Synth Greene, 18

Shelby's #1 Male Pick

Synth couldn't help but realize the brilliance that was Vritra Galloway at this moment.

Last night Synth and Vritra went on a mission. They went to find the dining room early before anyone else was able to find it. When they got there, after a brief moment of celebrating, they hid under the table and its long table skirt. Now when one of the tributes walks by, they have the ultimate advantage of getting them before they even know what hit them.

"I can't believe this worked out!" Vritra whispered excitedly as she clapped her hands quietly under the table. "We are about to rock this feast! And no one is going to see it coming!" Synth could see the excitement oozing out of her as he sat up. Vritra insisted that he get some sleep last night. Synth was appreciative of that, but he still wished she would have taken some time to sleep herself.

"Plenty of time to sleep after the feast," she kept telling him as he woke up every now and then to give her a chance.

"Tributes," came the voice of Moriah Jackson on the line. "You have an hour before the grand feast is starting! I do hope you'll be thoughtful and grace us with your presence!"

Synth braced himself like a frog and began to put his backpack on. He had spent last night sharpening his sword, so he did not doubt that after he made a quick stab at whoever was nearby, he could quickly just get out of the dining room.

"They didn't say how long we had to stay at the feast," said Synth.

"I want to stay the whole time," said Vritra with a smile. "The whole fucking time! I think that I would be able to get a lot of kills, Synth. Maybe even get us a couple of sponsors!"

Synth was not worried about sponsors, but he also wasn't going to stay in the feast the whole time. He was as frustrated. Vritra is reaching a critical point of overconfidence, and it's going to get the two of them killed if she doesn't get it together.

"I'm just ready to make a move finally. Kitana is dead now, Synth. Do you know what it does to this game? Maybe even Napoleon will join us again, and we can take everyone down to the final three!"

Synth hadn't given much thought to what comes after Kitana's death. That was a variable that he didn't see coming, at least so early, and as Vritra's words touched over danced in his ears, he couldn't help but feel like he needed to reevaluate his game.

"Maybe you should get some sleep before. I'll wake you up before everything goes down," said Synth. Vritra nodded and put her backpack on the ground and placed her head on it. She started to doze as Synth thought of the best way to get rid of this alliance. He didn't want just openly to kill her. Synth was calculated, but he wasn't entirely heartless.

Synth noticed the ground slowly starting to sink around Vritra and him. It was the subtlest of moves that made his heartbeat quicken as he saw the floor of the dining room get higher and higher. What is happening?! He thought as he turned to Vritra and thought to wake her up. As he stretched his hand out to his sister, he stopped.

This was the situation you were looking for.

Synth climbed out from under the table and saw that a platform with a new table was falling from the ceiling. It was a large wooden platform that took up the space of the floor where the old table was, on it was a grand feast, and the platform stretched about ten feet in depth.

"Synth?" she asked as she groggily looked around. Panic filled her eyes as she looked at her brother and started to squirm. She attempted to climb out from under the table, but the hole to climb out of had gotten much too small.

"Synth, what is happening?! You have to help me!" she pleaded as the giant wooden table got lower and lower.

"You were a detriment to my game at this point, Vi," said Synth sadly. "I'm sorry it had to end this way."

"SYNTH! PLEASE!" Vritra cried. "I don't want to die! I don't want to! Please Synth! I can't do this again!"

"Goodbye, Vritra," he whispered as a single tear dropped down his cheek. A loud crunching sound, unlike anything Synth, had ever heard before filled the room As Vritra's cannon sounded Synth couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt sweep over him.

"There will be plenty of time to feel guilty later," he thought as he straightened up and looked around the room. Now is the time to plan."

As Synth walked over to the side of the room and hid behind one of the curtains that blocked the windows, he began to scheme. He thought about what he should do and how he should use the feast, and the perfect idea came over him.

Synth was about to even the odds.

