Training Day Three

Lyanna Winters, 18

District Twelve Female

Lyanna had a hard time accepting her reality.

Of course, at the moment many other people's realities were similar to her own, but that did not make it easier. There had been a relaxation, a promise of peace, and then it was taken away from her in such a cruel fashion that she did not quite know how to comprehend it. and yet, she was astonished at the coldness of her own heart, of how it was eyeing the grand prize, for the wealth would be enough to solve all her financial problems, all her issues. She could send her siblings to school, get her father treated, and possibly still have enough to live comfortably for a few years, in which time she could find a better and higher paying job. She was riddled with guilt for having these feelings, for to win the prize, she would have to win the competition, the competition of life itself, and that was something that bothered her. It bothered her that she was willing to do what it took, that she was willing to get her hands stained in red, that she was willing to live with the guilt and regret that was surely to accompany her victory if it ever came to that. She was willing to do that to herself; she was willing to allow herself to become a monster, and this thought scared her.

And then there was Cairn. Lyanna loathed the fact that she was Reaped alongside her employer cum friend. For that was what they had become. She looked out for him, and he made sure her family was well fed so that she actually had savings at then end of every week. Even now, Cairn had told his friend to make sure that her family received meat while they were away. It was certainly thoughtful of him to ensure her family had food to eat in her absence as she was the sole bread winner, but it was a favour, a debt, and while Cairn always acted as if it was nothing, Lyanna valued it. Hence, whatever the matter she could not bring herself to harm him, not when he was caring for her loved ones. She was indebted and it would do poorly to return the favour by eliminating him. Yet, she wanted to win, and she was hating herself for hoping that someone else would take care of Cairn and that it would never come to her finishing him off.

Presently, she was in the bare room at the training centre, all alone. She still had no idea what was special about it, since all she could see was a huge screen with a few controls, but Lyanna wasn't confident enough to go and tinker with them. It was almost intimidating, the screen that was also one of the walls, with a sleek black panel having various complicated buttons and switches. Other than that, the room was bare, with glass walls, a black floor and nothing else. She stood there, facing the screen, when the glass door swung open, and in stepped a Career, his glasses resting neatly on the bridge of his nose, and a smile on his handsome face. Napoleon Walter looked surprised to see Lyanna there, his smile faltering for a second, but it picked back up again.

"Hello there," he greeted politely, "Are you using this room?"

"Using this room?" Lyanna asked.

"Well yes. This works as a simulation chamber as well as an information library. You can access details, videos, and other information about any Games from the past."

"Oh."

"If you want to use this room currently, I'll leave for now."

And it was this sentence that set Lyanna thinking. Hadn't Josephine told her, after allying with her and Cairn, that she was the most stumped by her District Partner's behaviour regarding Jupiter's plan? If he was involved in systematically targeting Outer District tributes and stop them from training, why was he willing to let her train first? She found it fishy, and she frowned. She found Careers to be despicable for their selfishness and general cruelty, and the only reason she agreed to ally with Josephine was because she was not like that at all. And then here came another Career, being polite with her while being a jerk to everyone else, and she couldn't quite grasp the motive behind this demeanour. He waited for her response patiently, and it bothered her. She couldn't quite control herself, and crossed her arms across her chest, eyeing him cautiously.

"Why?"

Napoleon did not respond immediately, his light smile starting to tick her off. He took his time, eyes never leaving hers for even a moment, and following that he simply turned around to leave, and it was this action that infuriated Lyanna, and she surprised even herself by running after him, grabbing his arm and turning him around to face her. He looked dishevelled at that, his glasses just a bit askew, and his mouth opened up just a bit.

"What happened Ms Winters?"

"You will not go anywhere without answering me!" she replied heatedly, her grip on his wrist getting tighter, deriving strength from all the work she had done at the mines. Napoleon made no effort to remove her hand either; instead, he stepped closer to her, his eyes looking at her sadly, almost as if with pity, and it took all her will power to not send her other hand punching towards his face, probably breaking his glasses.

"I'm not completely stopping anyone from training," he muttered, smile still intact, "I'm just stopping tributes from training too much. You have to understand Lyanna, I want to win this thing. While I do believe in fair play, I'm not going to put myself at a disadvantage for it. I'm not like Josephine, I value my purpose more than my ethics."

