Hey! We're back! Just wanted to give a quick A/N to you guys about a new poll! I'm very interested to learn which pyscho is your favorite, Willow or Kaden? I suggest reading this chapter first before voting. Ya… this is a pretty heavy backstory chapter. At least for one of them.

More A/N's at the end, enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 31 Cracks in the Facade

Day 3 of the 76th Hunger Games

Somehow in the mess of explosions, Choux managed to make out a canon blast.

Or at least he thought it was a canon blast.

He couldn't be sure.

Choux was still hearing things and now he was forced to admit to himself the unsettling truth that he had lost his mind.

Danielle's voice had chased him for two straight days, following his every movement and issuing a barrage of torments and slurs at his guilty conscious. The previous night he had collapsed from exhaustion, waking up after over twelve hours of sleep to a world going to hell.

Below him near the water, the caves were exploding. Fire, dirt, and stone flew every direction, the explosions coming closer and closer to Choux's location. Too tired to be afraid anymore, Choux rose from the ground unsteadily and started running up the hills, his heart beating at a dangerously fast rate after only a minute of climbing.

'I can't do this anymore!' Choux wailed internally. 'It's all too much!'

Another explosion though forced Choux to his feet as he felt the heat from the flames. Sweat fell from his face, only increasing the putrid smell that his body emitted. Choux was a mess and it wouldn't take much more to make him fall apart even more than he had.

Suddenly, large cracks began to form in the earth around Choux, splitting the ground beneath him. Choux screamed out in fear as he jumped over the crack and onto the ground further up the hill, landing on his face. The ground were Choux was only seconds ago crumbled, falling into the growing abyss that was formally hills.

Getting up once more to feet, Choux continued running, tripping over himself and crying again before getting up to his feet and continuing to run. He reached the border of the hills after a while, panting heavily while tears flowed down his face. Choux was surprised he even had any tears left to shed. He had given up his pride a long time ago, the former Choux from four days ago was gone, replaced by a hollow and defeated fifteen-year-old boy.

A large shadow fell over Choux, blotting out the hot sun above him. Looking up, Choux could only whimper as he gazed at Nicolae and Auron, weapons drawn and posture threatening.

"Please… Please…" Choux began, before collapsing onto the hard ground.

Nicolae laughed. "He's all yours, Auron." He said, giving Auron a mocking look. 'Might as well be nice, it's a pathetic tribute for a pathetic Career.'

Auron gave Nicolae a bitter look, upset about the current situation. Auron needed kills for sponsors, but he didn't want Choux as his first kill. The boy was awful and hardly noteworthy. 'His Reaping was rigged though.' Auron thought to himself. 'I'll probably get some points from Capitolites for killing a rebel… if that's even what he did to get rigged.'

Walking towards Choux before Nicolae could figure out Choux's possible importance, Auron raised his sword ready to stab Choux. Choux looked up at Auron, hollow eyes and sweaty, pale skin giving him a haunting look. "Please…" Choux begged, "Please kill me! She won't leave me alone! I can hear her everywhere!"

Auron was surprised by the request and comment, but gave it no further thought. Before he could stab the boy, Nicolae stepped forward looking alarmed. "What did you just say?" he demanded.

Auron raised an eyebrow. "Nicolae?" he said confused.

Choux was also confused. "W-what?"

"About the hearing voices!" Nicolae shouted. "Who are you hearing?"

"HER!" Choux screamed, voice and body trembling from fear. "DANIELLE!"

None of the tributes moved, staring at each other. Choux stared at Nicolae who stared at him. Auron looked at the other two, clearly off put and now beyond confused. After a few more seconds, Nicolae began to laugh. "He's lost it. Just kill him." He said, walking away.

Auron, despite hating being ordered around by Nicolae, complied and stabbed his sword down through Choux's back and through his heart. Choux stiffened for a moment and then fell still, letting out one last breath that sounded like a sigh of relief. A canon was heard a few seconds later, signaling his death and Auron's first kill of the Games.

