A/N: So, so sorry for the late update, but I address that at the end. I mixed things up a lot this time, so tell me what you think!
Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan or Suzanne Collins
Jayana Combe was fed up with this year's games. Her tributes were two insufferable, ungrateful brats who had the nerve to stay alive until the final seven, becoming the only pair left and reeling in so many sponsors that Jayana was lucky to get an hour of sleep at night. Her phone rang off the wall whenever she was home and when she was in the square, her table was crowded with obnoxious capitol citizens all wanting to sponsor a winner. Her head throbbed and her eyes began to blur as she filled out form after form, accepting heaps of money and trying to keep track of how much went to each tribute. Skyler was winning so far, but not by much. Jayana was constantly having to deal with angry customers fighting to get to the front of the line, getting into fights, then complaining to her as if she were at fault.
To make matters worse, the crowd was so noisy that Jayana could not hear what was going on on TV, and could hardly even see the enormous screen displaying the arena. It was unbelievable! She was an escort for these ungrateful tributes, the most prestigious position in the capitol, and this was how they treated her? She was actually involved in the games, and very close to the tributes. Was it not she that worked tirelessly all day long to get the tributes of district two as many sponsors as possible? Was she not directly responsible for their fate? Would she not miss them both dearly, despite their flaws, if they died in the arena? And she couldn't even watch the games!
A very old, very ugly lady (why she had not yet had plastic surgery was beyond Jayana's comprehension) stepped up to the table with a nasty scowl on her face and glared at the escort.
"May I help you?" Jayana asked, as politely as possible.
The customer's frown only deepened. "Don't you use that tone with me, Missy" She replied "I've been sponsoring tributes for as long as the games have been going on, and I tell you, you should be honored to have me at your table, 'cause I've been right a whole lot more times that I've been wrong. But if you won't pay be the respect I deserve I might just go over to the district seven table and lay my money down there. Got it?"
"I am very sorry if I have insulted you, Miss, and please do understand-"
"No need to suck up to me!" She snapped "I don't choose my tributes based on their escorts, unlike some of the idiots back there" she pointed over her shoulder to the massive crowd "I had quite the time getting past them, you know, and I doubt a single one of them has got enough money to buy a water bottle for the poor tributes. You really should chose your sponsors more wisely, dearie."
"I'm sorry Miss, but you're holding up-"
"We're seeing more violence here than in the arena, aren't we? Man, these have been boring games, but it seems like the city disagrees with me. They just soak up all that mysterious stuff, don't they?"
Unfortunately, Jayana had heard many things about this disagreeable citizen, and it seemed she would have to humor her. This lady was known to give the most generous donations of anyone right near the end of the games, to give the winning tribute just the push he or she needed. Jayana's headache only worsened as she listened to the constant chatter and tried to interrupt every once in awhile, without success. She looked over at Aspen of district four, who shot her a sympathetic look.
"I tell you, Miss, you sure are lucky I like the look of that girl of yours-"
"Yes! The girl!" Jayana sat up straighter, talking quickly so as to get the event over with quickly. "We really don't have much time, so if you'll sign this right away, and put down the amount you'd like to donate?"
The lady looked even more unhappy than before. "Well… I'm not sure yet. I've got my card here but I'll have to think about it a bit. You see, I still don't know that much about her yet, but you know her. What's she like, personality-wise? Does she really merit that ten she got in training? You can never trust what you see on TV."
Jayana didn't know what the sponsor was looking for in a tribute, so she decided to go with the truth. "Skyler is a bloodthirsty, psychotic, bitchy little girl that threw a fit when she did not get the twelve she deserved in training. To be honest, I will be quite shocked if she does not win the games."
The ugly lady gave a sniff of approval. "Good. I like a girl with a bit of spunk. They're all so boring nowadays."
"Now, if you don't mind, Madam, I would really appreciate it if you would hurry up and decide on a number. I'm not feeling well, you see, and you're holding up the line." Indeed, the crowd was beginning to get even more impatient, and Jayana was struggling to hide her exasperation.
The lady's scowl deepened even more, if that was possible. "Well, then I guess if you don't appreciate my services, I can't be expected to offer much. Let's see…" She wrote down a very generous number and scanned her card. "There. That should suffice, and don't go crying to me if you run low on money. I am done with you and if your tribute dies because of it then I will leave it your conscience."
And with that she strutted off, leaving the poor escort very relieved and irritated.
Her next customers were two squeaky-voiced girls in matching outfits that were clearly very excited to be there. One of them pulled out a credit card.
