All right, guys, we're nearing the end! There are only going to be a couple more chapters left of the story, and then the arena reaping will take place. I'm very glad that I'm getting close, because then Iw can finally see people's' reaction to the victor. I hope that my choice of who wins will please you. Although I have not written any chapters beyond what is already posted, I DO know who is going to win. And the planned final battle is also going to be epic. But I'm not telling!

With that out of the way, how about a quick SnowLucario Story Time:

Today, while walking with my mother, we happened to come across an art studio. Mom held the dog while I went inside to explore. I told a young woman there that I was on DeviantArt, and asked her what her username was. I don't remember what she said, but I told her I was SnowLucario, and that I also wrote fanfiction. I may have said this before, but unlike many of my brethren on this site, I do not have any problem promoting my work in real life.

Brief recap:

Horatio is on his own with tons of supplies

Margaret is also on her own

Leo, Aurora, and Vair are still together

Vixen is somewhere else, alone

Bryson is trying to solve the riddles of the tower

Okay. Now, it's time for the real story.

Bryson was on a roll.

He'd already solved three of the eight puzzles in the tower, and was in the process of working on his fourth, when he heard two cannons go off. This stopped him in his tracks, in the middle of the 256-space sudoku puzzle that he had been working on.

Two people dead in a row. This made him feel a little better about how things were going. Now that the field had been narrowed from ten to eight, it seemed more and more possible that he might just be able to outlast the others and win these Games.

Of course, he wasn't there yet. And his odds were still slim, considering just how hard it was for him to walk. But the point was, the Grim Reaper was busy today, at least when it came to this arena. Two cannons in a row rendered it likely that it had been the Careers, or some other alliance, that had decided that it was a good time to turn on each other. If they were truly at the final ten now- final eight, he corrected himself, then now did seem to be a good time to disband.

As he struggled to figure out where to place a number eight in the grid, he wondered what would happen if he managed to solve all eight of the puzzles, and then collet all of the keys. He had no doubt that it was going to be something good, because if the Gamemakers wanted to kill him, they wouldn't have gone to all of this effort to put this whole tower here and set up all of those puzzles. That would just be a trollish thing to do. And, the last time Bryson had checked (not that he really could check such a thing), the Gamemakers didn't live under a bridge.

Not five minutes after the pair of cannons had rung out, a third one boomed.

Happy trails! This is awesome!

Bryson's odds had just shot up from one in eight to one in seven. No, from one in ten. Or even more, considering that he had not had a chance before. And now, he did. All he had to do was figure out how to solve the last four puzzles in the tower, because he was damn close to getting this one down. All he had to do was put in that last stubborn eleven.

He found a spot that fit, and watched the star-shaped key slide out. He grasped it in his hand and then put it in his pocket. Bryson was careful not to lose track of these keys. But then, he realized that he would need to walk back up the stairs to solve the last four puzzles.

Well, I might as well go all the way up and fit these four in, and then come back down to the second floor for the other four puzzles.

That was what Bryson had decided to do. He wanted to make sure that he was secure of at least four keys before he went to fully complete all eight of the challenges that this tower had set up for him.

The trip back up was three times harder than it had been the first time, but Bryson managed it, holding onto the railing the entire time like a drunken patron at a bar. When he reached the top, he put in his four keys and looked at the plaque again, confirming that he hadn't been hallucinating the first time. Otherwise, he would have wasted the last several hours. And, if there was one thing Bryson didn't like, it was time wasters. They never accomplished anything, and District 10 was used to a very utilitarian way of life. If something wasn't useful to the greatest amount of people, it had to go, no questions asked.

If Bryson had simply been wasting the precious little time he had left, he would be a very big hypocrite. And that was another thing that was frowned upon back where he was from.

That SnowLucario guy had better not be fucking around with me...he thought.

Had Bryson not been so desperate, he would have seen that this SnowLucario fellow was unlikely to be a friendly entity. The Gamemakers had obviously put this here as a trap. But Bryson had tunnel vision, and it was such a narrow tunnel that it left little room for common sense.

Elsewhere, in a Capitol basement, a teenaged boy was working on the tower. He was hacking into the Hunger Games, and he had programmed this tower into the Labyrinth to make things more interesting. He laughed.

Man, it was a hot day today. So hot, in fact, that the hacker was only wearing green plaid pajama pants and no shirt. He was not unhappy, though. He was very satisfied with what was going on within his plans to hijack the arena. His long, skinny arms danced across the computer keyboard, making sure that the correct codes were inputted in order to set this up.

Yes, he might be in big trouble if he was caught. But he'd probably also be praised for making the Games more interesting. So maybe he wouldn't be executed at all. Maybe, instead, he would be rewarded, and would be made famous in the Capitol. Because all he wanted was recognition.

The hacker boy beat his chest in satisfaction, just like Donkey Kong. And he would make sure that these Hunger Games would be the best yet. And the hacker boy laughed.

For he was the person known as SnowLucario. And that would make him the richest man in Panem. Already, he had an evil glint in his cold, glacial blue eyes.

This was going to epic!