Pulling the blade out of Choux's heart, Auron brought it up to his chest to wipe off with a towel. "What was that about?" Auron asked Nicolae.

Nicolae didn't need to ask what Auron was referring too. "I just wanted to see what he had to say."

"It was more than that." Auron said, seeing through Nicolae's lie.

"I thought we agreed to no talking." Nicolae scowled.

Auron said nothing in response and finished cleaning his sword. Both Careers were making their way to the waterside when they started hearing the explosions. They picked up their pace, eager to see what was happening. From what Auron could figure out, it looked like the Gamemakers… or something else… had detonated bombs all across the hilly mountainside, creating a new edge to the arena. The hills were gone now, leaving only a sliver of the forming area remaining along with the swamp and bamboo. 'It will at least make hunting easier.' Auron thought.

"It's getting late, why don't we start making our way back to the Cornucopia?" Auron said, disregarding Nicolae's comment.

Nicolae seemed to distracted to care though, merely grunting and walking back towards the Cornucopia, expecting Auron to follow.

'So he heard somebody too?' Nicolae thought to himself. 'I heard Amara's voice two nights ago, but I thought that was because I hadn't had any morphling for a while. I haven't heard her voice again with the regular morphling doses… but that fat kid heard something and he wasn't on morphling. Of course… he looked like a wreck and said it was his dead partner's voice.'

Amara's voice and words came flooding back to him, telling him to win the Games and become Victor for her. Were the Gamemakers behind this? Making tributes hear voices? Nicolae had no idea how they could be doing it though. The only way it was possible was through jabberyjays, birds that could mimic the voice of anyone and say complete sentences in their tones. Nicolae hadn't seen one, though they could have just been in hiding.

Another wave of discomfort moved through Nicolae's body as he felt the effects of morphling withdrawal again. He fidgeted slightly, tightening his fist until it was white. He ran out last night, misjudging the amount that he would need to sustain himself. Nicolae was trying to be conservative though; he only had enough morphling for a little longer.

Nicolae wasn't strong enough to admit to his morphling addiction publicly, though he knew he had one. He couldn't expect anything to be done for it in the arena either. He was attempting to hide his injections from his fellow Careers and was hoping that the Gamemakers didn't broadcast it. Nobody would help a morphling addict.

The addiction and Amara occurred at the same time, as much as Nicolae hated to think of it that way. Amara had nothing to do with it though; it was very much Nicolae's entire fault. All District 2 tribute candidates were required to participate in an event known as the Trails when they turned sixteen, a three day grueling exercise in years of acquired skills. Candidates competed for the trainers through various drills, strength training, endurance runs, weapons finesse, and a public spectacle known as 'the Crucible'.

The Crucible was a mile run in which candidates were to run from one side to the other within a certain time. It was hardly that simple though. Trainers stood in their way, armed with very real weapons and unleashing all possible threats that candidates could face in the arena. Arrows, axes, and spears were thrown at candidates while trip mines lay in wait under the ground along with traps. Trainers also lay in wait, armed with shields and swords, ready to attack unarmed candidates as they ran past.

The only way a person could fail the Trails was by not completing them. Nicolae, who hated to admit it, had almost not completed them. He was near the end, sprinting to the finish line after a full three days of performing Trail activities when he fell into a deadly trap that lay in wait. It had sprung and twisted his leg, his momentum sending him forward onto the rocky, jagged ground and breaking his leg. Nicolae still made it to the finish line in time, though in severe pain. After he was finished, Nicolae was finally allowed sometime to recover in the Academies hospital.

Which is where he met Amara, a volunteer nurse.

Amara had been treating his wounds while Nicolae played himself up to be a god. No matter how cocky and confident he came off as, Amara always managed to beat him down and show him to be a fool. Instead of being anger, Nicolae could only find himself to be more and more intrigued by her. So many girls he had met and been with had been shallow and simply with him to be with a candidate for the Hunger Games. Amara genuinely did not seem to care about that, holding herself above the spectacle that captivated the rest of the District.