"We'd like to sponsor your male tribute, Bryce Onyx" The first one said, giggling.
Her friend elbowed her in the ribs. "No," she said "We would like to sponsor Skyler Woods, remember?"
Jayana was out of patience. "Why don't you each sponsor one of them?" She suggested, as sweetly as possible.
The second girl turned to her friend, and they both erupted into a fit of giggles. "Well… because we promised each other we would sponsor the same tribute, so that we could both be invited to the party at the victory tour. And we agreed" she said, through gritted teeth "To sponsor Skyler"
"But I want to meet Bryce!" The other one whined.
"You won't get the chance to if he's dead. We're sponsoring Skyler."
"But Skyler scares me!"
Jayana had had enough. She stood up suddenly and began collecting her things. "That's it, I'm out of here. I am very sorry ladies, but you will have to wait awhile, or else find a different tribute to sponsor. I am done for the day."
And with that she swept away from the table and pushed through the crowd, followed by exclamations of frustration from the people who had waited in line all day. Jayana didn't care. She was glad when she finally reached the peace and quiet of the training center, where she hesitated near the elevator. Should she go up to her room to watch the games in peace? Or stop by the mentors' room to check in on her friends? She decided on the latter option and headed down the hall, her footsteps echoing loudly in the gigantic room. She opened the glass doors and stepped into the room reserved to spectators, filled with comfortable armchairs, with one wall almost completely covered in screens, each one displaying a different scene. They were all voice controlled, which occasionally caused inconveniences when you happened to be talking about a certain tribute and the screen switched to display them.
Jayana sat down heavily in her usual spot next to Mags, who smiled sympathetically.
"Not a great day so far?"
"I understand why you district people find us so annoying, now. How on earth do you put up with the capitol, Mags?"
"I've gotten used to it by now. So, what kind of charming people did you meet today?"
"Oh, please don't make me relive it. Here, tell me what's going on in the arena. I've hardly been able to see anything from the square."
Mags sighed and sank back into her chair, glancing occasionally at the screen to make sure she wasn't missing anything. "Well… you know about Keelan, right?"
"I know his sponsor table was swarmed this morning. Fill me in"
"He went back to the careers' camp, but I guess he was feeling a bit more daring, because he decided to hide a bunch of their weapons a little ways away. The whole time he did it, the careers were only a few kilometers away and approaching quickly. Everyone was on the edge of their seats, wondering if he'd get it done in time, and he just barely did. The careers - which is really just Skyler and Bryce, now - arrived back a few minutes ago and are clearly furious. They're searching for their weapons now, though it was clear they wanted to head out right away and find the culprit.
Jayana nodded in approval. "That Keelan kid has really made a name for himself, hasn't he? The whole city has fallen in love with him."
"No kidding! Though he didn't look too good when he learned about his district partner's death. I was sure he'd pass out then and there, his face turned so pale. I guess he knew her. But he's pulled himself together, anyhow, and I have to admit I'm cheering for him myself - supposing Lytha doesn't win, of course."
Jayana perked up at that. "How is Lytha, by the way? Last I checked, the gamemakers had frozen the arena."
Mags pursed her lips and glanced at the screen, where Skyler and Bryce were looking for their hidden supplies. "Not great. See for yourself." She spoke a few commands, and the view switched to display the river where Lytha had been hiding hardly twelve hours previously.
It took Jayana a few seconds to find the dainty tribute, and when she did, she asked the camera to zoom in so that she could get a closer look. Lytha was completely motionless, curled up on the banks of the river next to her failed attempt at a fire, her right hand outstretched and resting on a piece of wood. Her fingers were completely blue, as were her lips and much of her face. Her hair and clothes were covered in frost, and the only indication that she was still breathing was the tiniest bit of steam escaping her mouth from time to time, not nearly as often as it should have.
"It's incredible that she's managed to hold on for this long" Mags was saying "Her heart should have stopped a long time ago. At this point, I don't think there's anything that can save her, but I said the same thing when she was hit with that knife. She's amazingly tough, even if she doesn't look it." Jayana could hear the affection in her friend's voice.
The escort put her hand on Mags' shoulder. "I'm really sorry" she said.
Mags simply shrugged. "She's gone through more than enough already, and it's not like she was going to win anyway. At least she'll finally be put out of her misery."
They sat in silence for a few minutes, watching the poor girl suffer. Occasionally, her body would twitch almost halfheartedly, as if she couldn't even find the energy to shiver.
