Notes: Thanks, O! We love it when we can slip in comics references ;) And yeah, Scott... has a glaring, big ol' weakness. It's darling. :D

Chapter 25: "The Fall Will Kill You"

Tahiti Wing

Since most of the action in the Games was taking place in the evenings and early morning — and since Coulson had everyone running missions often to take advantage of the Capitol's distraction — nobody who was paying any attention to the Games was on a normal sleeping schedule.

Kate had long ago fallen asleep, sometime after the cameras had switched from following Billy and America to following the purple-haired girl from Two. The young man from Twelve was slowly suffering, the injury to his arm hurting him far more than should have been possibly from a simple cut, but America's devastation was apparently good television — so the cameras stayed on them a lot of the time during the day when most of the tributes were hiding from the sun.

Kate had been living and dying with every labored breath that Billy took, and Cassie hadn't fared much better — the little blonde was dead asleep, sprawled out in a loveseat close by, just as exhausted by her worrying as Kate was. That was their friend on the screen, after all, suffering and whimpering.

Kurt didn't even know Billy outside of the stories that Kate and Cassie had told, but just watching the young man on the screen trembling with pain was almost more than he could bear. He was so obviously hurting, and America was so obviously panicking, losing heart… it was hard to watch, and he didn't even know the players.

It was draining, exhausting, emotionally devastating, so of course both girls had fallen asleep, and Kurt wasn't going to risk waking either of them by making a sound — or even moving, since Kate had fallen asleep on his shoulder, though by then, she had fallen over into something deeper, curled up with her head on his lap and her knees drawn in so she could better fit on the couch.

Which meant he couldn't move, not that he was complaining.

The Capitol cameras had followed the flirtatious alliance between Eight and Two for a while before it had switched to Kitty for just a little while, showing her finding a good hiding place up higher in the ridges, though she was still by herself, which had Kurt concerned. Alone in the arena was never good — though at least his friend in the Games wasn't suffering. He knew he had that much to be grateful for, even if he knew that Kitty couldn't be faring well after having found Alex dead so early on.

But finally, the cameras went back to Billy and America, and Kurt frowned a bit to himself, wondering if this would continue to be the case until Billy died — after all, it seemed to be the most 'interesting' thing the Capitol could focus on.

The problem was that the remote was over by where Cassie was, and he couldn't get it without disturbing Kate, so Kurt was just holding an internal debate with himself about whether it would be worth it to wake them just to keep from having to see more of this when the footage rang with the familiar chime of a silver parachute.

Kurt sat up a little straighter, his eyes wide, before a grin broke out across his face, and he gently shook Kate's arm. "Kate… Kate!"

She startled slightly and then picked her head up to look around blearily for a moment, smiling his way and then glancing at the TV — then falling into a frown as she saw that it was back to Billy. "Aren't they tired of that yet?" she asked, the bitterness clear in her voice until the camera pulled back from Billy to show that America had abandoned her vigil beside her friend temporarily to climb up to where the parachute had fallen in between some rocks nearby.

A slow grin started to spread over Kate's face, the first like it he'd seen on her face since Billy was hurt, and she threw one of the couch pillows at Cassie to wake up the younger girl as well as America reached the parachute and seemed to melt when she saw its contents.

"What is it?" Cassie asked, unable to stop the question from tumbling out of her mouth as all three of them watched the bushy-headed girl from Twelve carefully make her way back to her quivering district partner.

"Billy," America said, crouching down beside him as she pulled out a bottle from the box marked with a big '12.' "Billy, I need you to come back to me just … just long enough to swallow something for me, okay?"

Both Cassie and Kate glanced at each other, startled into silence as they leaned forward to watch the footage. Neither of them had seen their friend so openly emotional before, and they could hear the quiver in America's voice. And neither of them could help but be concerned on hearing it. It was a clearer indication than anything else they had seen that Billy was not doing well.

It took a moment for Billy to take a deep and shuddering breath, but he gave the slightest nod, and that seemed to be enough for America as she gently rearranged him, the water bottle in hand as she unscrewed the lid of the bottle and shook out a single pill.