'You do know that one day I'm going to be Victor?' Nicolae had boasted while laying in his recovery bed, leg wrapped up and morphling being injected into him by Amara. 'Then you could be one of the most important people in this District right by my side!'

Amara had rolled her eyes. 'Really?' She responded in a mocking tone. 'I always thought Careers were suppose to be tough, not peachy romantics. What a disappointment.'

'I can do both just for you.' Nicolae winked. 'Why don't I show you later in my bed? I'm room 214 in the Academy barracks.'

Amara laughed. 'Sorry, I don't think I could handle two major disappointments in one day.'

Amara had left shortly after, only intensifying Nicolae's interest in the girl. He was distracted however when Victor Brutus came for Nicolae, making him move out of bed.

'The Trails are not over yet.' He said.

'What?' Nicolae had shouted in shock. 'What else could there be?'

'Something that you haven't heard of.' Brutus responded, leading Nicolae out of the hospital and to a discrete location.

"Nicolae!" Auron shouted out in shock.

Nicolae was snapped out of his memories in an instant, looking angrily at Auron. "What is it?" he shouted, before seeing what Auron was referring too.

The trap Jonathan had set had been sprung, and whatever had gotten stuck in it had managed to escape.

Nicolae shouted in anger, kicking the trap aside like the garbage it was. "He told us this was fool proof!" he shouted.

"He was wrong." Auron replied simply, bending over to examine the area as Nicolae ran to the Cornucopia to see if anything had been taken. Auron dug through the sand, a good amount of it stained red from blood. Upon further examination though, Auron dug up a metal tip of something, and it didn't take long for him to identify it as an arrow tip.

And there was only one person in the arena that would use arrows.

'Isabella was here.' Auron thought. 'It had to be her. She must have snuck back here to grab the bow and arrows, which are no doubt gone from the Cornucopia along with other supplies. Maybe she wasn't caught in the trap, maybe another tribute was since the blood trail only goes away from the Cornucopia. Regardless, she managed to use arrows to break the damn thing.'

If that were the case, then Nicolae would be furious. And he would be furious at Caspian for no other reason than Isabella being from his District. Caspian would be angry in turn and soon the two of them would be at each other's throats, ready to kill.

Auron sighed, annoyed that he had to worry about the Career alliance falling apart so early when there were eight non-Careers to hunt. He had already said he'd work with Caspian to bring down Nicolae, but was that even worth it at this point? The Career alliance was destroyed when Charm and Cyra died but nobody was willing to admit it at the time though.

But what would Auron do? Survive on his own? Despite all his impressive Career training, he was trained to work and survive with others. He was sad to admit that he wasn't confident in his ability to survive without an alliance. Auron need the alliance for a little longer.

So when Nicolae came storming back from the Cornucopia, Auron hid the arrow tip and decided not to reveal what he found. Hopefully Nicolae wouldn't say anything about a bow being missing. "Whoever they are, they took two more of our bags and some more medical equipment." Nicolae shouted, pacing back and forth.

'Isabella would need medicine.' Auron thought to himself. "We've still got supplies, right?"

"Of course we do!" Nicolae screamed, face red with rage. "But that's not the point!"

Both tributes looked at each other for a few moments, Nicolae enraged and Auron calm. Nicolae screamed once more and left Auron, not willing to deal with the fag at that moment.

Whoever had been here had taken the last of the morphling, leaving Nicolae unable to attend to his addiction.

And the itch to shot up had only increased.

Willow heard two canons go off earlier in the day, annoyed that they were not her kills. In fact, Willow had been annoyed for quite a while, mainly because of her lack of success in finding other tributes after exploring a lot of the bamboo section at this point. She didn't go to the edge of the arena though, mainly staying in the middle and upper areas near the swamp, which was also her current location.

Besides being annoyed, Willow was also very nervous as she stood at the edge of the swamp. It wasn't because of how creepy the swamp looked, Willow hardly cared about that. It was because of the substantial amount of water that was in the swamp.

And that was Willow's major weakness, her only real fear in the entire world.

Water.