And when he mentioned her name, Josephine's name, Lyanna knew why he wasn't stopping her. He was afraid, afraid that Josephine had two allies and was looking for more, afraid that they would target them, for there was a fair chance that the District Four pair would turn against the Career alliance, and that Josephine's alliance would gain an upper hand. It was far-fetched, but not impossible, and Napoleon Walter did not wish to make enemies unnecessarily, especially enemies that could beat him. Lyanna was disgusted; this guy was nothing other than a hypocritical git. Saying something, doing something else. Being a horrible person and pretending to be nice… And he was smiling, smiling with pity, smiling as if he was superior and so smart and as if she was nothing, as if all these other people were nothing, and she lost it, she lost her temper, and she didn't even realise when she raised her other hand and it moved towards his handsome face even as she gave out a frustrated cry.

But her attack was stopped by his superior reflexes, and it was now that Napoleon was smiling widely, and he kicked at her legs and she was down. The Career was on top of her, pinning her down with his body, and brought his lips near her ears even as she flailed against his clutches.

"Be careful, honey. You don't want to make me a foe."

And he drew his head back just a bit so that he was looking into her eyes, her terrified and enraged eyes, and he held her gaze proudly and firmly. Lyanna felt scared now, he was so close, so strong, and in such a position… what if he took advantage of her? She gulped, trying not to show how frightened she felt even as Napoleon came closer, and she turned her face away, breaking away the gaze even as Napoleon pulled back, holding her hand, and they were both standing now. Lyanna was panting despite herself and she stepped back hurriedly as Napoleon reached out to pat her shoulder. His hand stopped mid-air, and this was the first time that he frowned.

"I don't have wrong intentions for you, or anyone," he said, almost as if he was offended that she thought of him this way, "I was just defending myself from the slap that you had so accurately aimed at me."

And with that, he smiled sadly at her again, giving her that look of pity that had set her off in the first place, and he finally went through the door, leaving Lyanna all alone to train in peace. And she… she just stared after him, hugging her left arm with her right, still panting, but knowing that they would cross paths again, and then next time, she was going to be the one on top.

Rook Karis, 16

District Three Male

Rook had, in his short time here, seen things that were not easily seen.

He had gained an ally, an ally who was a sweetheart and someone whose company he liked. However, one sentence from her mouth told him all that he needed to know. Her accent was strange, so foreign that he sometimes didn't quite catch what she was saying, but that happened very rarely. It was quite strong and raw, and initially felt like listening to a different language altogether. However, her English told him that she was a foreigner, and considering what was happening to foreign nationals and immigrants, he immediately deduced that she volunteered because she was forced into it. Taking into account her reckless behaviour with the Careers earlier, as well as her overall helping nature, he also concluded that she was not getting out of this alive due to political reasons, and despite himself he felt sad. He felt sorry for her, for she certainly did not deserve it, but Rook new better than to say anything and annoy those who must be listening.

The tributes had been told, in a rather informal manner, that there were very few cameras in place at the training centre, and those could be clearly seen. Rook would never say out loud to anyone that he had seen hidden cameras at every single station withing the training centre, seen small microphones that recorded each word anyone said, seen that they were being monitored even in their rooms and bathrooms. Rook behaved himself, presented himself to be a good boy, for he wanted to live, wanted to survive, and if this regime was to stay, he wanted to flourish. The Five would most likely not harm a victor who looked harmless and weak to them, and in the Games they would target those that looked more dangerous.

And so, he kept his head low and worked with knives and wires, utilised his senses to keep tabs on everyone, and spoke nothing. Ultimately, after much contemplation, Rook decided that he did not want to be noticed much. However, he was also aware of the nagging thought that told him to look out for strong allies, stronger than he and Avni were. He had thought approached Dekker, but he had refused to ally with them and Rook did not find any reason to blame him. After all, due to Avni's clash with the Careers, everyone would naturally wish to avoid them.

Hence, he was surprised when, during lunch hour that day, he was joined by none other than the Career who broke off from her alliance, along with her allies.

"Do you mind if we sit here?"

"No, of course not."

And Rook smiled at all of them, the gears of his brain already churning. He had reason to believe that they were here for a purpose, a purpose he knew all too well, and he was already debating on whether he would say yes or no. There were advantages and disadvantages to both the answers, and Rook was angry with himself for being so indecisive again. but he had to, he had to make a decision. Outwardly, however, he continued eating his meal as if a Career joining him was something that happened every day. Beside him, Avni had stiffened for a second, her eyes taking in all the three new entries to their table, but she held her tongue too, smiling at them.