"Was anyone else caught in the area?" Jayana whispered, imagining what it could have been like for some of the others.
"The twelve girl, Melanite Endeine, was pretty close, but you know she's a bit better at survival stuff. I actually thought she'd just stay all curled up in a ball at first, but she eventually managed to come to her senses and build a fire. Then, of course, her mentor gave her an expensive blanket, so she's mostly okay.
Jayana nodded. "How's she doing, by the way? I mean, mentally. I thought she'd lost it when she killed that girl."
Mags heaved a great sigh. "She's not looking great. She's barely moved since the incident. It's too bad: I really thought she would win, she seemed to brave and strong. I just can't believe this happened to her, of all people."
"Yeah, that's probably one of the more surprising mental collapses we've seen in the 20 years since the start of the games. But what about that Jasmine girl? Is she okay?"
"Oh she seems fine. Peeved, of course, and clearly a bit downhearted, but she's been taking care of herself and appears to be planning something. If I had to guess, I'd say she's planning a raid on the career camp, but of course, she doesn't know how many there are left so she has to wait for the recap tonight. Once she finds out how weak they are, I can pretty much guarantee she'll be after them"
Jayana nodded. Jasmine was one of her favourite tributes, and she hoped the girl's death wouldn't be too painful. Still, for the sake of her own tributes, she hoped the dangerous little girl didn't plan any attack on the careers, because she had a feeling Skyler and Bryce would make the mistake of hugely underestimating her.
The capitol citizen was jolted back to earth at the deafening sound of a cannon, resonating all over Panem. She whipped her head around to face the screen just in time to see a hovercraft swoop down and pick up Lytha's cold, frostbitten body, leaving the frozen lake deserted and eerily calm.
There was a moment of silence. Jayana turned back to her friend, ready to comfort her, but Mags held up her hand.
"There's no need. She was a nice person, but we all knew she would die eventually. Better that her suffering has finally ended." Despite her words, Mags' tone still held a trace of grief.
No words were uttered for what felt like an eternity as the two women sat in silence, eyes fixed on the screen displaying the deserted shore. After what was really just a few minutes, Jayana cleared her throat.
"Should we… um… switch it back to another tribute?"
Mags nodded and spoke the command. They were now watching Skyler and Bryce, armed each with a large stick that made them look a bit like cavemen, trudging through the ruins. Skyler looked furious as she glared at the ground as if trying to bore a hole into it, tracking the unknown tribute.
"...That seven girl, I always hated her" Skyler was saying to Bryce, spitting as she spoke "I'll bet she teamed up with the girl from twelve. Man, when I get my hands on them…" She swung her branch menacingly and proceeded to mumble incoherently.
Bryce, however, appeared to have a much more levelheaded approach.
"The ground is too hard for footprints to be visible enough to identify easily, so we should look for the vegetation instead. See here?" He pointed to a spot on the ground. "Someone obviously ran over this plant, because it's been squashed, but it hasn't had time to shivel up and die, which suggests it was killed recently. Then if we look right next to it, we can see slight traces of a footprint, faint enough that we probably wouldn't have noticed it before. So I guess we're on the right track.
Jayana was impressed, and not just because Bryce seemed to know a lot about tracking. It was quite possibly the most she had ever seen him say all at once, which meant that he was pretty into this whole tracking thing. That was interesting, because most careers greatly overlooked this skill and took an approach much more similar to Skyler's: Grab the closest thing to a weapon and hope you find someone by chance.
Sure enough, Skyler was bored by this approach, and complained that Bryce was moving too slowly, that they would never catch the tribute in time.
"Well, we certainly won't catch anyone if we don't know where we're going." He replied calmly.
Skyler sighed, clearly exasperated. "Look, we know where he was probably headed, so why don't we just continue going in this direction? It's the safest bet."
Bryce laughed and straightened up. "Wow, you're stupid." he said. Jayana and Mags both gasped, and the other mentors in the training room leaned forward, eager to catch all of the action.
Skyler's eyes narrowed. "What did you say?" she growled.
"I said," Bryce replied, as calmly as always, casually holding out his club, "That you're stupid. Someone is clearly trying to escape us, so why would they run in a straight line? I'll bet whoever it is expects us to do precisely the thing you're doing, and just run off in whatever direction we think they're going" Jayana could sense the tension between the two tributes, and thought Skyler would be much better off backing away. With weapons, the dainty girl may have stood a chance, and there was no denying she was pretty good at finding the perfect places to hit people, but Bryce far outweighed her, and would almost certainly make quick work of her if she decided to attack.
