Mostly just a few loners to mop up now.

Reefe and Mordecai didn't appear because their submitter decided their stories didn't need another try at the Games.

Polaris Flasher- District One male

Light filtered in geometric contours and arcs through the colored glass bent around the bulb. A lot of what I'd seen in the Capitol art exhibit was bizarre or unsightly, but this one was sublime. The planes of light hit each other and bounced off mirrors to create unexpected bands of color and seemingly impossible swirls and paths. Everything was exactly where it needed to be. Nothing was extra and nothing was out of place.

Perhaps it was maudlin to visit the art exhibit before the Games. I was aware, though I hadn't told my ally, that I was doing it in case I didn't come back. Before the chaos of the Games and the possibility of a random death, I wanted to see something beautiful. Everyone outside the Capitol hated them, even a lot of people from Two. We played the Games because we wanted the glory, but we still resented those who put it in place. Seeing the art meant I would leave for the Arena with at least a sliver of goodwill toward the Capitol.

I wondered idly if I'd do better than last time. My first outing was a most disappointing performance. This time I could do better even if I got a much lower placing. It seemed like placing didn't even have anything to do with being picked to come back. It was all about your popularity with a bunch of fickle spectators.

I thought about the sculpture as I tried to sleep that night. As small as it seemed, it gave me a glimmer of confidence in the world. Somewhere in the Capitol there was someone creative and disciplined enough to make something so perfect. Against the ugliness of the Games it shone like a star.

Swift Counter- District Four male

I smiled to myself as I threw my spear. The sheer scale of the Games was just laughable. More than eighty people I had to kill if I wanted to live. Of course I wouldn't kill them all, but just the thought… Imagine how long it would take to personally find and spear eighty people. This Games might take an entire month. It had happened before. It had even happened with the normal amount of Tributes.

It sounded kind of fun in a weird way. I liked the Arena part of the Games. Mine was cold last time, which I could have done without, but it was fun seeing some different part of the world. I hoped I got something exotic this time, like a rainforest. And crazy mutts, but not the really scary ones like the ugly horse. Pretty crazy mutts.

Dozens of people will probably die in the Bloodbath. Or at least the first day. Eighteen people died on the first day of the twenty-third Games. Eighteen people died in the Bloodbath that one time the bombs went off by accident. Eighty people seemed like so many. Thirty or more could easily die in five minutes. Even though I was a Career, it gave me pause. Just thinking about so many Tributes running in and five minutes later thirty people are dead. It made me want to turn around and run the other way. Which is probably what Polaris would suggest when we discussed it.

The other thing on my mind was much more attractive than the Games. I wondered if Audrey had found someone new or if she was still waiting. I could give her a good reason to wait. As she kept getting older, I stayed the same age…

Eliora Pacal- District One female

Ruby had some stories to tell. It still blew my mind there had been an entire Hunger Games based of some bizarre show from before I was born. And I didn't have to have met Charming to know I was glad he wasn't back.

"You've been in Two Games and they're both weird ones," I remarked.

"Well, anyone who's been in two will be in a weird one," Ruby said.

"Yeah, I guess that should have been obvious," I said.

The question at hand, though, was how we were going to get anything done in a sea of Careers. Everyone expected the two giant alliances to dominate the Bloodbath. Everyone else would be lucky to get anything. And so, embarrassing though it was, we patronized the improvised weapons station.

"What'd you make?" I asked Ruby as I worked on what would hopefully be a blowgun.

"I call it 'rock-on-a-string'," she said. She pointed at the parts. "Rock. On a string. Swing it. Hit things."

"I like it. You can hit things farther away than your arm," I said.

"Are you any good at explosives?" Ruby asked.

"I've never tried," I said. We were ready to try anything that involved killing people from far away. Explosives turned out to be not our expertise, but the poisons went better. Everyone likes an underdog victory. I wasn't sure if it counted if the underdogs were two Victors.

Ruby Lalonde- District One female

More Careers than usual this year would admit they were scared. I'd been nervous the first time around and this time was even worse.

"Do you ever wish you hadn't volunteered?" I asked Eliora. We were sitting in my room nibbling on room service and just having some downtime.

"I never wanted to go into the Games. I just wanted to get away from home," she said.

"I never wanted it either. My family did," I said.

"I'd still rather be here than there," Eliora said. "The life that waited for me wasn't worth living."

"That's messed up," I said. "It's messed up some kids have such terrible lives we go into the Hunger Games to get away from them. We live in a country that can create new species of animal and repair wounds that should kill anyone. We're so advanced but we have the same problems as people a thousand years ago. That's what we need to fix, not more inventions."

"It's because people don't change," Eliora said. "Other animals change to fit the world but we change the world to fit us. So we never change. We're the same selfish, cowardly animals we've always been."

"Some people aren't like that," I said.

Eliora nodded. "And they're always the first to die."

Vibrant Gellert- Capitolite

I hadn't thought it was possible for me to get more popular. Then I realized I was the only Capitolite who had gone into the Hunger Games.

"Oh, it wasn't that scary," I said to the four women clustered around the restaurant table with me. "They were only Districters anyway. No problem for someone like me." Except the one that killed me, but that's not important.

"And you still have a scar," Letitia said wonderingly, looking at the line down my arm.

"It was so deep they couldn't fix it," I said. Really it was a line of smudgeproof mascara I'd drawn. I didn't think it was really lying, since I would have had a scar if they hadn't used cloning.

"The worst part was how lonely it was," I said. "Maybe you ladies could keep me company until I go?"

I had no doubt I'd win this time. The first time the Capitol had to keep up pretenses and show everyone they weren't playing favorites. Now that they'd given the Districts their little victory they could let the real winner win. I only wished I'd convinced them to tell me what the Arena would be. But the surprise was half the fun.

Mary Sue Brooklyn- District Twelve female

I was going to ally with the best Career pack, but then I heard about Vibrant. Someone from the actual Capitol was in the Games? Obviously that was the ally for me. Not the rest of these losers.

"I'm Mary Sue," I said, offering Vibrant my hand. "We're going to be allies."

"Why?" Vibrant asked.

"Because you and me are a cut above the rest of these guys. You deserve the best, so here I am," I said."

"I do like an ally with confidence," Vibrant said.

"I do archery. What are you good at?" I asked.

"Why don't you handle that and I'll get us sponsors," Vibrant said.

"I'm sure you know lots of people. Tell them you're with me and they'll definitely sponsor," I said.

I didn't mind doing the harder job. Once we got to the Arena Vibrant's connections would pay off. And he'd start pulling his weight, or I'd take his stuff and leave him. And if he never learned how to stay alive or kill people, all the easier for me to kill him.