Axton Simmons, 18

Princeton's #2 Male Pick

"Tributes!" said Moriah Jackson excitedly over the arena PA system. "The feast starts in only a few moments! I hope you are ready! Remember why you're here!"

"Does everyone remember the plan?" asked Sagar as they walk up to the dining-room door. He places his hand on the doorknobs, and the rest of his alliances nods.

"Stay on the side of the room, don't get to close to anyone," whispered Valerian as she grabbed onto his shoulder for support. "Lily and Axton, you two stay together, and Sagar and I will watch each other's back, and we meet back out here when we grab some food."

"Alright, great," said Sagar as he threw the doors open.

The tributes walked in, and Axton knew that they couldn't have been the first group there, but as they stared at the empty room with the food just sitting on the table, he couldn't help but want to lurch forward and help himself.

"Don't do it," Lily whispered, reading her twin's mind. "You're going to get yourself killed."

Ignoring the grumbling in his stomach, Axton stuck to the plan and continued to move along the side of the wall. The alliance stopped right before they got to the windows on the bottom of the room, and just sat there, waiting for anything to happen.

Axton was grateful that he remembered his twin. He was still confused about how, after all these years, that Lily and he didn't put it together. He wanted to talk to her about everything they had gone through in their childhood, but it never seemed like the right time, especially with the realization that Lily came up within the forest. Axton has been waiting for the other shoe to drop since that conversation.

"Don't hate me for what I'm about to do," said Lily as she took a step forward.

Axton tried to grab his sister, but she wiggled out of his grasp. "I've been waiting to talk about this when everyone was together," said Lily. "There are some things we need to talk about as a group. I propose a truce. Just for a moment."

As if they were ants scattering from their hill tributes began to come out of hiding in the weirdest places. Axton looked as he counted Cortana, Cupid, Darcy, and Delaine. He counted Synth and Napoleon, who are still doing their best to stay in places where they're concealed from fighting at this moment. Carter popped up from behind a bookshelf, and suddenly all the tributes were together again. The first time since the bloodbath.

"I realized something that happened during our training," said Lily. "We were not all the original selected tributes. I remember a girl named Annalee, and I'm almost one hundred percent positive that Rana was the one that replaced her," said Lily.

"Oh my gosh, Arturo," Cortana said from across the room. Delaine looked at her and nodded, and the rest of the group looked stunned as they started to rack their brains for any sort of memory that would help Lily's wild claim.

Axton's stomach hurt as he watched his sister openly talk about the secrets of the Capitol. Surely this could have waited. He felt betrayed. He finally got his sister back just to have her go off and do something crazy again.

"They took so much from us," said Lily. "We couldn't even rest in peace after they took our lives in our original games. We have had to fight so much, and now that I have my memories again, I want revenge for it."

Axton looked at the tributes to see how they were responding. Each of them had a different look on their face as they processed the information that was just given to them. Across the room, a hole appeared in the wall. Axton saw a wooden spear appear in the hole, and before he knew it, he was running in front of his sister to block her.

The spear shot from the wall quickly. Axton felt it enter his torso, but when he tried to fall forward, nothing happened. He hears a cough, and a hot liquid sprouted onto his neck. Craning his head to the side, he saw his sister with blood dribbling down her chin. The twins collapsed as they struggled and gasped for air.

"A-" said Lily as she coughed once again. "Axton," she said again as she reached for his hand.

"Lil," said Axton as he gasped for air. He stretched his arm backward and felt his sister grip his hand. Axton struggled as each breath became harder and harder, and Lily squeezed his hands. "I love you, Lil,"

"I love you too, Axton," said Lily as her cannon sounded.

Axton closed his eyes as he heard the world around him go off around in chaos. The longer he continued to sit there and bleed, and the world around him erupted into chaos.

Napoleon Walters, 18

McKenna's #2 Male Pick

Napoleon was one of the last two standing members of his household, and he couldn't believe the theory that Lily came up with. No. He thought to himself as he stood there in shock, staring at the tributes. It makes total sense.

