KYVA SAVERA
One hundred and twenty five years ago, the Capitol fought a war against rebels, a war that left District Six devastated.
Two years ago, District Six fought a very different sort of war, but one that left the same piles of rubble, lives cut short and long lists of missing people at the Peacekeepers' stations.
There had been some cleaning up since then, but whole streets were still in ruins. One small, ramshackle house was tagged with a simple symbol, a scorpion's claws and tail.
Kyva's boots crunched over the gravel on the road. The Peacekeepers, mostly sent from Two, had put barriers around blocks that had been completely condemned. She ducked underneath it and continued, the only sound besides her footsteps being the buzz of trains, cars and hovercraft in the background.
She reached the house, mounting the steps with the black briefcase she held firmly in her grip. She knocked twice on the door.
"What is the scorpion's stinger?" asked a voice from inside.
"A needle." Kyva replied.
The door opened. Sony Savera's face was pale like hers, her eyes were incredibly pale blue, almost white, and her hair was long and black. The only difference between the two were their scars: Kyva's were from a burn, circling her right eye like a flower, while Sony's, thin and pink, made several lines on her cheek.
Sony stepped back to let her inside.
Despite outward appearances, the house was rather clean on the inside. The twins walked down a long hallway, but before opening the door at the end, Kyva paused, laying the case on the ground and kneeling in front of it. She unlocked the case and pulled out a small envelope, sticking it down the front of her shirt. Then she locked the case, stood up, and looked at Sony like nothing had happened.
The older twin tilted her head slightly.
"Is that for Bruno?" she asked quietly, but unemotionally.
"Maybe." Kyva replied.
There was a moment before a small half-smile appeared on her mouth. Sony returned it, but when she opened the door, both faces were once again cold and distant.
Bruno was sitting at the table, acknowledging both of them with a nod as they entered. He was the leader of their gang, while Kyva was second, and Sony third.
"What happened to the courier?"
"A double agent. I shot her." Kyva put the case on the table. "This is what she was carrying."
She opened the case again.
"She must have been dealing with the Capricorn gang." Bruno pulled out a few of the rolls of large bills inside, laying them on the table. "How did you find out?"
"When I saw her, I remembered, from back in the war. She was a courier for them back then." Kyva said simply.
"And you don't forget faces." Bruno sighed. "At least she did not know much."
"It would have been better to interrogate her." Sony put in.
Two years ago, a war had erupted between the two major drug gangs of Six: Scorpio and Capricorn. Scorpio did win, but Capricorn remained like weeds, continuously cropping up.
"Well, if you're looking for blood…"
Bruno jerked his head at the closet in the other side of the room. Sony went over curiously, opening the door and peeking in.
A middle aged man was huddled against the back wall of the closet, bound and gagged. He was unconscious, a trickle of blood running down from his head.
"Isn't that Lawrence Mende?" Kyva came up behind her sister, standing on her tiptoes to see in.
"Indeed." Bruno said from the table, not turning around from where he was counting the money. "We found him today in District Two."
"How?"
"His daughter Jewel volunteered."
Both twins laughed briefly.
"You got him here fast." Sony closed the closet door. "Wouldn't it have been easier just to have someone interrogate him up there?"
"Yes, but I wanted your special touch, Sony." Bruno put the money back in the case. "He won't get away with defecting on us back then."
"I don't remember him." Sony remarked.
"He had a share in shipping our morphling outside of Six." Kyva reminded her. "We made him rich, but when the war began, he got cold feet."
"I see."
"Will the two of you be going to the Reaping?" Bruno asked.
The twins looked at each other.
"I guess we'd better." Kyva said reluctantly. "It's in two hours, isn't it?"
"Yeah." Sony agreed. She looked back at the closet.
"Go on." Bruno said, and then laughed. "He'll still be down there when you get back."
With a rare smile, Sony went over to the closet, opening it again. Grabbing Mende under the armpits, she dragged him across the tile floor and out of the kitchen. Kyva could hear his legs bumping on each stair, on the way down to the soundproofed basement.
SONY SAVERA
She found Kyva outside, with half an hour left before they would have to leave for the Reaping. She was on top of a ruined apartment building, standing on the edge, looking out over the ruined portion of Six.
"So what was that envelope?" Sony asked. Alone her sister, she was much less reserved.
Kyva looked back, pulling it out of her shirt.
It was small and orange, about the length of her hand. She wiggled her finger under the flap and opened it, shaking it out into her hand.
It was a small clear tube, filled with some sort of white powder. She held it out so her sister could look at it.
"Super-concentrated morphling." She said. "One milligram of this is an overdose, especially if it's injected."
"Was the courier supposed to have this?"
"I asked her to get it. I suppose even traitors can be useful sometimes."
Sony passed it back to her sister.
"So what's it for?"
"I was going to mix it in with Bruno's next high. I think it would be ironic."
"It would." Sony agreed.
The cool wind lifted her hair off her face. She turned to look at Kyva straight on.
"You really think we could rule this thing?"
"Why not?" Kyva shrugged at her.
Sony looked back at the skyline.
"What is it?" Kyva pressed.
Sony was silent for a moment. A strange feeling was forming in the pit of her stomach.
"Nothing. Something just feels off today." She reached over and took her sister's hand, lightly. Kyva looked up, surprised. For them, this was very much affection. "It's probably nothing."
They stayed like that for quite a while, only letting go when they turned to leave.
GLAMOHR RICE
"Can you smell the oil?" Glamohr wrinkled her nose as she made her way up to the entrance to the stage
Her high, spiky heels caused her to totter as she walked. Her face was cake with enough makeup to qualify as a mask.
"This is the transportation district." A voice said from a dressing room, with the door left ajar.
Glamohr paused.