"The bottle says one every twelve hours," America explained to him as she gently placed the round, white pill on his tongue and then gave him some water to wash it down.

It looked like it took a monumental effort for Billy to swallow, and America held her breath the entire time, but finally, mercifully, it seemed that Billy's shoulders relaxed the slightest bit.

America watched Billy for a little longer until his expression smoothed out, the pain lines lessened, and it seemed he was slipping off into a drug-induced sleep. The moment he did, America let out all the breath she had been holding, resting her forehead against Billy's side for a moment as she let her hair fall in front of her face to hide her expression.

When she did finally lift her head, she wasn't giving away much, though the emotion was still palpable in her voice as she looked up at the sky with a very soft, "Gracias."

"Pain medicine," Cassie whispered, nearly as soft as America had been, and the other two in the room glanced at her before she looked back down at her hands. "It's good for Billy in the short term, at least. He won't be hurting, but…"

"Yeah." Kate nodded as she thought she could follow Cassie's train of thought. "An antidote would have been better, if they thought he could come back from it…"

"Maybe that was all Black Bolt could get," Cassie said, glancing up with the worry evident in her gaze. "I mean, sponsors don't usually send stuff to dying tributes unless it's, like, Tony."

"And it's not like America has been winning hearts," Kate said. Kurt could see that she was trying to smirk at her friend's antics, but he could hear the obvious worry in both of their voices.

He gently bent down to kiss Kate's cheek and draw her attention. "He's not hurting. That means America can help him to eat, drink, heal. Have a little faith, liebling."

Kate let out a sigh but relaxed into him slightly at his words. "You're right," she murmured, and he couldn't help but chuckle at her.

"Of course I am."

"Don't push your luck. You may be cute, but you're not that cute," she warned him, half teasing, and he just had to laugh at her for that one.

With Billy at least doing a little better, the girls were more relaxed — though that didn't last long when the camera switched very suddenly from Billy and America over to follow one of the Careers, the redhead from One. A sudden switch like that usually meant tributes were getting close to each other, to a fight, to danger — and since this was a Career, the three Tahiti kids in the room sat up a bit straighter, wondering who the Careers were after this time.

As they watched the fight between the Careers and the Sevens and Kamala unfolding, more of the Tahiti kids started to come in from the day's missions, from dinner, from training, that sort of thing — so that by the time the camera was following the Careers as they dropped Scott into a pit, the room was half full of former tributes.

Even some of the other members of Tahiti, the ones that hadn't been tributes themselves but were still part of the program, dropped in on occasion to watch the Games, and that was the case with Skye, who came into the room deep in conversation with Wade about how he needed to "let it go," though what it was he needed to let go, they didn't get to find out. Instead, she stopped short on seeing what was on the screen.

"What happened?" she asked, one hand to her mouth.

"Careers," Cassie said, though when she saw the look on Skye's face, she frowned a bit and waved her over to sit on the love seat with her to attempt a little levity: "I think they're threatened by sweet little Kamala and her alliance."

"Where…. Where are the other two?" Skye asked, still looking wide-eyed.

"On their way, I'm sure," Kurt said, also starting to fall into concern when he saw how shaken Skye looked. "Sit down, Skye," he told her gently when she still wasn't heeding Cassie's waved invitations.

She dropped onto the arm of the nearest couch rather than move much further, looking downright pale as the Careers started to taunt the young man on the screen, and even though Luke kept offering to take her out of the room as it just got worse — she hit him in the arm when he got too close with a muttered, "No, I've got to see this."

As Jean fired her arrows, Kate tried to lighten the mood by grumbling about her lack of archery skills. "She can't hit the broad side of—"

"She doesn't have to," Skye cut in before Kate could really get started. "You should have seen her in the Capitol. She set fire to half the assessment room. That's why she got a nine."

The former tributes in the room all glanced at each other at Skye's casual mention of having seen the assessment, though they all knew better than to press when she looked positively green the moment Jean got a shot close enough that Scott got a faceful of flames. It was good that the Careers left him after that, because Kurt was honestly sure that Skye wouldn't have made it any longer if she had to watch more.