She had been traumatized by water early in life, unable to deal with large amounts of it. She could handle it in certain amounts, but to be completely submerged in it would send Willow into hysteria. Horror would fill her as traumatic images from the past filled her, images from her very past curtsy of her unbalanced father.

An unbalanced father who attempted to drown her in the family water barrel.

Unsteady breaths escaped Willow's lips, her posture rigid and unmoving. 'You have to do this!' Willow told herself. 'There aren't any tributes in the bamboo, they must have fled into the swamp!'

The thought of tributes to kill though didn't motivate Willow like she hoped it would. Sighing, Willow took a step back. 'Tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll go into the swamp.' Willow thought.

Choux's face appeared in the sky first that night. He appeared defiant and with a smug smile on his face, for all the good it did him.

It was the appearance of the next face however that caused a piercing scream to sound above the Capitol anthem that played.

"NOOO!" Anastasia screamed. "SHE CAN'T BE DEAD! SHE CAN'T!"

Willabeana wrapped comforting arms around Anastasia, embracing her tightly and drawing her attention away from the face of Tianora that lit up the sky. "It's going to be ok, Ana." Willabeana whispered to the crying girl.

Anastasia pushed away from Willabeana though and began to run away. "Anastasia don't run off!" Willabeana shouted after the girl. Anastasia paid her no attention though, continuing to run away.

Getting to her feet, Willabeana gave chase, though not before shooting Kaden a look. Kaden didn't even notice Willabeana or Anastasia leave, his gaze off in the distance and dreamy. He hadn't been very clear on the details of Tianora's death either, saying that she had fallen through one of the crevices that had sprouted up along the hills. Apparently his wound in his arm was from falling or something.

Willabeana didn't believe him for a second.

She caught up to Anastasia at last, finding her screaming like a mad woman at the sky. "Why would you let her die? Why didn't you protect her?" Anastasia demanded. "I thought you were suppose to help people?"

"Ana?" Willabeana called out.

Anastasia spun around, face angry. "Why didn't God protect her?" Anastasia demanded. "She wasn't a bad person! She didn't deserve to die!"

Willabeana paused, unsure of how to respond. She wasn't religious; she didn't know how to account for some deity's actions or lack of them. "I don't know." Willabeana admitted. "Things just happened."

"That's not good enough!" Anastasia shouted. "She was a good person! She shouldn't have died!"

Willabeana stepped forward, embracing Anastasia's crying form once more. "I'm sorry." Willabeana muttered into her ear, not sure of what else she could say. Willabeana felt slightly responsible since she had so freely left Tianora to her fate. 'She left though!' Willabeana kept telling herself. 'It was her choice to do so. You can't be accountable for what happened after that!'

Willabeana still did though, just like she did with Damian. 'Two District 11 tributes, dead while I was there.'

'But you didn't kill them.'

'No… no I didn't…'

'But Kaden killed Tianora. You know that.'

Willabeana was confident that Kaden was the cause of Tianora's demise. Anastasia had checked over Kaden's wound, patching it up through shaky hands after learning of Tianora's fate. Willabeana braved a look at it and found the wound looked like he had been stabbed by something, something not naturally made. Tianora had carried away a knife with her; the dimensions of the wound would roughly fit those of the wound.

If Kaden killed Tianora, he was a legitimate danger at this point.

'We have to get away from him.' Willabeana thought instantly. Leaning forward, Willabeana whispered into Anastasia's ear. "We need to talk about something, sweetie." She whispered.

Ten minutes later, Willabeana and Anastasia returned to their campsite with Kaden awaiting them. "I was tempted to start looking for you guys." Kaden said.

Willabeana smiled sweetly while noticing the sword on Kaden's waist. "We were just talking about something's." She said. Anastasia waited behind Willabeana, confirming the delicate and awkward nature of their talk to Kaden.

"I'm sorry about Tianora." Kaden said. "But look on the bright side, at least we don't have to ration as much!"

Anastasia cringed, though made her way to her bag with the medical supplies in it. She pulled out a bottle of water and painkillers, handing them to Kaden who downed them in a heartbeat. Willabeana kept her persona up, smiling supportively. "Kaden, I think we're a little to tired to move tonight. Why don't we camp here?"