Napoleon had to get out of there. With Sagar here with his ally and a bunch of other people surrounding him in a small room, Napoleon felt like his life was in more danger than he cared to admit. He ran out of the room and down the hallway of the massive castle when he felt a sharp pain in his leg.

He fell to the ground and saw a dart sticking out of his calf muscle on his right side. He quickly pulled it out, but Sagar appeared out of nowhere, looking to get the fight that they started in the bloodbath.

"Did you think I forgot?" asked Sagar as he strutted toward Napoleon in anger. "I told you, Leon, the next time I saw you, it was game on. Stand up and fight me like a man."

Napoleon stood up and unsheathed his sword from his hip. "You don't want to do this, Sagar."

"Like hell, I don't," said Sagar as he charged toward Napoleon. Their swords collided, and Napoleon staggered backward as Sagar struck his sword with ferocity. He brutally continued to strike Napoleon as he continued to hurry back.

This is it. Napoleon thought to himself. One of us has to die.

And it wasn't going to be Napoleon.

Napoleon knew that he had to start playing defensively if he even had a shot at beating Sagar. Sagar brought his sword back one more time, and this gave Napoleon enough time to step to the side as he brought his blade down toward him.

Sagar's blade got stuck in the wall, and Napoleon seized the opportunity to dig his sword directly into Sagar's thigh. Napoleon drove the sword into him until the handle touched Napoleon's leg. The sword stuck out the other side, and when Napoleon yanked the weapon out of Sagar's thigh, he ran away down the hallway.

"Don't start fights you can't finish," said Napoleon to himself as he limped down the stairs.

Sagar Dewpont, 18

Princeton's #1 Male Pick

Sagar was losing lots of blood as he laid on his side and waited for death to overtake him. The room where the feast was taking place was getting quieter as Napoleon watched groups of people leave. It wasn't long before Valerian poked her head out of the room and saw Sagar lying there in a pool of his blood that she screamed and ran to him.

Play dead. You'll hold her back. Sagar thought as he left his eyes wide open and turned his head to the side. Valerian sunk next to him and grabbed onto his hand. "No," she said as she hit the floor with her hand. "No, no, no," she said, with tears pouring down her face. "We were supposed to get out of here together, Sagar. Together," she said as she ran her hand along his cheek.

Sagar watched his sister quickly composed herself and turned around, and ran down the opposite end of the hallway. She disappeared behind a wall, and Sagar let out a shaky breath that he had been holding for entirely too long for someone losing as much blood as him.

So this is how it ends. Sagar thought. Last time it was for Parvati. This time it was for Cerise. When am I going to learn that I can't save everyone.

As Sagar laid on his side, he saw a swift moment to his right. He turned his neck and saw a tiny stepping stool walking toward him carrying a box. Sagar opened the box and saw that there was a syringe with a light green fluid in it. He grabbed the note and opened it to see what his sponsor gift was.

This is tissue regeneration. It's the same fluid that brought you back to play in these games. Inject it into your wound, and it will regenerate tissue and skin.

Without hesitation, Sagar injected the substance into his leg. He screamed out in pain as he instantly started to feel leg stretch in weird ways from the inside out. As he winced, he grabbed onto the railing of the stairs and watched in amazement as kicked down his pants enough to see that his thigh was rapidly growing cells back onto his body.

"You wait, Napoleon," he said with gritted teeth. "Next time, you're dead."

"Looks like you need a new ally," said Synth as he appeared in front of Sagar with a smile. "What a coincidence. So am I."

Delaine Ford, 18

Hazel's #1 Female Tribute

As the girl alliance grabbed as much food as they could stuff in their backpacks, they ran out of the room. Cupid and Darcy were ahead as Cortana and Delaine covered the back.

Delaine couldn't get what happened with Kitana out of her head. She was angry. Her best friend threw her to the wolves, and for what? Delaine knew Kitana was trying to make it harder for both of them, and she did.

Delaine no longer trusted Cortana.