The three of them introduced themselves while Rook and Avni simply watched their moves. They sat a bit too erect, their smiles a little too awkward, the looks in their eyes a little too flighty. Josephine let out a sigh even as Rook shoved the spoon of aubergine stew in his mouth, eyes not leaving them.

"Okay guys, we have been noticing you both," Josephine started, resting her hands on her lap, and this was when Rook put down his spoon and leaned back in his chair to show that he was listening.

"We believe you both can be valuable allies to us, and we to you. Will you like to join us?"

And Rook still did not know. Should he accept the offer? He crossed leaned back a little further, pretending as if he had made a decision and was toying with them, but only he knew the turmoil that he was going through. Allying with Josephine might provide a cover for him, a protection of sorts, since Jupiter and Basileus might target them. However, the whole plan could backfire and he could have the whole pack of those heinous wolves after him. However, he took a long while to decide, and in the meantime, Avni posed the question that came to her mind first.

"How can we trust you?"

"I didn't quite get you."

"You are a Career," she went ahead slowly, "You guys train to kill. You abandoned your allies because their ideology didn't match with yours, and yet you didn't stop them from causing terror even once. All of us here are weaker than you. How can we be sure that you won't just use us? I understand you want to win, we all do, but how can I expect hat you will help us when we need it?"

"I agree," Rook added calmly, crossing his leg on the other as he eyed them critically. This posture almost always worked at intimidating the opponent, and he noticed with mild satisfaction as the other three sat up straighter than before. "How do we know that you won't ditch us for your old allies?"

"Because she already fought with them over how they were treating you guys," Lyanna intervened nonchalantly, "We were suggesting this alliance because we had hoped you'd like to be on board but it seems you have trust issues."

"Don't take it otherwise," Rook smiled, "We just need to be sure."

"Alright then let's set some rules so you know exactly when you need to be wary. How about we continue this alliance till the final seven, post which all of us plays for ourselves?"

Rook raised his brow at the two girls even as he felt a soft touch against his wrist. He turned to look to his right at his ally, her face passive but eyes speaking volumes, and it seemed as if she thought it was worth joining it. Rook didn't know for sure. There were so many possibilities, so many things that could go wrong. He wouldn't have minded if it was just District Twelve, but Josephine was… controversial. It wasn't that he didn't appreciate her move to ditch her allies over her morals, he truly respected that, but that told him a lot about her. If there was one thing Rook was certain of, it was his own immorality. He already had so many Careers on his back; was it worth the risk to have one more who would be his ally?

At the same time, he needed a strong alliance, an alliance that he could control employing whatever methods he had to, and something told him about these three that it would be easy to do that with them, especially Cairn. If he just played his cards right, then maybe, just maybe, he could actually benefit greatly from the alliance.

And so, he nodded slowly and deliberately, smile still in place, not changing even a bit. It was so uniform that one could think that it was forcefully plastered on his face, but Rook did not care, he might have had actually wanted to give that impression.

Probably the other three got the point, for they smiled back at him. The five of them continued with their meal, although none of them was truly focused on it. Rook was studying the other three and was quite aware of the fact that they were doing the same, eyeing him in the most subtle of ways. Rook was an old player at this game though, and all he needed was to plan a way to utilise his allies to his gain.

Well, at least they had reached a deal.

Kespar Lynx, 15

District Eight Male

Kespar had been really quiet during his time in the Games, and he didn't regret it at all.

Where others had been fighting even before reaching the arena, he had been working in silence, learning all he could without making it too obvious. He arrived at the training centre before the Careers did, and that was when he trained with a simple dagger. And when they were around, he simply watched. He watched the videos regarding different plants, the poisonous and the edible ones. He watched how to make traps to catch small animals, and how to make traps to attack big humans. He watched how to just mingle with the background, he watched how to tell the direction, and he watched how to set up small fires that gave little smoke. Kespar tried to do all of those at least once without taking any help from trainers or referring to the videos, just to see whether he could pull off all these tricks without help, and found that he had successfully done it all. Sure, his traps weren't as pretty as the ones in the videos, now were his camouflaging skills at par, but it could still work. He remembered everything he had watched with astonishing clarity, and Kespar knew that he was getting the most amount of training done, acquiring a lot many skills that many of the other tributes wouldn't bother learning.

