Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games. They belong to Suzanne Collins.

Note: Final quarter of the story, here we go! Another chapter here that I've been hyped to reach. You'd all know this guy after reading Cheating Death, and yet… part of me wonders if anybody really knew him at all? You know what time it is, it's plot twist time! I mean, a twist for those who didn't pay attention to the name of the one who killed Petal, that is. Enjoy!

District Twelve Male
Name: Ozzy Bluestar
Age: 15
Training Score: 8
Odds of Victory: 20-1
Fact: He had a near encyclopedic knowledge about birds of all kinds.

Ozzy could almost believe he had a chance of making it back home.

He was in the final six, he was fairly well fed and hydrated, he had the best ally a tribute could have ever asked for, he hadn't been injured that much overall… the odds seemed to be in his favour for the moment.

All this and the Capitol had no idea that they had gotten the wrong tribute. The escort called for Orinoco Bluestar. They got him instead.

That was the thing with identical twins, switch clothes and nobody can tell them apart. Ozzy was surprised nobody had ever thought of doing this before, but if he was to be the trendsetter of sorts then so be it.

He'd spared his brother over for another year. He had no regrets.

Just five more to go and he'd be back home. There wasn't long left. There weren't many left to overcome. Just the cowgirl from ten, just the three remaining careers…

…Just Tag.

Ozzy tried not to think about it. If he was going to get out of the arena then it meant Tag had to die, whether by his hand or somebody else's. There was no other way of ending these Games. He could only hope that when the time came it wasn't because of something he did.

Orinoco may have been his twin, but Tag felt just like a second brother. He was everything he needed in a friend and an ally. Not to say Terrati or the elevens hadn't been good allies, but they were dead and gone. Tag had remained alive through everything.

With his cunning plans and Ozzy's cooperation they'd taken out two careers, ensured the pack would suffer the effects of dehydration and kept themselves a step ahead in the Games at all times.

Maybe they could keep it going and reach the final five.

"Something on your mind?" Tag asked.

"Nothing much Tag. Just… home, you know?" Ozzy lightly twirled his axe in his hand. "I miss everybody."

"Me too Orinoco. I miss them more than anybody can ever know," Tag agreed. "Not much longer until… well, until one of us goes home."

"You sure one of us has this in the bag?" Ozzy asked, trying not to show any doubts.

"I'd say so. Girl from Ten is all alone, and I doubt Midas and his goons have worked out where the water is. By now sponsor gifts must cost a fortune… if we can stay ahead of them we might outlast them through dehydration," Tag paused to slashed some of the overgrowth out of his way with his short sword. Maybe the leftovers of the pack will turn on each other soon."

"I hope so," Ozzy replied. "Fuck, I hope so. I can't wait to get back to…"

Back to what, exactly? That thought made him pause.

It wasn't like he really had much back home, all things considered. His family weren't merchants by any means. The seam was all they knew and would ever know. Endless painful shifts down the mines, no thanks given for anything and forever labelled as being from the weakest district, save perhaps for District Six.

They had nothing. They had little in the way of friends. Could the fortune of winning the Games really give them much? All it would amount to was returning to district and being nothing like anybody else, save for the gloomy tailor who won decades ago. Ozzy and his family would surely become strangers to seam and merchant alike.

…But they would have each other. He and Orinoco would still have each other. They'd still have their parents.

"…Back to my family," Ozzy finished.

They didn't talk much after that, instead making silent progress through the toxic forest. Between the early rays of dawn and the faint pale green fog that just wouldn't go away it was shaping up to be a grim morning.

Ozzy thought it was foreboding. He wasn't one to put stock into fate, but it helped to be cautious all the same. He tightened his grip upon his axe.

Whether his next battle was against a career or a crocodile mutt he was ready for it.

"Maybe we should head back to the cornucopia," Ozzy suggested. "If they left a guard… I think would take just one career, especially if their water is low. If we steal their remaining food and water the battle is over before it really kicks off."

"You know what, I like that idea," Tag replied, nodding. "I say we do it. If I'm remembering it right the cornucopia is east from here, so we'd probably have to go that way and… wait… shit, run!"

Tag ran to the left and Ozzy sped after him, not needing to see for himself what Tag had seen. The jeering voices and heavy footsteps of the Ones moments later told him everything he needed to know.

