AuthorNote:Sorry I took so long to put up this chapter, and also that it's a bit shorter then I would have liked. I would use exams as an excuse but really I just didn't feel like writing and this was also more of a filler chapter and not terribly exciting to write. I promise the next one will be though! Training scores and everything so look forward to it! Ok I'll stop annoying you now, read on.

Delvin

'Welcome tributes, to your final training session.' Atala addresses us all once more as we all file in to the training centre for our third day of training. 'Today is your last chance to utilise the stations and trainers so be sure to make the most of them. I would strongly advise having at least a brief look at any stations you are yet to visit as you may just pick up something to save your life. Also keep in mind that following today's lunch you will all be re-entering the gym individually starting from Halt and going down through the districts finishing with Willow. No doubt you have all been filled in with respect to the procedure from your mentors but nonetheless bear with me because you must be formally told at some point.' Atala pauses, her intimidating gaze hovering over us carefully checking that everyone is paying attention. Then she continues, 'When called upon you will enter the gym and have a maximum of 15 minutes to impress the gamemakers' panel with your abilities. So if you have been holding back thus far with training I might advise a little practise in today's session with your more adept skills, as once you go back in there's no freebees. You're on show from your first step into this room and the gamemakers are not renowned for their patience so you'll want to come out all guns blazing.' One final pause and quivering stare before in a slightly more light-hearted tone she concludes, 'Ok then that's all from me, I wish you all a successful games, and as always may the odds be ever in your favour.'

As Atala turns on her heals and walks to her observation platform Nova whispers in my ear, 'How can she wish us all a successful games? I mean only one of us can really succeed right?'

I just role my eyes and head towards the swards station with Nova in tow. Sure he's right, but I've learnt to just ignore most of his one off comments like that, he takes things to literally and pays way too much attention to detail. In all honesty I'd just say he's too intelligent for his own good.

Nova and I formed an alliance at lunch on the first day of training, originally it was our plan to get a third person so that sleep would be easier to come by but we quickly found out on the second day that anyone worth having was either already in an alliance or clearly adamant to stay solo. Well that's what we told ourselves anyway, it was more just us being to pussy to ask anyone like Thane or Cherry if they wanted to join us. Anyway regardless of that Nova and I seem to be working well together so far. He's always so hyped and his brain is in overdrive the whole time whilst I'm able to help by bringing him back down to earth and generally just keeping him constrained from getting side tracked and keeping things realistic.

As Nova takes his turn with the sward instructor doing a bit of one on one sparing I take a look over the other tributes, naming each one as I go. I'm pretty sure I know them all now, and it's clear that a lot of others people have done the same, or at least recognising the each of the tributes by their district. I also notice that a couple of people are taking Atala's advice and producing some impressive skills on stations they clearly know quite a bit about. I would go request a whip but I'm pretty sure I don't need the practice and I'd rather the other tributes not know what I can do.

Cherry, (of course with us all discovering what she can do with a crossbow after day 1 of training) has given up with a regular bow and gone back to her favoured weapon, taking down targets moving at considerable pace at a decent distance. Meanwhile Halt is practicing with what looks like a stick that's a little taller than he is. He must have requested it as I've certainly never seen him or anyone us something like that before, although he seems to be quite effective in fighting off a couple of the trainers who are sparring with swards against him, waving it around at intense speeds that make it look more like a blur than a solid object.

Dawn, the girl from District 11, is running through the gauntlet over and over. Nobody took particular notice of her before the timed runs on the end of the first day, but when she got the third quickest time behind Halt and Aurora a few people have been keeping an eye on her. Now it looks as though she's running it in a time slightly faster than Halt was able to, although on the other hand the one time I've seen her pick up a weapon she was pretty useless with a bow.

Sapphira from District 3 is as usual doing pretty much shit all. At the moment she's sitting near the District 12 tributes, Willow and Tai at the snares station, who I'm pretty sure are in a 4 person alliance along with Halt and Nova's district partner Roxas.

Thane for once seems to be interacting a little, watching and commenting on his district partner Skye's use of a bow, he's basically coaching her. Heath and Wolf are practicing side by side with a spear and trident respectively as Aurora and Amber are at the throwing knives station once again trying to outdo each other, however Nyx I notice instead of being with them as per normal, is at the plants station next to Roxas who has barely left the station during training at all. Nyx looks to be concentrating very hard on something though compared to Roxas' usual ditsy smile. I wonder what she's playing at.

Nobody else really catches my eye with their training. The pairs from 5 and 8 look absolutely useless and have done since day one, not that it's their fault, the boy from 8, Marcel, is a fat little 12 year old that looks far too well fed for his district, obviously the son of someone of vague importance. I highly doubt he'll survive the bloodbath.

Nova finishes his sparring with the sward instructor and passes me the weapon as I take place for my go. I'm nothing special and would probably (actually definitely) still be diced up in a matter of seconds if I was to take on Heath or Wolf. But I've been practicing and all it takes is one lucky strike or one unlucky move from another tribute, and this sharp edge just might save my life.