And it was okay, for Kespar truly didn't care for them. He didn't care whether the tributes were being allowed to train or not, for it was an admittedly brilliant strategy by the Careers, and Kespar could actually see himself employing it if he was in their place. in any case, his low profile had managed to keep him from their watchful eyes, and currently he knew a fair bit about them.

He had also observed this particular boy from Five, working away with the short swords, and being quite good with them for a beginner. He was athletic and generally fit, quiet just like he himself was, and could overall be beneficial to him.

It was an amicable walk across the floor, eyes focused on the target. As far as he knew, Dekker had no allies as of yet. Of course, Kespar was not extremely optimistic about the chances of an alliance, for he had not forgotten that he was just a fifteen-year-old boy, a mere child. And while he considered himself to be much more than just that, he couldn't really force Dekker to think the same. Hence, upon reaching him, he paused for a moment, hesitation in his thought and reflected in his eyes, but he ultimately decided to ignore it. A hand reached out, lingering over Dekker's shoulder a second too long, in which time the older boy turned around, suspicion in eyes, and glared at him.

Kespar lowered his hand at that, feeling awkward at the timing at which the older boy faced him, but refusing to back down anyway, meeting his gaze strongly. He could feel the seconds of silence passing by, seconds that felt like an eternity, and despite Kespar not being exactly social in general, he had started feeling awkward. He wanted nothing more than to break the eye contact, and get on with what he had to say, but now it had started feeling more like a staring match than a genuine gaze, and Kespar hated losing even if the matter was as petty as this.

"Why are you here?" Dekker asked finally, eyes narrowing just a bit as if appraising the boy in front of him.

"I wanted to talk."

"And you decided to sneak up on me for that?"

Now Kespar had done a lot of things in his life, but sneaking up on people like a creep was not one of them. He was honestly offended, and in any other situation he wouldn't have graced the accuser with a reply. However, this was not the time to do so, and he shrugged it off.

"I wasn't sneaking up on you. I was about to tap your shoulder to get your attention."

"Ah, I see."

"Don't use that tone on me."

Dekker did not say anything on that, and simply set down his short sword on the rack where it was supposed to be, and then stuffed his hands into his pockets as he looked down at the younger boy. Now Kespar knew a thing or two about using postures to intimidate, and seeing Dekker like this made him scoff aloud.

"What did you want to 'talk' about?"

"Well, I was about to ask you to be my ally but considering your attitude and general demeanour, I guess that will be just wasting my time. Go ahead, carry on with your training."

With that, the younger boy turned on his heels and started off. He would have had liked to ally with Dekker, but what he had told him was true. Kespar didn't know if he could handle an annoying man like him, one who might question his every move and would become a burden instead of an asset. Yes, he was good with his short sword, and was physically strong too, but that wasn't enough for Kespar. He needed someone he could use, and that didn't necessarily involve physical battles.

"Wait."

Kespar didn't quite know why his legs came to a halt at the word, or why he turned around to face Dekker when he had just decided that not allying with him would be okay too. He figured it was him trying to see the positive side of this, for if he had given it too much thought, he would have tried to get him on his side, and behaving in a needy manner was the last thing he wanted to do.

"Yeah?"

"I'm in."

Kespar looked at him for a few seconds, studying him as if to see whether anything was off, and found nothing. He could have refused just for the laughs, and he admitted it would be funny, but he was not as petty as to do that. So, he nodded at his ally, and turned around again, walking away from the weapons area. There were a few questions in his mind, for it was only now he realised that his ally could be a handful to manage, but Kespar didn't want to think about it too much. He would go and watch a few more videos, memorise a few more techniques, for he had very short time for training. Kespar wanted to gain as much knowledge as he could that would help him survive, for post the private sessions that were about to start in some time, he would be left with no time.

And right now, time was of utmost essence.

Hello all. So, I know this update took a longer time to get out compared to the previous few chapters. I had most of it written, and didn't have the time to add in those 300 words in the end, but finally it's here. I think this chapter was slightly weaker in terms of flow and impact, but hopefully it'll get back on track from the next. Let me know your thoughts on this!

Alliances:

The Hunters: Jupiter, Margaery, Napoleon, Nereus, Cruxia, Basileus

I'm Playing You: Aron, Akira

The Not So Smol Beans: Cupid, Calista

This is so Random: Cat, Nell, Jet

Anti-Careers: Josephine, Lyanna, Cairn, Avni, Rook

I Kind of Dislike You: Kespar, Dekker

Have a good day!