Delaine felt darkness inside of her since yesterday. It was darkness she had long forgotten about and thought that she left it in the past a long time ago. It was ever consuming, and the more she thought about the fight from yesterday, the more it consumed her.

She wanted revenge.

"I forgot my knife," she said as she grabbed Cortana's arm. "We have to go back."

"We have plenty of knives in the backpack, Delaine," said Cortana as she tried to keep moving. Delaine didn't let go of her arm. "Please," she begged Cortana. "It is important."

Cupid and Darcy stopped to look back at the two girls. "Go back to the room we were in before. Delaine and I will meet you after," said Cortana. Darcy and Cupid nodded and disappeared behind the curve of the wall, and Cortana turned to Delaine, "come on, we gotta hurry!" she said as she started to walk away.

Delaine smiled as she slowly followed her sister. She reached into her pocket and grabbed the knife that she did indeed have on her person, and raised it above her head as she drove it down into Cortana's spine. Cortana gasped as she fell to the ground, and Delaine stepped into view. She was smiling as her sister died on the floor.

"You thought you could play me, Cortana," said Delaine ."You thought that you could sit there and sacrifice me and play me for a fool over and over again." Delaine chuckled as she bent down and pushed her sister's hair out of her face. "Funny, you were scared of getting third again. How does it feel not even to make the top 5?"

The darkness looming inside of Delaine grew more and more until it was all-consuming. She watched the live drain out of her sister's eyes, and when the cannon finally sounded, she stood up and turned around to walk back to Cupid and Darcy.

"They won't take you back," said a female voice behind Delaine. She turned around to see Valerian staring at her. "You turned your back on the alliance. It's better just to cut ties and start new with someone," said Valerian. "Someone who has the same darkness that you have. Someone that has the same desire to spill blood."

She walked toward Delaine and outstretched her hand. "Sagar was the last good thing that kept me at bay, and now that he's gone, I feel myself giving in to these urges. Delaine, we can run the rest of these games. We can get out together."

Delaine smiled as she clasped her hand into Valerian's. "Let's do it then."

UGH, THIS CHAPTER. SO MUCH I LOVED AND SO MUCH THAT HURT.

12th Place: Vritra Galloway, Killed indirectly by Synth (?): Vritra was a treat, but the more I read Synth's form, the more I got this cold and calculated vibe from him. This was planned for a while. As much as I loved them together, the longevity of their partnership seemed less and less likely to make it past the point I had her die in. She was too wild and fiery. He was too cold and calculating. The two were a fantastic duo, probably one of the best ones I've ever written, but it was time for all good things to come to an end. Unfortunately, it was Vritra's time to go. Thank you, Logan.

11th Place: Lily Simmons, killed by Capitol: Lily was a sweetheart. I also knew this was how she was going to die. She had a big brain but also held a lot of resentment for how she had to grow up due to the Capitol. Know that her death is going to affect not only the tributes but the mentors, I promise you it was not for nothing.

10th Place: Axton Simmons, Killed from Loyalty: When I first saw the forms, I thought that Axton was going to die way before Lily. When I started mapping out the deaths, something about the twins who found themselves again dying together as he tried to save her just seemed...right? It's something I would have liked to read (and hated it at the same time.) This chapter let me in my feelings a lot. Thanks, Marie, for two awesome tributes.

9th Place: Cortana Ramslee, Killed by Delaine Ford: Guys, I had Dark Delaine planned from the beginning. This was the first death that I foresaw when I was writing out the arena outlines. I kept playing this back, and I thought at first I would stray away from it, but oh my gosh, writing it felt so...right. I'm so sad to see Cortana go. Tracelynn, I'll explain why she died later once my victors are announced if you're interested.

Alliances:

Something Wicked this way Comes: Valerian/Delaine.

Where the hell is Cortana: Darcy/Cupid

Second Chances: Sagar/Synth

Anxious Boy: Carter

"Lmao I killed Sagar": Napoleon