It was battle time.

The Ones were able to catch them before long, the quartet going blade to blade against each other. Ozzy didn't care to count how many times he and Tag were almost cut apart. All he cared for was deflecting the blades and pushing back at his would-be murderers.

The dehydration of the careers held them back, if only just. Their sponsors were still sustaining them enough for them to be a major threat. All the same, they were a threat both Tag and Ozzy were able to hit to the ground.

"What's the plan?" Ozzy called to Tag as they sped away from the careers through the forest.

"Weave through the trees, the girl loves her throwing knives," Tag replied. He barely managed to dodge the knife Shine through a moment later. "See? Let's go! We need find somewhere we'll have the advantage!"

They ran for their lives over the next two minutes, coming close to facing the reaper on more than several occasions. Ozzy had to wonder where the boy from Two was, but he discarded the thought. If the arrogant brute was somewhere else – facedown in a puddle if he were lucky – then that wasn't something he was keen to complain about.

Ozzy and Tag made their way through an entanglement of vines without a problem. Shine was able to follow them through without much difficulty, but Midas was unable to say the same. The huge boy lacked the ability to get through them unhindered and was swiftly trapped. He roared and snarled, slashing his sword in a hopeless effort to free himself. It would be many a minute before he would finally be able to get himself out of his bindings.

"I'll kill you!" Midas bellowed. "I'll be in the nightmares of kids from Eight for generations!"

If Midas had anything to say about his role in scaring kids from Twelve Ozzy didn't hear it. Not when he was more focused on how they only had one career to deal with at this point.

One who had clearly taken a hell of a beating from a previous battle.

Ozzy waited until Midas was too far away for his shouts to be heard. With a nod directed at Tag he turned on his heel and launched himself at Shine, taking her down to the ground.

"Big mistake!" she spat, punching Ozzy in the ribs.

"You mistake was throwing your life away to play these Games," Ozzy choked out. "Tag! Quick!"

Tag ran over, but by then Shine had managed to bash Ozzy off of herself. She leapt up, ready to spill blood just like she'd trained for throughout the past thirteen years.

Ozzy and Tag played defensive, trying to block her from the front and back, hoping to gradually close in and strike her from both directions. She couldn't block them both at once, least of all with throwing knives.

Right?

She could and she did. They had the number advantage and weren't as wounded going in, but she was a career scorned. One humiliated and done playing second fiddle. Shine was going all out to show she was going to win.

Ozzy thought he'd grown quite used to screams throughout his life, whether it was the distant cries and moans of those crushed under rocks back home that weren't granted the mercy of an instant death, or whether it was the screams of tributes being cut down.

Nothing could have made him get used to his own scream when Shine stabbed his left shoulder terrible deep or Tag's scream when Shine managed to slash his right ear apart.

Still, that was little compared to Shine's own scream when Spool grabbed one of her fallen knives and sent it right into her eye. Ozzy felt like he was going to throw up.

Tag himself didn't seem far off from doing the same.

It was all the time Shine needed to punch him to the ground.

"Tag! No!" Ozzy readied his axe and charged at the arrogant girl, ready to make her pay for harming his ally.

His second brother.

A moment before he could bring the axe down and split Shine's skull she whirled around and sent two knives hurtling right at him.

"ORINOCO!"

One went into his lung, the other into his heart. It was enough to bring Ozzy to the ground where he'd never rise again. His life faded away fast, but he maintained enough clarity in his final seconds to be aware of three things.

Tag was rising up, ready to continue the battle. Fury filled the boy's vision.

Shine's knees were buckling from the severe pain of her wounds. She was far from unbeatable.

He didn't regret trading places with Orinoco, not for a moment. He only hoped his brother would one day forgive himself.

As Ozzy died and the cannon fired once more, there was just one thing he was unaware of. Something he would never know.

He wasn't the only tribute to have switched places with their twin.

Great minds think alike, as they say, and Spool had hit upon the exact same idea as his closest ally. A fact Spool would not learn for a long, long time.

After all, there was still a battle to be won. There was still his second brother to be avenged.

Tribute Deceased
Ranking: 6th
Cause of Death: Two knives thrown into lung and heart (by Shine)
Time Lasted: 16 days, 7 hours, 45 minutes and 2 seconds