Meanwhile, Vixen was withering away. She had had very little food ever since she had ended up in these Games. Already slight, with very little extra weight, she had little or no wiggle room until she would simply be a bag of bones. She couldn't tip the scale at eighty pounds soaking wet back in District 6. Now, she estimated that she'd lost at least five pounds in these Games.

It had to end soon, or she would die of starvation. She had run out of food two days ago, despite trying her best to conserve it. And Vixen desperately wanted to win these Games, so she had to continue trucking and evading other tributes. That had been her strategy all along, and now it was most likely to become increasingly difficult for her to pull off.

After all, there were only seven left if she was counting correctly. The Gamemakers wouldn't want to let this last too long, and Vixen wasn't interesting to watch for too long. They would only show her long enough for people to know that she was still alive and quickly starving. And, if there were still any alliances in these Games or not, there would be less to cut to. Indirectly, more people dying helped Vixen survive, other than the fact that she had to be the last one left to live.

Vixen didn't feel guilty for having these thoughts. One way or another, she was going to win the Hunger Games. And then, she'd try to make her dream come true.

The alliance of three was still intact, but Aurora wondered whether or not it would be a good idea to dissolve soon.

"Hey, Leo?" she asked the District 3 boy.

"What is it?" he asked her back. Leo had a sinking feeling of what the District 9 girl wanted to tell him, but he didn't say it. The air between them was heavy with what remained unspoken.

"Do you think that it's time to disband?" she asked. "After all, there are only seven of us left. And an alliance of three really can't last that much longer. Eventually, we'd have to turn on each other. And I don't want that to happen".

"Well...I think maybe we can ditch Vair and stay together. But it's your call, I guess".

"My heart tells me that I want to stay with you, but my head tells me that I should leave. And with numbers being as low as they are, the Gamemakers are going to want to drive us at each other's throats. Also, I think that Vair is too big of a threat to let live until the end".

"Wait" Leo said. "Are you telling me that we should kill Vair now? I thought that you wanted to separate peacefully".

"I did" Aurora said. "But I've put more thought into it, and I've decided that we should get rid of him".

The District 8 boy was sleeping in, exhausted from staying on guard for most of the night. The guy ran so fast that he was no doubt bushed by now, and even the three cannons hadn't woken him up.

"And then, are we gonna stay together or not?"

"I don't know, but I'd really like to play it alone from here on out. I don't want to end up killing you" Aurora responded.

"I agree" Leo said. "Now that you mention it, let's kill Vair".

Vair had been dead to the world, to the point that even the cannons could not arouse him from his slumber. But, somehow, two teenagers talking quietly about murdering him caused him to stir. Vair immediately reached for a weapon, before realizing that he had none.

"Did you just say what I thought you said?" he growled. "Are you or are you not planning to kill me?"

"It's nothing personal, Vair" Aurora said, holding her hands up as if she was getting arrested. "We just think you're too fast, and too big a threat to allow to get this close to the end".

"But we're not close to the end" Vair responded curtly. "There're still ten left".

"Three cannons fired while you were asleep" Leo said. "There's just seven now. And it's like Aurora said, we just can't allow you to make it too deep into these Games".

"That sounds pretty fucking personal to me!" Vair yelled. He didn't care if the Careers heard him. All he knew was that he was very angry at these other two for plotting against him. More angry than he had ever been at anyone else in his entire life.

Without saying anything, Vair grabbed at Aurora, feeling around for one of her knives. Realizing it had to be in her backpack, he hung onto the older girl and zipped it open. Grabbing the knife, he attempted to plunge it into Aurora's skull.

However, Aurora was ready. She held up her hand to block it, and it only grazed her right hand. Thankfully, she was left-handed.

Instead, Vair was the one on the defensive.

"Leo and I will handle this!" Vair shouted. Aurora looked like she was about to protest, but Leo was like, "It's okay, Wheatgirl. Uncle Leo's got this guy in the bag!"

Leo came out swinging with his wrench, but Vair blocked it easily with the knife. Then, Vair threw Aurora's knife at Leo, which barely missed his leg.

Aurora took the opportunity to get away. She didn't want to be in such a dangerous place with two boys duking it out. So, she ran.

There is no way that they'll kill each other, she thought. It was all just a misunderstanding. A gigantic misunderstanding that could cause a lot of needless deaths...

But the cannon said otherwise. Aurora stiffened up and sobbed. She was several hundred yards away now, and not worried about Vair hearing her. But if he did, let him. Aurora had gone from loving Vair to hating him, in less than five minutes.

It was crazy how things went in these Games.

In the meantime, Margaret was trekking through a hot section of tunnel.

This was very hot, indeed. It made District 2 in the height of summer seem like a winter wonderland. As Margaret walked down a fenced path next to a pool of bright orange lava, she felt puddles of sweat run down her neck. She wished she'd thought to pack more water before leaving that morning.

It had been about five hours since the trio of cannons had fired, and three hours since the last one. Margaret had downed both of the water bottles she had brought along with her before an hour ago. Now, her throat was becoming increasingly dry. It became harder and harder to catch her breath. But still, she pressed on.