[]

During lunch Nova and I sit at the table next to the careers, hoping to overhear some tips on the scoring session or even the game itself. I can't believe we only just thought to do this, although they're not exactly quiet with their conversations so I guess if they said anything worthwhile so far we probably would have picked it up anyway. I sit facing towards them and Nova sits opposite, it's a fairly large table but people have clearly realised we're an alliance by now and no one else bothers to sit with us.

We sit in silence listening to them but for the most part they're just talking rubbish about what score they're going to get tonight and what other tributes they reckon might get reasonable scores.

'I'm sorry guys but there's just no way any of you are going to get a higher score than me,' Heath vocalises in his usual confident manner. 'I seriously can't see the gamemakers giving me anything less than a 10, I'm way better than last years' District 2 tributes and they both got 9s. I guess maybe a couple of you might be match me if you're lucky, or if you try to flash the gamemakers or something.' I see him giving Amber sitting next to him a raised eyebrow and she rolls her eyes in response.

'Maybe you should just go in there and tell them how awesome you are Heath? I mean you're pretty good at that, it's all you seem to do half the time?' Nyx, who's sitting just behind Nova with her back to us, pipes up whilst casually continuing eating her food as Heath death stares her, visibly at odds with a response.

'Hey now don't be so hard on him,' Wolf pipes up. 'He's just trying to convince himself that he's better than Thane.' At the mention of Thane's name two things happen simultaneously, firstly Heath's face goes red with rage as he starts to ramble on about how they'll all be eating their words when they see his training score tonight. Secondly, out of the corner of my eye I see Nyx slip a small flask from her pocket, and rests her hand in her lap, keeping it concealed under the table as she sits there, waiting. As if on cue Wolf and Heath agree to have an arm wrestle to settle this and move to a clear table away from all the food trays, the rest of the careers follow right behind them and several other tributes start getting up from their seats to watch as well. Nyx however takes her time and is the last to rise, but when she does she expertly slips a small amount of whatever was in her flask into Heath's drink as she walks past his seat on her way to the spectacle.

To get a good look at the now crowded table we stand on ours just in time, and after about a minute of intense facial constructions from both of the careers Heath manages to pin Wolf's hand, sealing his victory with a triumphant slam on the table with his other fist. As the tributes scatter and the careers journey back to their seats Nyx, to my surprise, stares me down and slowly zips her mouth shut. Clearly she knew I was watching all along, and whilst I don't exactly know what she put in his drink, I'm almost certain I'll be seeing the repercussions quite soon. Especially seeing as Heath downs what is left in his cup as he retakes his seat.

'Oh well seeing as we aren't really getting any help from the careers we might as well discuss our own plans.' Nova suggests after a new argument breaks out between Amber and Aurora over who is the better at handling knives. 'I really think we should risk going into the cornucopia at least a little bit at the start, I mean we won't survive very long off of nothing. We should definitely aim for at least a couple of packs and maybe a weapon or two. You talked to Atala and requested a whip for your scoring session right?'

'Yeah I did don't worry, you only reminded me every 10 seconds, but even if I show them what I can do with a whip there's no guarantee there will be one in the arena, and let's face it I'm not great with a sword.'

'Delvin, you're from District 10, you've been using whips since you could bloody hold one! How often do we get to see a whip in the games anyway? I've never seen one that's for sure. The gamemakers are looking for something new and exciting to show the Capitol. They don't want boring and predictable, they want what they've never had before. Trust me, when you show them what you can do with a whip, they'll put one litterally right in front of your platform they'll want you to have it so bad.'

'Well I guess when you put it that way…'

'Look you just need to understand how the gamemakers think, they don't want to just kill us all otherwise we would all just be executed, they want a show, a production, they're the directors and we're the actors, except the script just hasn't been written yet. Sure they've got the arena ready and the stage set but they haven't yet decided on the fine details. If we give them the means to make their games the greatest yet there going to want to use that, we just have to make sure that those means keep us alive.'

'Ok… So I get the whip, assuming you're right and it's within reach, we get some packs and we bail out, then what? The way you're talking I'm guessing we're not going to want to just wait out the other tributes?'

'Unfortunately yes, you're right.'

'So we're going to have to hunt the other tributes like the careers would?'

'Well I've been thinking, there's a reason the career pack hardly ever gets targeted by the gamemakers right? Because most of the time they are the ones providing all the excitement. So you're right in a sense, but I don't think we have to full on hunt the other tributes like the careers will, to give ourselves the best chance at survival and having the gamemakers on our side though, we need to act like careers and provide some excitement. Don't worry though, we won't be doing as much killing as the careers I promise, I've got a plan.'

I'm not sure at this point whether I'm happy about or scared of the excitement I see in Nova's eyes at this point.