Kaden raised an eyebrow. "This isn't exactly the most secure area." Kaden said, looking around the barren area surrounding them. The only cover they had was the darkness itself.

Willabeana, however, was persistent. "We'll be fine for tonight, and Anastasia really needs the sleep. I think you should too, you look pretty tired."

Kaden felt tired. The entire day had been exhausting and his wound was only making him more tired. "I… I guess that's a good idea." He admitted. "I'll take first watch though."

"Oh don't worry about that, I'll do it!" Willabeana said, looking between her two allies. "You guys just get some sleep ok?"

Kaden was hesitant at first, but his loud yawn quickly gave him away. "Fine, take the sword too." Kaden said, handing it to Willabeana. She took it gratefully and helped Anastasia settle in. "Good night." She said to both of them, patrolling the surrounding area.

Kaden fell asleep faster than he planned too, his mind still on Tianora. He had killed her… he was very much aware of that. However he couldn't accept it. He didn't remember killing her, only standing in front of her broken figure beneath him. He had been so startled that he actually threw Tianora's body into the ravine he had saved her from minutes ago.

These instants of memory blank were almost all too common now. More and more often they would fall over him, leaving him confused and hollow. As he drifted off to sleep, Kaden remembered early meetings with the community home's guidance counselor, which plagued his dreams as he drifted off.

Kaden was sitting in the counselor's office, fidgeting uncomfortable in a hard chair as the counselor, Dr. Flynn Franklin, sat behind his desk. Dr. Franklin was a balding forty something with a skinny figure and impatient eyes. He had been working in the community home for years, dealing with all of its messed up children, often with little success. It hardly mattered to him though, his job was to only control the kids to the point they could live together until they were eligible to move to a community ranch or, if they were particularly violent, were drafted into the Peacekeeper ranks.

'How are you today, Mr. Fenton?' Dr. Franklin began, still not looking up from his file.

Kaden was only ten at the time, though rather well built for someone as young as he was. His mind though was still young and under developed, no doubt due to terrible education and parenting from his screwed up family. "That's not my name." Kaden said in a small voice. "It's Kaden Harrison."

"Well here it's Fenton." Dr. Franklin said. "You'll learn soon enough that all of you are named Fenton."

"'All of you?'" Kaden said confused.

"The other kids." Dr. Franklin replied annoyed. "Welcome to you're new family, Mr. Fenton. For ease of identification, I'll just call you Kaden."

"O-Ok." Kaden said in a small voice.

"Now, let's talk turkey." Dr. Franklin said, leaning back in his chair, which creaked as though it was about to break. Kaden winced at the uncomfortable sound though Mr. Franklin was very use to it by then. "What's your problem?"

"What?" Kaden said.

Dr. Franklin sighed. "God, another dumb one." He muttered. "I said, what's your problem? What messed you up in the head?"

'I-I…' Kaden began, uncertain of himself. Where could he start?

Dr. Franklin wasn't as caring. "We can start with your father killing your mother, or your mother sleeping with you."

Kaden flinched. "She didn't do anything bad! She was loving me!"

"And that's where we have a problem." Dr. Franklin said. "It's not exactly appropriate for parents to have sex with their children."

"She didn't call it sex." Kaden shouted, tears coming to his eyes. Why was he being so mean to his mother?

"God you're a lost cause." Dr. Franklin sighed. "Ok Kaden, we need to talk about what happens next."

Kaden sniffled. It was his first day at the home and already he felt terrible and defeated. He wanted to go home, he wanted his family back.

"You're going to be living here until you turn nineteen." Dr. Franklin explained, leaning forward in his chair again and causing it to creak. "Once you reach nineteen, you're out on your own. Until that time though, this home expects you to behavior with accordance of his rules. Any rule breaking will lead to punishment. Are you experienced with corporal punishment?"

Kaden shook his head.