"How long until it starts?"
"Ten minutes, Ms Rice."
She nodded, nudging open the door to the dressing room.
"Oh, Grate."
"Look, don't judge me." The mentor was sitting at the vanity in his dressing room, a band around his upper arm, a needle in the vein of his inner elbow. "A regular year is bad enough."
Glamour looked around, shutting the door behind her.
"What do you mean, bad enough?" She went and sat behind him.
"You know, the two kids go and they always die. Well, usually, or else I wouldn't be here." Grate looked at her with sunken cheeks and yellowed skin. She shuddered. "And this year it'll be worse. They're going to torture those kids, I know it."
"…And?"
Grate noticed that his morphling vial had run out. He detached it from the needle, taking a new one from the drawer.
"See, I thought I was almost done, but now I need more to deal with you. How would you like it if your kids were in this kind of danger, Glamohr?"
Glamohr struggled to understand for a minute.
"You know, I think what District Six needs is a morale booster." She said a little more brightly. "After the war between Scorpion and—"
"It's Scorpio."
"Anyway, I have a good feeling about this year. I think we're getting some strong tributes."
She squeezed his shoulder as she got up and left.
And soon she was standing on the stage, looking out over the hastily repaired square, about to choose that year's tribute.
Her long nails unfolded the first sheet of paper, reading out the name written therein.
"Sony Savera."
A hush ran through the square. Glamohr looked around until her eyes found the girl leaving the seventeen-year-old's section, a dark hood concealing most of her face. She lowered it as she reached the stage.
It was a pity, Glamohr thought, that her face was so scarred, since it might have been beautiful once before. It was set in cold indifference, and the crowd parted to let her pass, almost as if they thought she was radioactive.
"Scorpio scum!" Someone shouted.
A fight broke out in that area, and Peacekeepers rushed over to break it up.
"It seems we have a celebrity!" Glamohr exclaimed.
Now that she was almost to the stage, she could see that Sony's eyes were pale enough that she thought she might be blind, but she navigated the stairs much too smoothly for this to be so. Sony came up on the stage, and Glamohr's smile faded at the expression on her face, or lack thereof, and the ice behind those ice-colored eyes.
She gave her head a little shake, reminding herself that this was a teenage girl, not a monster, and turned back to the microphone, putting her smile back on.
"And now for the other."
"No need. I volunteer as tribute."
Another gasp ran through the crowd, and now there was a hum throughout the square. Glamohr watched as another girl, hooded like the first, left the same section and came up towards the stage. She lowered her hood.
Now there was uproar in the crowd, but Glamohr only had eyes for the sisters standing side by side. Their faces were both marred in different ways, but besides that they were identical, and their expressions were like marble.
"That- that is all." She said into the microphone, permanently unsettled now. "And may the odds be ever in your favor, District Six."
SONY SAVERA
The train rushed over the factories of the District, the hovercrafts, cars, trucks and trains coming into being below the bridge. Both twins sat facing one another at a table by the window, drinks in front of them, watching their District being left behind.
"Why did you do it?" Sony asked finally.
Kyva nibbled at the expensive cheese on the plate in front of her.
"I knew you would be strong. But I thought we would be stronger together, as a pair."
Sony tilted her head.
"Really?"
"Don't we already know how to fight? Use knives?" Kyva asked. "Together, we are stronger than a Career. And smarter than the whole pack."
Sony considered.
"Well, I suppose the Capitol does like a good torture. I can please them that way."
"There you go." Her sister said encouragingly.
Their escort was on the other side of the room, as far away from them as possible. At this point, she stood up at left as fast as she could.
"Have you been talking to Grate?" Sony asked.
"Not since his last purchase." Kyva told her.
"He came by while you were in the bathroom. He was high as a kite, but I got a few words out of him." Sony reached over and took a piece of the cheese. "He says she loves the Games, and can't imagine why someone wouldn't. But I guess she's used to scared kids coming out of Six."
"Are you scared?"
"No. What about you?"
"No."
Both sisters nodded.
"So what are we going to do about Mende?" Sony asked.
"I suppose Bruno will finish him off for you. It would be a bit of a pain to keep him down there too long."
"I know, but that's not what I meant." Sony leaned in. "His daughter's in this Games."
"A Career?"
"Sort of. She was from Two, so I guess she must be trained, but I think she's young." Sony popped another piece of the expensive cheese into her mouth. "She shouldn't be a problem to take out."
"Bloodbath, or should we leave it till later?" Kyva inquired.
They thought about it.
"Later." Sony said.
Kyva looked at her questioningly, and she continued.
"I think it's important that we get the spotlight when it happens. Besides, I want to take my time."
"I see," Kyva nodded. "But how can you be sure no one else will take her out first?"
"I can't, really. But I think she'll at least survive the bloodbath."
"Fair enough."
"So what about Bruno?" Sony asked.
Kyva pulled the tube out of her pocket, and sighed. She opened the window and flicked it out.
"They would only have taken it from me at the Capitol." She said dejectedly.
"Well, maybe if you're the one to go back, you'll be able to finish him off." Sony told her.
Kyva looked at her for a long time.
"You know, Sony, I don't think there can just be one of us. Can there?"
"There's only one victor."
"I know."
Sony looked at her sister for a long time, attempting to imagine the world without her.
"We both have to die?"
"I think that's how it must be." Kyva shrugged.
Sony imagined her knife piercing her sister's jugular. The other would fall in a fountain of blood and be gone in a minute. And surely, as the strongest, smartest tribute, Sony would return home victorious.
"We'll make it to the top few. I know it. Let's see what happens then."
"I know, I'm so curious."
They went back to their snack. Sony imagined sacrificing her sister's life for her own. Little did she know, Kyva was imagining the same.