She figured that her biggest remaining threat was Horatio, since he was the one other Career still in the running. She feared him, but also hoped that he feared her. She didn't regret her decision to leave the alliance, though. If she had stayed, she was likely to end up dead, considering that the others no doubt held a grudge against her for concussing Hades with that giant brass bowl of fruit salad.

That was Margaret's biggest regret. She had been intending to hit Vair with the salad, not her own ally! But there was nothing she could do about it now.

If only she could find Horatio and end his life, she would have cleared her biggest obstacle to winning these Hunger Games. It was no longer just about the money and fame; she wanted to live.

That night, the sky showed images of Hades, Leo, Anna, and Conker.

Only two Careers left, Bryson thought. And only six total.

He was definitely very glad that he was in the top twenty-five percent. But he simply wanted to get to the end, and he'd been doing everything possible to achieve that. Right now, that was working on the puzzles of this tower. He'd gotten all but one of them down. The final one was a crossword of past victors.

It was difficult to fit in Channa, Kalin, and Buck. He kept looking for different places to put them, but they seemed evasive. Bryson remembered Buck the best, despite him winning the 44th Games, two years before Bryson had been born. Buck McBride, the District 10 male, had gone the whole game without killing a single other tribute, only to be blown into the air by an explosion and land, unconscious, on the rocks far below. He'd managed to survive longer than everyone else, though. But he was so severely injured that he had lost his memory of the previous several weeks.

Now, Buck lived a boring, crummy existence in the Victor's Village with his older brother. Bryson knew that that might become him if he won.

No. I'll still have my family, assuming the Capitol doesn't kill them.

And really, why would they? Bryson hadn't said anything particularly blasphemous against the Capitol during his time in the Games. Only thought it.

Putting that thought out of his head, he fit Kalin's name in and completed the puzzle. He was glad to retrieve the last star-shaped key and get on his way.

That last, limping climb back up the stairs was hell on Bryson's legs. But he managed it, and inserted the four keys into their respective pedestals, managing not to pass out in the process. Now, there was only one thing left to do. Reading the statue through his watering eyes, he managed to make out the words that he was supposed to exclaim.

Bryson bellowed, still not knowing who this mysterious person was, "SNOWLUCARIO IS THE BEST AUTHOR IN THE WORLD!"

He'd known that this might backfire. But at this point, Bryson knew that he was nearing the end anyway. Better to try something desperate and hope it worked than allow himself to die painfully by way of infection.

For a very agonizing ten seconds, nothing happened. Bryson was wondering if this whole tower had been placed here in order to play a trick on him. But eventually, there was a heaven-rending sound that engulfed the whole room. Bryson wondered what the fuck this was all about. Had he been wasting the precious little time he had left, considering the severity of the infection?

But suddenly, there was a rainbow light that lit up the whole area. It was so dazzling that it brought Bryson to his knees, as if he was praying to a deity. But that was not what he was doing at all.

In fact, Bryson had never made the conscious decision to kneel. Reason being, he was no longer conscious. His heart had stopped beating, as well as all other biological processes. His body keeled over and lay on the ground, like a large welcome mat.

Bryson Holstein was dead.

I give full credit to twilitprincess, AKA Hoprocker, for creation of the characters of Champagne "Channa" Bordeaux, Kalin Barry, and Buck McBride. I highly recommend reading her Hunger Games stories, as I seriously believe that they should be taught in high-school English class. For reals.

I know that was really short. Sorry about that. I was feeling a bit burnt out, and I wanted to get out another chapter today because I don't know when the next one will be. Anyways...

RIP Leo and Bryson

Leo: He was initially supposed to only be allied with Siliconia, and come in 9th, dying immediately after his district partner when they were both ambushed by the Careers. Even though he moved up two places, I created this guy, so he was destined to lose. And, as I have said before, he was based off of Leo Valdez, the son of Hephaestus from the Heroes Of Olympus series. It was very fun to write him into the story as if he was that character, and I have no regrets about how I portrayed him. Writing the trap scene with the Careers was also very fun. In the end, though, he got turned on by his own ally. And that's the way things go. Unfortunately, unlike the Leo from the actual books, this Leo is not coming back to life. Sorry, guys. I know, all da ladies luv Leo. In terms of the designated "goofball" of this story, that goes to this guy...

Bryson: I loved this guy as soon as his creator said that he came from an upper-class family. That's not common in District 10, and I immediately knew that a flirtatious goofball was going to be interesting. I was initially going to have him come in 15th, then 8th, and then I decided to save him until sixth in order to give him this death. Speaking of which, I really trolled you guys with that Riddle Tower thing, huh? In your reviews of this chapter, I want you guys to tell me if you were hoodwinked by that. I also loved writing his scene with the bottomless pit. I really pictured something from Star Wars with that. I thought that that was cool, but Bryson did think to himself a lot. But that's what writing for loners is like.

Okay. I once again apologize for the short chapter. The next one will be much longer, however. I won't say what happens. However, I will say that, by the end of that chapter, the final battle will be set up. And, with that...

SnowLucario out.