He wanted to ask Skye so much. Like why she was so upset over Scott, why she was at the assessment, what was going on. But she looked like she might burst into tears at the slightest provocation, so the whole group of former tributes gave her a wide berth, hardly daring to speak until Scott got himself out of the pit.

"You know, if you want somewhere less crowded, Peter watches in the rec room," Steve offered quietly, the first to break the silence as he gave Skye a small, concerned frown. "The only rule there is you have to watch quietly — which is why the rest of us usually come here."

"I'm okay," Skye told him, though she did not look it. "I just… how do you guys do this every year? Knowing people in the Games?"

"Guess that's never really been an issue for someone from the Capitol," Luke observed, still close enough to her and looking like he might carry her out if something else happened that made her lose it.

"Which… begs the question," Kurt said, measuring his words carefully and watching her expression. "Why is it an issue for you now?"

Skye glanced up to meet Kurt's gaze, her expression totally open and honestly hurting. "A lot can change in a year," she almost whispered out at last. "I sort of… got to spend some time with Scott while I was doing field work. It was totally accidental but…" She took a deep, calming breath and glanced toward the screen. "I didn't know when I met him he was going to be reaped."

"Would it have made a difference if you had?" Kurt asked.

"I don't know," she admitted. "Maybe. Maybe I would have tried to distance myself or something, because this…" She gestured at the screen. "This sucks."

"Welcome to our world, Skye," Kate said.

Skye tried to give Kate a little smile before she rubbed at her cheeks with the heels of her hands, clearly trying to keep from crying outright as she took in a breath. "Seriously, I leave for a few hours to deal with Capitol stuff on the other side of SHIELD and this is what I come back to. I may never leave if this keeps up," she said.

"You're always welcome around here," Cassie assured her. "And there are punching bags down the hall if you want to take a leaf out of Sin's book and take it out on something — since we can't take it out on the Capitol just yet."

"If it's alright with you guys? I think I'd just like to stay right here," Skye said, settling into a chair instead of just the arm of one. "I don't have to be anywhere for another few hours anyway."

July 10: Day Four of the Games

In the Arena

Miles and Gwen had set up camp, as usual, toward the top of a ridge so that they could see everything in the valley below them, but nothing prepared them for the sudden surge of water as the sky unexpectedly seemed to open up and dump buckets of water on their heads, completely trashing their makeshift camp and sending them both running for better shelter.

The rain sloshed all around them as the sand and red dirt was absolutely no good for absorbing the water dumping down on them, and it made running difficult. They just couldn't keep their feet. Several times, Miles went crashing — or Gwen went crashing — and as high up as they were, it had them both panicking. A misstep here could be fatal.

Both of them had to stop and get their feet back underneath them when they reached a sturdy enough rock formation that they could hang on and catch their breath, though it didn't do much to protect them against the downpour either.

Gwen shouted something to Miles that he couldn't hear over the rain, and it wasn't until she was only a few inches away that he could make it out: "We can't stay up here! We need to go down!"

"Can't we just wait it out?" Miles asked, frowning at the edge of the ridge that had taken them most of yesterday to climb. He knew it was steep, which was why they'd picked it — hoping that other tributes wouldn't want to chance climbing up there — but now it was terrifying and life-threatening and a whole lot of other things that could get him killed.

Gwen motioned around them at the torrential downpour. "If this keeps up, we'll get washed over the edge!"

Miles let out all his breath and glanced down at his feet, realizing that he had to agree. The wet sand was slippery and mushy and was starting to swirl at his ankles. And since this was the arena, they had no guarantee this was a normal storm, either. For all they knew, it was specifically targeting them to push them back toward the others — or kill them for being too far out.

He held up a hand to tell Gwen to wait, and she looked impatient for just a moment before she saw what he was doing — untying his shoes, going barefoot, and then tying the laces together around his pack so he wouldn't lose the shoes. He grinned up at her. "Better grip," he explained, moving his toes in the mud, and she grinned at him and followed his lead.