"Well you will be here if you mess up." Dr. Franklin said. "And it won't be pleasant for anybody, especially you. So keep you head down and mouth shut and do whatever is asked of you. Also, while the Capitol doesn't give two shits about the poor in the Districts, they do require that you come to therapy once a week. They're not to big on pyscho's running around the District."

Kaden tensed up. "I'm not a pyscho."

Dr. Franklin snorted. "Didn't you live with you're family? You're father was a drunken loony while you're mother was a pedophile. You've got bad genes in you, and I'm not asking you to try and fix yourself. I'm only asking that you not let shit hit the fan until you're out of here. Understood?"

Kaden nodded his head, whimpering once more. The scene changed to Kaden's first night in the community home, awaiting his new roommate to return to their room. Kaden was so nervous, hopeful his roommate would want to be his friend. He didn't have many of those before when he lived with his family.

The door opened and Kaden stood up from his hard bed, looking at his roommate nervously. His roommate, much to Kaden's relief, did not look at him funny. "So you're the newest member of the family?" he said. The boy was younger than Kaden by a little, his face innocent and sweet looking. His skin was dark as well with puffy black hair and dark eyes.

Kaden nodded his head. "Yes, um… I'm Kaden!"

The boy smiled, an unexpected politeness, and stepped forward to shake Kaden's hand. "HI! I'm Oliver!""

Kaden took the other boy's hand, shaking it happily. "It's nice to meet you!" Kaden said.

"Nice to meet you too!" Oliver said. "I haven't had a roommate for a while and I hope that you're better than the last one that I had."

"What happened to him?" Kaden asked, curiosity spiked.

"Oh… I actually don't know." Oliver admitted. "But he was a spaz."

Kaden laughed, "That's must have been bad."

"You have no idea." Oliver laughed. "Like, we'd be siting on these beds just talking and then all of a sudden he'd start shouting out curse words and then stop, looking upset."

"Like what?" Kaden said, curious to hear curse words.

Oliver smiled and began listing curse words, both children giggling as they heard a curse word said. After a few minutes of saying curse words, Oliver asked Kaden to come to dinner with him and his friends. "It's not very good, but it's better than what most people eat in District 10."

Kaden was only to happy to comply. As he left the room, the dream speed up several days and then weeks. Images flashed through Kaden's frantic mind as he recalled meeting Oliver's friends, hanging with Oliver more often, and feeling stressed out. The images stopped as he landed back in Dr. Franklin's office, almost a year later.

"He's just so mean." Kaden complained to Dr. Franklin, though knew that the doctor cared little for his woes.

As he always did, Dr. Franklin sighed. "This boy, um... Dillon is it?"

"Yes!" Kaden said, "He's such a monster!"

"Hm... He's quite a bastard isn't he?" Dr. Franklin said. "I've had several session with him and he's proved to be completely unsolvable. Ah well, the Peacekeepers will love that boy when he's drafted."

"Can't you do anything about him now?" Kaden said. "He's mean and out of control! He's being a bully to all the little kids and it won't be long before he hurts somebody with his gang!"

Dr. Franklin dismissed his comments. "Kaden, the world is filled with violent people, don't you watch the Games? Everybody is violent by nature. Why, don't you remember last year's Games with that twelve year old girl who went on a killing spree?"

Kaden nodded his head, disturbed by the little girl's actions. The arena had been filled with weird spores that year which paralyzed and disoriented the tributes. The twelve year old had managed to get her hands on some knives and a gas mask, though wasn't able to prevent contact with chemicals that made her violent. She had gone on a killing spree, stabbing two paralyzed tributes to bloody deaths before being killed herself.

"As soon as you learn to accept the violence, things will be much easier." Dr. Franklin consoled. "I also see that Dillon's been disciplined publicly several times and I can assure you he'll come around."

Kaden doubted that. If anything, the public humiliation of naked corporal punishment only fueled the eleven year olds rage.

"Now before we depart for this week, let's recap what we always do. Can you repeat what we've been talking about Kaden?"

Kaden sighed, but dutifully recited the lines Dr. Franklin had been feeding him for a year. "It's not my fault that my mother molested me. It's her fault for being a sick person."

