Author's Note: This chapter hints at aspects of my headcanon in the stories of the victors and the rebellion that I'm putting together and should hopefully get around to uploading. Anyway, this should make clear that relations between all of District Ten's victors were fractured to say the least so this is one district where the victors have not all been on the same side.

District Ten's Victors and their Games: Maria (20), Abraham (25, deceased), Diego (31, deceased), Charo (60), Adan (66).

….

"¡Mierda!" exclaimed Maria, whilst throwing the book she had been reading towards the projection screen in her living room. The glass of wine she had been drinking soon joined the book on the floor with the glass smashed around her, the wine pooling onto the carpet. She stood up, slammed her front door, and stormed as fast as her legs could carry her to the house opposite.

Inside, Charo and Adan were crying. Charo held Adan, her partner of almost eight years as he became increasingly distressed.

"Queridos," Maria sighed softly, her anger momentarily fading at the sight of the two younger victors.

"No puedo, no puedo regresar," Adan cried, standing up to wrap his arms around the much older victor. Charo guided them both down to one of the sofas in her home and went to sit beside her distraught partner.

"Lo siento querido, lo siento," Maria sighed. She gestured towards Charo to turn some music on and to turn the volume up. "I should never have done it! ¡El cabrón! I should have left it to the arena and done it then! That would have caused some drama, me going after Abraham, my district partner, my former tribute! Or left Chaff to do it! Seeder wouldn't hold him back there after he nearly got us all killed! Hell, Mags would have got Finnick to do it if I'd have asked! Haymitch and his knives even, or his girl with her arrows!" Maria continued, her anger rising again, albeit this time towards herself.

"No. You were right to do it when you did. We'd all be dead otherwise. Us, Chaff, Seeder and Orchard too. This is not your fault," Charo replied quickly, trying to reassure her mentor, and hoping that the music covered up the conversation. Other than terms of affection (or the complete opposite when it came to Abraham), and short phrases, they knew they couldn't have conversations inside in Spanish, their mother tongue, taught secretly in the farms of what used to be southern Texas and northern Mexico. After Abraham's meddling they knew their houses were bugged and languages other than English had been prohibited since before the Dark Days.

"She's right," Adan cut in through his tears, "There's no guarantee he would have been picked. He would never have volunteered in my place and if it were him, he probably would have gone after you first, whoever was picked out of you two. I'd have had to have volunteered to stop him," Adan cried, his distress becoming more evident again.

"Adan, enough of that," Charo whispered, tightly gripping onto her partner's hand, "let's not think about him anymore."

"What will you do? I don't want either of you in there with me. I've got to wait for it to happen but you both could leave. Save yourselves," Adan began to plead.

"We're being watched. We'd barely get beyond the village," Maria explained. "They'd only punish you if we escaped."

Adan sighed, dejected that his suggestion could not work.

"I can't sit and watch it happen. I can go in there with you. We can protect each other. Then maybe one of us can win," Charo put forward.

"We've been in there before, you know it doesn't work out like that," Adan replied.

"Right well, I know we had to stay quiet with him around, but we know things now. Something is going to happen soon isn't it. People aren't happy out in the farms. They're getting angry. Our people, they want things to change! They like the Twelve girl and her sweet little sister" Charo explained quietly, "Maria, you know most of all what is happening, you talk with some of the others. It will be best if you mentor, you can help them all."

"Charo, querida, we will talk about this later. Just the two of us," Maria replied, looking at Adan, knowing that this conversation would only upset him further. "But yes. Any messages will take longer to reach us but when they do, I will do what is asked of me. I don't want either of you running around doing anything too enthusiastically. Things are changing and our people are angry, they're ready but it needs to happen at the right time or the whole thing will come crashing down. After everything, the incident with him, I will not have Ten ruining it."

Charo and Adan understood immediately. Abraham's death had come too late for them both to become really involved in the plans, but they did what they could, and they would do whatever Maria asked of them.

Relieved that Charo looked like she could take care of Adan, Maria wished them a peaceful night and headed back to her own house to reflect, hoping that the noise from the screen and the music covered their conversation. There would not be much she could do to protect the two younger victors. They were too far on the outside of the established groupings of rebel victors that they could be targeted in the arena. Her allies would not jeopardise decades of work for the sake of her two victors. There would be little she could do in stopping the Ones and Twos from going for them either. It filled her with sadness to know that Charo was probably right. As she was more involved, it would be more useful to stay as a mentor. But Maria would let Charo decide for herself, they all deserved some say in how things end for them and Maria knew it would be the end. The end of Victors' Village in District Ten for certain as she doubted any of them would return once they left on that train.

If she stayed on the outside, she would need to figure out what to do afterwards. Maria was not entirely sure how much damage Abraham had done, not sure who in power knew what. But she was certain she would be under suspicion. She had been friends with Mags and Seeder long enough and had been meeting Pluto for years. She knew for sure that she could not just come back to the village. She would not make herself an easy target like that. Maria was from the poorest part of Ten so she would not be entirely useless if something, or someone got in the way. Since she would struggle to save her younger victors, Maria would do what she could for those she could save and hopefully help herself along the way.