Now feeling at least slightly better prepared for the climb, the two spiders approached the edge of the ridge, glanced at each other, and then very carefully started their descent.

It wasn't easy at all. The rain made it almost impossible to see much more than what was right in front of their faces, and the rocks and crevices that had made climbing so easy on the days before were now filled with water, slick and hard to hold onto. Miles lost his footing no less than three times and lost his grip on handholds no less than four — and when he glanced over at Gwen, he couldn't help but feel jealous of how much progress she had made. She was already several yards below him.

A slightly insane part of him wanted to make it a race, but the part of him that knew he couldn't even keep from sliding around in a normal climb in this weather won out, and he just focused on putting his hands and feet to the next crevice, the next hold.

The rain wasn't letting up, either, and Miles could hardly see for how much water kept getting in his eyes, so he very nearly freaked out when he felt a hand close over his wrist — only to see that Gwen had found a small ledge to catch her breath.

"You are the spider queen," he told her fervently, grateful for the reprieve as she helped to pull him up onto the ledge with her, and he let his aching arms and hands get a break. It was much harder work climbing when he kept having to catch himself to prevent a nasty fall, and he could feel it in his every muscle.

"Well, we got a shower," Gwen said as she leaned back and tried to catch a breath. "I didn't think you could drown in the desert."

"This whole arena is full of surprises," he grumbled, tipping his head back to catch some of the rain in his mouth and grin her way. "At least now we won't be too dehydrated, right?"

"We should catch some while we can," she agreed before she reached out to get her water bottle. "Who knows how long they'll leave the water on."

"Good point," he agreed, pulling his own pack out to do the same. It was oddly satisfying watching the rain fill the water bottle as quickly as it did, and he had to grin and take a good long drink before he put his bottle back out in the rain. "Free refills."

"But likely just this once," she agreed, doing the same thing herself, though when she put her bottle back, she had to flex her hands a few times. They'd been aching and peeling all morning — and the climb certainly wasn't helping her in the least.

"How is the pink-haired spider thing going?" Miles asked, noticing her motion and looking over her shoulder at her flaky hands.

"I'll be glad to get off this ridge," Gwen replied.

Miles nodded and looked out over the edge. It looked even more daunting now that he could see how much they still had to climb down, and what's more, he could see that the sand at the bottom of the ridge was swirling, too. "Well… I guess I'm ready when you are, but … that just looks awful down there," he said, shaking his head to himself.

"Maybe we can move further along the ridge before trying to go down again," she offered. "It could be better further out."

"Let's hope so," he agreed, shouldering his pack before he gestured out at the ridge. "Lead the way, spider queen."

She nodded in agreement and shot a little smile his way before she slipped over the ledge and started to move laterally with the ridge. The ledge went on for as far as she could see, so she just stuck to it. Miles had barely copied her position when Gwen ran into trouble — and the footing she had simply washed away.

She was dangling, holding on with what little grip she had on the ledge, but even that was slipping as the water swirled around her fingertips, washing the hard sand around her fingers, eroding the ledge where she held it until it simply crumbled and gave way.

Miles tried to get to her — he really did. He was close enough to see what was happening, but he couldn't find a solid hold to get himself any closer as everything he tried was either too slick or crumbled when he tried it. He was close enough that he could see the look on her face right as the ledge gave way, and then she had disappeared from his sight, the rain and mud and rocks below him making it too hard for him to see all the way down.

He thought he heard a cannon blast in the distance, but he was actively ignoring that as he continued his descent a lot faster than he probably should have, teeth gritted against the rain as he muttered, "nope" to himself under his breath all the way down, checking every few yards to see if he could see Gwen.

"It's fine. She's fine. She found another ledge. Or a handhold. Or ... yeah, she found a root sticking out of the side of the mountain. You know. Like in adventure stories," he muttered to himself, coming up with increasingly less likely ways that Gwen had been able to stop her fall all the way up until he was about twenty feet from the bottom of the ridge and he saw the blonde hair — brighter than the deep red mud all around her.

"Oh man."

