Welcome back, mi amici! For another chapter of the Hunger Games (dun dun dun.)

Well, what did you think of the last chapter?

*crickets*

Oh, I see how it is.

But you don't care about this whole bolded text shebang, do ya? Read on!

Chapter Thirty Nine – Wu

You would think Borg had just declared surrender by the way the delegates erupt in celebration once the Hunger Games feed switches. Choruses of whoops and hollers fill the room to its bursting point, a few begin to weep with joy, while others just smile with satisfaction and observe.

"You were right, doggonit, Johnson, and whoever else you all were…" A loud voice shouts, rousing another wave of praise.

"There's your act of rebellion. Right there!" Watson adds, smacking his knee to add to the effect.

"How long until the act is instilled in the civilians?" A bookish woman interjects, unable to keep a thin smile from her lips.

"Ah, the uneasy ones will be on it right away, and the unsure ones will follow, and the stable ones will grow uneasy and scared. We'll have an army by noon tomorrow!" One of the men near me does a strange wiggling dance in his chair, and we all laugh.

"Time to celebrate, friends! Champagne, anyone?"

"Hit me!" Comes the reply, and we laugh again, knowing that if we could get any drinks this late at night with the cafeterias closed it would be water.

Thrace watches the projection on the meeting room wall with a look of fulfillment on his face, not cheering with the others, balanced, calm, ever in control. Williams, equally composed, leans in to talk to Thrace.

"Sir, what is next on our agenda? Now that our act of rebellion is completed, what shall we do?"

"The public will react to this, as I sense they already have." Thrace glances to the feed, then back to his advisor. "There will be a gathering of same-minded civilians, regardless of element, like the boy addressed it. Clever on his part, too." Which is the highest compliment I've ever heard issued by Thrace. "The Nindroids will keep pouring in, but they will do little to stop it. If there's one thing machine cannot tame, it is the human spirit."

"Well said, sir." Williams bows his head.

"Civilians usually unquestioningly following Borg will be confused, frightened, and keep to their own, but the seed will be planted."

"And the Darkness girl, sir? She seemed to discourage the Fire boy's thoughts."

"They are both in the Hunger Games. He is wounded, she is frightened, any word or action out of line could lead to their deaths. Would you not act similarly?"

"And that was certainly out of line, sir."

"The Fire boy also said that they were like-minded. We have the tapes of the playground occurrence… She shows great promise. Not just because of this, though."

"Ah." Williams smiles dryly like he and Thrace are sharing a private secret, which I'm sure they are.

"And then, when the time is right… We strike."

The delegates, now released, flood into the hallway, some heading to their barracks, some going down to the lobby to party with some of the other soldiers. Soon Garmadon is at my side, along with Scourge and a bewildered-looking Eli, who has a grin on his face.

"Not the partying type?" I ask, and Scourge shrugs.

"Not really."

"Me either," Eli chips in, "Never really liked them, for some reason." A loud bang issues from down the hall and all four of us instinctively duck, then laugh.

"I can see why…"

"How about we head to the lobby? I know they're having a party there, but maybe they'll have refreshments!"

"In this prison camp? Dream on." We don't have anything better to do, though, and it's already past midnight – it was in the middle of the night when Thrace summoned the delegates through the wall ports – and the new lights-out will be in action soon, so why not? Eli is practically bouncing with excitement as we ride down the elevator.

"Wasn't that cool? The way he burned the badges! Smart, too, seeing as he was Fire! And wow, what a speech! Awesome."

"The girl is bright, too. I hope she'll be an asset also." I'm about to ask how the tributes could be our assets when Scourge intervenes.

"Did you hear the Mechanic's guild had to patch the feed? Borg was trying to shut it down, to switch, but they hacked it and kept the feed running for the citizens and us!"

"Is this their first move against Borg, the first real one? Won't he know about us now?" Garmadon's forehead creases with worry.

"It should show up as a server error, and I'm sure Borg is getting a lot of those lately." Scourge winks and we all grin, then the door slides open into the lobby, where a full-blown party is in swing.

Hundreds of soldiers gather in the main area, shouting like wild animals, dancing to music with an intense bassline that shakes the ground with every beat, so that Eli has to grab my arm and steady himself once we step out of the lift. Multicolored lights spiral around the room unpredictably, adding to the chaos of the night. Like always, the Games feed is projected on the wall, but next to it is a news channel from the Complex, displaying a scene of a huge bonfire around which stand hundreds of citizens, maybe thousands, all tearing off their element patches and tossing them into the fire. Most have tears on their tunics where the badges used to be. A few hold signs, 'Down With Borg', 'Dissolve Elements', 'The Patchless Reign', and so on.

"Wow," my brother gasps as he watches the Complex stream. "So they're calling themselves the patchless. Catchy, I guess."

"The Fire boy had a great effect on them. I didn't expect..." I gesture to the bonfire scene with one hand.

"Thrace said so, but… This is massive-scale. Borg will have to ship in loads of Nindroids to calm them."

"Hey guys, you're missing the party!" Eli shouts from the edge of the throng, then a young Tactical girl grabs his hand and pulls him back in, to which he happily obliges. Garmadon glances hopefully at the dancing soldiers, but I start for the lifts. "I'm going to turn in for the night. And they don't have refreshments, so why stay?"

