleep the fever off," Castiel sighed. He looked towards the entrance of the cave and the gigantic amount of scorpions surrounding it and sat back. "We´re going to be stuck here anyway, for at least the rest of the day. Or night. I don´t know."

Castiel and Jo quickly dozed off, but both Balthazar and Dean remained wide awake, having some sort of majorly important stare down.

"You can go to sleep if you want," Balthazar said after a while. "I´ll keep watch."

"So you can slice mine and Jo´s throat?" Dean smirked. "No way in Hell."

Balthazar tried to look insulted, but the wide grin on his face sort of ruined that. "Oh- that´s rude, as I said before, scouts honour, I won´t kill you, not tonight, not in this cave. Trust me."

"I trust you about as far as I can spit," Dean growled.

"Oh- I bet you..." Balthazar started, but a loud boom interrupted him.

There was another one quickly after that.

"How many other Tributes did you and Cas find?" Dean asked.

Balthazar shrugged. "I ran as soon as we were allowed off that bloody platform, after the other girl tripped and fell over, but I know Cas has killed a few at the Cornucopia. I´m curious to see who´s going to win."

Dean didn´t reply to his last sentence, he had no idea who was going to win and he didn´t want it to be anyone else than himself. He needed to get back to Sammy, the same way he needed to step forward and volunteer. Because he made a promise, and a promise should be kept. That´s what dad always said.

"Castiel probably has the strength to do it on his own, if friendship and loyalty don´t stab a dagger in his back first. That boy trusts everyone and believes in anyone´s innocence. I mean, why else team up with me? I´m the biggest pretentious bastard ever." Balthazar shrugged.

Dean nodded, he could see truth in that. "Cas told me that whatever you lack in loyalty, you made up in cunning and strength. And he said that, might you ever turn your back on him, he´ll be strong and smart enough to see it coming and end you himself."

Balthazar smiled. "You have to love that boy."

They were quiet for another hour or so when the giant eagle appeared in the sky again, followed by the noisy anthem and the fallen Tributes.

Dean knew all three of these girls, Meg Masters, from 4, had been a loner and didn´t mingle with the others, but both Bela and Jody had been nice to him (although Bela tried to steal his District token, claiming it´d be worth ´big money´).

After the anthem stopped, neither Dean or Balthazar broke the silence.

Until Dean got an idea. It was stupid, with minimal chances to succeed, but he had to try. He scraped his throat. "What if we team up?" he asked.

Balthazar didn´t reply until after a good five minutes.

"Why?" He said.

Dean shrugged. "Honestly? There´s four in the Pack and just two of us. And I mean, I´m quite a capable fighter and Jo rocks if it weren´t for the nasty fever, but we cannot take all at once. Not alone. But maybe, with you and Cas, we might stand a chance."

"And after that?" Balthazar asked. "After we ended the Pack?"

"No strings attached." Dean said, without doubt.

There was another short silence in which Dean could hear Balthazar think, but he didn´t open his mouth for a while.

"Four." He then said.

"Excuse me?" Dean asked.

"You said you counted four Packers left, I have five on the list." Balthazar looked outside at the pitch black sky.

Dean raised an eyebrow and started counting on his fingers: "Well, there´s Michael and Ruby from 1, Lillith from 2 and Raphael from 9."

"You forgot Gabriel from 5. He isn´t actually dead remember." Balthazar smiled.

"So it´s the five of them and the four of us. The rest is all dead?"

"Anna´s still alive." Castiel murmured from under his coat.

"We are a quick Game though, down to ten in three days and a lot of alliances." Dean pondered.

"Two big ones. We should try and get Anna on our side." Balthazar said.

"So you´re in?" Dean asked hopeful.

Balthazar sighed: "I know I´m going to live to regret this, but I´m officially on your team. You bastards."

Jo's fever broke about half an hour before the stars came out. The scorpions fled at the sight of starlight, climbing back up the path to undoubtedly go back to their nest.

"You think it's safe to go?" Dean asked.

Castiel stuck his head out of the cave, checking for any sign of leftover scorpions. He shrugged: "Guess so."

Dean turned to Jo. "Hey- how are you feeling?"

Jo smiled and tried to get on feet. She actually managed to get up and stumbled around the cave for a bit, trying to act like she hadn't been sick at all.

They shared their last bits of food and finished the dry crackers. Castiel said that if they moved quickly, they could at the foot of the mountain when the stars would fade.

Dean proposed to carry Jo down the mountain, but she declined, saying she wanted to walk herself.

"If you do that, the fever will get back and you'll die of exhaustion, let us carry you in turns, we promise Balthazar won't tip you over the edge.