"Or maybe…" Skyler retorted in a 'duh' voice "They thought we'd try out your approach and waste our time tracking them, so that they could make a quick getaway."
Bryce sighed, like Skyler was an annoying kid who didn't understand anything. "Maybe they did, but it's not like we can get around tracking them and try something else. People have to rest, you know, and this person has probably been running all day. If we hurry up and stop arguing, maybe we'll be able to catch up by nighttime."
Skyler may or may not have agreed with this reasoning, but it was clear that she was mad enough to contradict everything Bryce said, like a little kid wanting to be smarter than her older sibling even if she knew perfectly well that she was wrong. Skyler opened her mouth then closed it into a moody pout.
"I'm going to run ahead a bit, and if I find any signs of life, we're going by my strategy." Without waiting for an answer, she took off.
The spectators in the viewing room sighed and turned away, once it became clear that a fight would not break out just yet. Jayana wondered if it was due to the diminishing strength of the career pack. Skyler was probably reluctant to kill her only remaining ally, even if she didn't think very highly of him, and Bryce was probably thinking the same thing.
"By the way, what happened to Quartz and Hunter?" Jayana asked, turning to her friend. "I saw a bit of the action, but there was so much happening it was hard to follow.
Mags sighed. "Well… First Lyssa shot Quartz in the leg, and he come down and told the rest of the pack where she was. They went after her, of course, and Lyssa ran away. Kennedia followed her for awhile, but then got left behind, and decided to double back. She went right past the career pack, but of course Quartz got left behind because of his injury so she found him. Kennedia killed him with her bow, but the rest of the pack heard the cannon, figured out what had happened, and backtracked. Kennedia tried to run away, but they caught her and…" Mags stopped and fixed her eyes on the screen.
"Was it bad?" Jayana whispered.
"Pretty bad, yeah. But thankfully it didn't last too long, since they were so eager to go find her ally. Well, Lyssa met them halfway, after turning around when she realized she had lost Kennedia. She managed to kill Hunter, but the rest of the careers didn't waste any time in decapitating her. Then, of course, they went back to camp and Keelan had taken their things."
"Not the best trade-off, is it? Quartz and Hunter for Kennedia and Lyssa?" Jayana joked.
Mags thought about that for a second. "Noooooo, not really, but it's not as bad as you might think. Hunter was totally useless anyway, and though Quartz certainly more than makes up for that, he was too bigheaded for the games, and the gamemakers must have hated him to give him such a low training score. Besides, I liked those girls. Kennedia wasn't exactly the strongest competitor, but she was smart, and wise well beyond her years. Lyssa looked pretty good, though I do admit she came off as being a bit selfish. I'm surprised she decided to go back for Kennedia at all, so I guess that says something about her character."
Jayana suddenly remembered something that had happened in the square only the previous day. "Ohhh, so that's why the capitol was so angry when she was running away. I was wondering what she had done that was so bad, but I guess they were just mad that she had left her ally behind and didn't seem to have noticed. She sure would have had a hard time living that down, had she managed to survive."
Mags merely nodded, deep in thought. "Only six tribtues left now, you know. Skyler, Bryce, Jasmine, Keelan, Wytt and Melanite.
"These games will be over before we know it."
A/N: Okay, so I'm sure you're all wondering where I've been, and it's a really lame excuse. In case you have not yet noticed, I am a huge sports fan, I'm Canadian and I was in Vancouver during the 2010 olympics. Put all that together and you get absolutely 0 productivity during the olympics, which leads to tons of homework after they finish, while mourning the brief novelty of actually watching a good hockey team for once. It's like when you finish a really good series and just can't get into anything else because you're still obsessed with it. Imagine that, plus the other series you love have gotten really, really bad lately and you were laughing at it before, but it's just not funny after reading such a good book, and you have to face like 3 more books in said terrible series that you will almost certainly force yourself to read because you got hooked on the first few books. (Okay, so that was a terrible metaphor, but you get the point. Three Canadian teams have never won the cup and I cheer for two of them.)
And then after that I had riding lessons, a hockey tournament, playoffs, my birthday, I got sick and stayed in bed for 4 days, and I had to catch up on a ton of homework, which has gotten much worse this semester because I'm in a special writing program. Still, I'm really sorry for slacking off on this story, and I know that there really is no excuse for this. You readers have been so awesome and supportive and deserve way better. I will finish this story, and well, no matter what, because I promised myself I would. It's just that it could take awhile.