He shrugs and says goodbye, then I walk to the lift and ride to my floor, then to my room, where the television is playing a broadcast of the rampant rebellion in the Complex.

"Since its founding, the Complex has never seen such utter disobedience!" The first newscaster says, and though he's not pictured, I can tell it is Chen, the interviewer from the Games.

"Statistics say not." Pixal drones as the camera zooms in on one of the fires, where the badges easily curl and blacken in the intense heat, an intensity reflected on the faces of the civilians, shouting for their cause.

"The populous cries for Borg to release them from the element system. That won't do at all!" Chen chuckles, lighthearted-like.

"Why not?" I growl, then sit on my bed and watch the screen.

"For our viewers watching tonight, the element system is a time-tested and time-honored system that sorts citizens into groups who display similar aptitudes, in order for them to work together, bond together, and do their civic duty more efficiently." The robot's monotone sounds like she's reciting from a textbook.

"Yes, yes, that's all very good indeed!" Chen says, and I can detect a strain of worry in his voice as the camera shows more pictures, some of signs with decapitated Nindroid heads, others with pictures of Lloyd and Arden in their Nindroid costumes, captioned 'Man or Machine?' "Why all this ruckus, though, I do not understand."

"It is… Untimely." Did Pixal hesitate? I smirk as she and Chen walk up to their newscasting desk and take their seats, thick files of notes set before them.

"Obviously, news right now is the patchless rebellion." Chen begins, smiling brightly and winningly at the camera. "However, Borg's Nindroids have everything under control." No video clips are shown now, probably because the Nindroids are unable to calm such a gargantuan group of people. "We have faith that this small skirmish will be contained within the day. In fact, it's not really a rebellion at all." Chen must think this is a nice touch, because he smirks in a proud sort of way.

"Our next news is about the Hunger Games, where the death of Zant Eriksson stunned us all." A short video clips shows Zant, the Darkness boy, who looks positively feral, stumbling through the woods, his eyes wide and bloodshot, face hanging. In a few steps he falls to the ground, body splayed over roots and rocks, before the cannon fires. We get a good look at his chest, which has been torn open by something, and I have to look away, stomach churning. The amount of blood is staggering, spreading over the dirt as he lies there, staining the earth deep scarlet. "As a recap for our viewers, the other deceased are Aimee Holmes of Air, Michael Bedford of Air, Zant Eriksson of Darkness, Kris Young of Earth, Stirling Lightfoot of Fire, and Ashleigh Reeves of Lightning. Our alliance count has reached two now, viewers – the alliance of Kai Burns and Ming Mako has given us something interesting!" Chen looks greedily at the now-shown pictures of the two tributes, but none of the heated discussion that lead to the 'rebellion.' Knowing Chen, he'll warp it into a love affair or something. Frankly, I wouldn't care, but the Fire boy was our act of rebellion, so I'm indebted to pay some attention.

"Yes, the alliances are few, though. Most tributes are alone in this year's Games." Obviously. I don't know why the Fire and Darkness tributes teamed up, but they both seem to possess the ability to see Borg as he is, but that's not grounds for an alliance.

"A catch-up on our other tributes for our viewers is in order!" Chen claps his hands and leans forward. "The All-Element boy, Lloyd has had his second encounter with the alliance of the Light, Earth, and Metal tributes. Some say it's magnetism, but in this case, perhaps not such an appealing trait!" But he's okay. For now, at least. "The All-Element girl, Arden, was in a bit of a tight spot with a pit trap, but she escaped after a few hours. The Darkness girl has allied with the injured Fire boy, as previously stated. These two could be quite a team, so watch out! The Earth boy, Cole, Light boy, Daphnes, Light girl, Medli, Metal boy, Sawyer, and Metal girl, Scarlett, have suffered from a bit of sabotage…" A clip is shown of Sawyer ripping into the Earth girl with a short sword, then kicking her off of a ledge on a decline. Again, I feel sickened by both the manner of the killing and the ease at which the Metal boy executes it. "Both Ice tributes have kept to themselves, and have set up clever traps around their bases. However, lack of food and water are taking their toll. How long will they stick it out? And finally, the Lightning boy, Jay, has sustained minor injuries from an encounter with a sea serpent, but if he can last through the toxic delusions, he should be all right. And that about wraps it up!"

"Thank you, Master Chen, for that delightful recap." Pixal's voice is so insufferably bored that I almost laugh.

"Anything, m'dear." Chen winks, and then their time is up and the screen flashes back to the patchless again, who seem to have grown in number during the Chen and Pixal broadcast. I'm about to see if I can change the channel when the lights snap off and I crawl into bed.

I think about Lloyd, who has had a second Career encounter. They were probably tracking him, are they still now? You'll get nowhere by worrying, I think. Go to sleep. It is the middle of the night, after all, going to bed shouldn't be too hard. Still I lie awake, though, with the Hunger Games on my mind, all the way until the lights flick on in the morning and the wall port displays my new schedule. Time for phase two of Thrace's plan. When will he finally explain?

It only came to my realization that I've never replied to any reviews besides in author's notes... Maybe should have done that a long time ago? Oops... Heh heh. So if you wrote a review you should be getting a reply soon! Apologies for the months-late delay.

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Thanks again! Vale, mi amici! *waves in Latin*