Jo smiled and allowed Dean to pick her up, one arm under her knees and the other holding her torso, under her arms. She wrapped her own around his neck, for comfort and stability.

"You're heavier than you look." Dean groaned.

"Muscle weighs more than fat," she smiled back.

The fellowship of four continued the journey down the mountain, Castiel kept up a pace so high that Jo would never have been able to keep up, because he really wanted to get down quick.

"We don't know where the scorpions came from, they might attack anyone on the mountain at night." He explained.

They got down just in time to stop and watch the logo in the sky. No fallen tributes today.

Castiel gave Jo back to Dean and continued the frantic journey.

"Cas, we're down! Where are you going?" Dean asked. He just wanted to sit down for a bit and he knew Jo was exhausted too.

"The cave with water you talked about. Balthazar and I ran out two days ago and I believe you did too. I want to spent the night there. Plus, no one died today, we need to hurry before the Game makers decide to shake things up a bit."

"Why would the cave make a difference?" Balthazar asked.

"Because the most likely thing they'll do is try to get the pack and us together to fight it out and we cannot win with Jo like this. To get Jo better we need water en water is in that cave."

Dean handed Jo over to Balthazar and pulled his knife. She was half-asleep, not feeling as warm as she had last night but definitely warmer than she should be.

Since he didn't have to hold Jo, he could easily cut a path through the dense forest.

Twenty minutes later, Dean literally stumbled onto the cave. If he hadn't walked out of the forest right where he did, he would never have found it.

Castiel was currently carrying Jo and she was sleeping soundly in his arms.

Dean smiled tired. Damn, he would like to sleep too.

Castiel put Jo down on the cave floor and Dean shrugged the backpack off to get the blankets and get het comfortable.

"Balthazar, you get wood for a fire. Dean, do you think you can get some water without getting bitten?" Castiel said.

Balthazar smiled: "Oh Cassie, I love when you take control like that."

Dean grinned too. "The snakes are afraid of light, so I need someone to hold the flashlight above my head."

"We'll wait until Balthazar gets back." Castiel nodded. "I'll help you then."

"Do you want to cook the bandages?" Dean asked.

"Yes," Castiel said. "But we don't have anything to boil the water in."

Dean measured where the trench coat reached his waist and took it off, he cut the rather large piece off the bottom and gave it to Castiel.

"It's canvas like, so it should be watertight enough to not lose too much. It won't be as effective as leather, but it should be able to hold as long as we don't hang it in the flames.

Dean made a string to change the piece of cloth into a sack. He was finished as soon as Balthazar came back with a big pile of sticks.

He gave Balthazar the box of matches and looked for the three sturdiest pieces of wood to make a tripod out of.

"Can you make a fire?" He asked the boy, and when Balthazar nodded, he added: "Don't torch these three, we need them."

He lifted the backpack with the three bottles they had collected and nudged Castiel.

"You joining me?"

Castiel nodded. "Yeah- that's all right."

Dean gave one of the flashlights to Balthazar. "Don't drain the battery."

When Balthazar nodded, Dean drew closer, grabbing the lapel of his coat and holding them tight, faces so close that Balthazar had no other choice but look him in the eyes. "And if I return to a dead Jo and you gone, I swear to all that is holy in this world I'll find you and I'll skin you alive before I kill you the way you killed Jo."

Balthazar swallowed and nodded. No jokes this time, he could hear at the sound of Deans voice that he wouldn't find that very amusing right now.

Dean handed the other flashlight to Castiel and they walked to the end of the cave, to the river. With all the stress, Dean hadn't realised he hadn't drunk in about two days now. Man he was thirsty.

He quickly filled the bottles, Castiel did a fantastic job by chasing the snakes away, and when they sat down to drink as much as they could, Dean asked: "How is it possible to get a three? I mean, you are absolutely awesome, you have amazing reflexes, you know a lot of stuff and you fight like a badass."

"I sat down and wove a basket," Castiel smiled. "Obviously if I had showed them my skills I would have had to join the career pack and I didn't want them considering me. It would cost me sponsors."

Dean chuckled. "But why did you weave? Why not act that you were a complete failure?"

"Because they wouldn't have fallen for that, they just..."

He wasn't able to finish his sentence when he was cut off by a bloodcurdling scream of fear.

"That's Jo," Dean breathed as he leapt to his feet.

He ran back, the untreated, unhealed wounds on his legs bursting open again when his muscles contracted.

He knew Castiel was on his heels, hauling the backpack around his shoulders.

Balthazar wasn't screaming, so he was either the attacker, or dead.

Well, he is going to be dead in either of the options.