His arms and legs and hands and feet were protesting with every move, but he practically slid down the rest of the way, only slow enough to count as careful if he was really stretching the definition, before his feet hit the ground — and he ran, the mud pulling at his bare feet and threatening to knock him over a few times.

The warning signs of a flash flood were blaring at him in neon — the swirling mud, the fact that Gwen's body had moved several yards from where she had fallen in the steadily-growing current. But he just kept thinking that maybe it had been thunder and not a cannon — and if Gwen was hurt, not dead, there was no way, no way, he would leave her.

He skidded to a stop in the rushing mud, but about the same time he arrived, the rain just over his head stopped pounding on him, just for a moment, and he glanced up to see that a black transport was circling overhead, temporarily blocking the water every time it passed over him directly.

It was for Gwen.

"Oh man," he muttered, now suddenly afraid to touch her, his eyes wide as he felt the current of water start tugging at his knees in the dirt. He had to get out of there, and he knew it.

"Okay. Alright. Okay. I'm going," Miles said, directing his annoyance at not only the transport but the mud and, well, everything else — though he took just a few more minutes to find Gwen's backpack in the mud a few feet away from her and pick it up, glancing over his shoulder at the girl in the mud before he took off at a run, headed for shelter from the storm.

Tahiti Wing

Peter stared blankly at the television screen in front of him as the camera followed the transport that had just taken Gwen away. He couldn't quite make sense of what he was seeing, and he didn't think he had processed it correctly.

There was just no way Gwen was dead.

And it didn't really matter about Tahiti, did it? He knew from experience — dying wasn't something you just walked off, even if you did come back, and there was Gwen on the screen, lying in the mud as the Capitol replayed Miles' reaction, though Peter muted it when Tivan started up the gleeful commentary on the end of the spider alliance. He couldn't — he couldn't listen to it.

He had his hands clenched in fists at his sides and had just gathered up the nerve to march himself down to Coulson's office and demand to know how soon they'd be bringing her back. And if Coulson wasn't there, he'd find someone else. Claire or Fitzsimmons or, heck, he'd take on Essex himself if he thought the man would give him an answer on Gwen.

But he didn't make it to the door before someone on the other side flung it open, and there stood Kurt and Kate in the doorway, both of them looking upset on their friend's behalf. Kate didn't hesitate to simply fling her arms around his neck and hug him hard. She hadn't even let up her hold on him when Kurt joined her.

For a moment, Peter tried to push them off — he wanted to get to Coulson and make some demands — but when neither of them seemed about to let go anytime soon, he did his best to return the hug, and somewhere in trying to wrap his arms around both of his friends, he forgot how to remain upright and felt his knees go underneath him.

Both of them went to the floor with him, holding him that much tighter as the first disbelieving little sob escaped Peter, and then that was it — the floodgates had opened.

It didn't matter that Coulson had promised all of them that their friends would be brought back. Not right that moment anyway. They could think about that later. Later on, they could hold their breath and hope that the process worked, because as Claire had been sure to remind them all before the Games even started, it was far from a guarantee, no matter how far they had advanced with their technology and techniques.

For right now, the only truth, the only thing Peter knew for certain was that Gwen was dead, and that was really all he could focus on as he buried his face in Kurt's shoulder and both of his friends pulled him tighter, not a word spoken between the three of them.

24. Monet St. Croix, District Eleven Female, Killed by Arkady Gregorovitch

23. Jessica Jones, District Five Female - Killed by Zebediah Kilgrave

22. Skurge, District Four Male - Killed by Clara Creed

21. Brian Braddock, District Two Male - Killed by Giuletta Nefaria

20. Giuletta Nefaria, District Three Female - Killed by Elizabeth Braddock

19. Alex Summers, District Nine Male - Killed by Brock Rumlow

18. Brock Rumlow, District Six Male - Killed by James Barnes

17. Arkady Gregorovitch, District Ten Male - Killed by Remy LeBeau

16. Amora, District Four Female - Killed by Clara Creed

15. Gwen Stacy, District Eight Female - Killed by a long fall