"And you're father?"

"My father, Tobias, is a bad man. Everything bad that happens is because of Tobias. It's always his fault."

Dr. Franklin raised an eyebrow, catching Kaden's use of 'happens' instead of 'happened' like he was suppose too. However, Dr. Franklin was too tired to deal with such an trivial issue. "Very good, Kaden. You're dismissed for this week."

"Thank you, sir." Kaden said, getting up and walking out of the room as Dr. Franklin's chair creaked as he leaned back.

The images changed, scenes of Dillon bullying all of Kaden's younger friends began to flood his mind. Kaden saw a quick flash of fire and a hot iron, heard high pitched screams, and woke up as he was confronted by the horribly mutilated body of a young boy.

Kaden screamed as he was forced out of his horrible recollection of earlier years. Sweat was dripping down his body as he attempted to control his emotions. 'It had to be Tobias who killed Tianora!' Kaden told himself. 'No matter what, it's always Tobias's fault if something bad happens!'

With that comforting thought in mind, Kaden laughed lightly. "Sorry for the scare." Kaden said, turning to his allies. His eyes went wide though and he shot up from the ground, staring around the landscape. "Willabeana?! Anastasia?!" he called out in shock.

Both his allies were gone.

THE FALLEN:

24. Joshua Awerdee (D7) - Killed by Nicolae Viscorian (D2), Skull bashed in [Day 1,Tributes Killed: 0]

23. Danielle Dashwillow (D8) - Killed by Choux Crumplefoot (D8), Dagger in stomach/internal bleeding [Day 1, Tributes Killed: 0]

22. Azzura Blue (D6) - Killed by Charm Acelynn (D1), Throat slashed by knife [Day 1, Tributes Killed: 0]

21. Charm Acelynn (D1) - Killed by Willow Bark (D7), Axe blow to neck [Day 1, Tributes Killed: 1]

20. Delvin Winters (D5) - Killed by Nicolae Viscorian (D2), Sword through heart [Day 1, Tributes Killed: 0]

19. Cyra Mystral (D2) - Killed by Kaden Fenton (D10), Sword slash across chest [Day 1, Tributes Killed: 0]

18. Wren Makari (D3) - Killed by Nicolae Viscorian (D2), Sword slash across the face [Day 1, Tributes Killed: 0]

17. Damian Hoult (D11) - Killed by Raven Keller (D9), Mace blows to skull [Day 1, Tributes Killed: 0]

16. Demi Nico (D12) - Killed by Caspian de Burgh (D4), Spear through heart [Day 1, Tributes Killed: 0]

15. Axel Coaler (D12) - Killed by Willow Bark (D7), Axe through lung, suffocation on blood [Day 2, Tributes Killed: 0]

14. Tianora Athodille (D11) - Killed by Kaden Fenton (D10), Windpipe broken [Day 3, Tributes Killed: 0]

13. Choux Crumplefoot (D8) - Killed by Auron Metzger (D1), Sword through the heart [Day 3, Tributes Killed: 1]

Tianora: A young girl with big dreams, I was sad to see Tianora go though it was important for the story. Ya Tributes who die for character development! Anyways, Tianora was a tough gal and really did think she was doing the best thing by leaving the alliance, willing to put their safety above her's. Another good person brought down by the Games...

Choux: Should I try and even say anything good about Choux? Nah, Choux was the perfect example of the spoiled upper class and thus the Capitol itself. Still, nobody deserves to die in the Games though many people in the Districts will be happy that he is gone. They (and you guys) probably cheered for his death, doing exactly what the Capitol wanted them too. Did I mention he had a family and was only fifteen and had been tortured by the memory of his dead partner because he was afraid?

Auron's thoughts on Careers parallel mine in this case. Even Haymitch and other tributes admit to it. Careers, however deadly and powerful they are, don't hold up so well once they're on their own. It's a flaw (along with ignorance of many survival skills in favor of combat skills) that Career academies continue to make and the only advantage that outliers really have against Careers.