"And that's a wrap on day four," Soorim announced, as the hovercraft containing Marshall and Alder lifted off from the Arena. "Euodia, you're on nighttime duty today; the kids have another two hours before they go to sleep. When they're done, let Reed know and he will set the ground crews in motion for tomorrow's challenge. Millicent, please come with me and Violet so we can meet up with Ruby for our final prep meeting. And everyone else, excellent work! If you have nothing else to do I'll see you again tomorrow."

Violet watched with a satisfied smile on her face as the rest of the Events Gamemakers bustled around, packing up their stations and powering down for the night. As much as Soorim was the Head Gamemaker for the Events, the true power lay in Violet's hands; she was there to "guide" Soorim, sure, but she was not above guiding them in one direction or another if they needed to be directed in that way. Fortunately, Soorim had the right idea most of the time, which made Violet's job easy. But if guidance was ever needed, Violet would not hesitate to step in.

Once the room was mostly clear, Violet bid Euodia and Reed good evening and led Soorim and Millicent down through the halls of the Gamemaker Center to President Emerald's office. She couldn't shake the feeling that she was being followed, or maybe just watched – but then again, it was the Gamemaker Center and it was the path to the President's office. Of course she was being watched.

When they arrived at Ruby's office, Violet knocked on the door, then waited a moment for the doors to open, revealing the president and her son sitting behind Ruby's desk, Garnet carefully reading a piece of paper. "Good evening you all," Ruby said. She sat up straight as Garnet slyly slid the paper into a folder, but not before Violet caught a glimpse of the words "Transfer of Power" written in bold letters across the top. She raised her eyebrows but said nothing. "Please, take a seat and we'll get started."

As it always did, the meeting began with Soorim giving a brief overview of the successes and failures of the day's challenges. "Both went well, generally," they explained, "but we had more of an issue than we expected with the morning challenge. It turns out that Violet Says is much more difficult when you can't hear."

Ruby nodded. "That is a very good point. We clearly need to do more work to make the Events more accessible for disabled children. Between Kamela three days ago and today's challenge? Not good. Violet, please take note of that."

"It's on my list for our debrief in a couple weeks."

"And by the way, who chose the colors for the District Nine morning challenge?"

"I think Finn and Gil suggested it," offered Violet uncertainly.

"Of course they did." Ruby sighed. "Oh well. Not much we can do now. Millicent? It's lovely to see you again."

"Lovely to see you as well, Madam President," Nil replied quietly.

"Would you like to tell us about tomorrow's challenges?"

"Of course." Millicent took a piece of paper out of her pocket and opened it up, then read from the script to explain the next day's challenges to Ruby. Even now, ten and a half years after the Selection and around five years after she first became a Gamemaker, she was still nervous to talk to the president. She got through the script as quickly as she could, while still being as clear in her diction as she could. When she finished, she shyly handed Ruby the piece of paper she was reading off of.

"Thank you, Millicent. You seem to be very prepared."

"I hope I am."

"The structure for both challenges looks good to me. I'm glad you feel prepared for tomorrow! Of course, if you have any questions or issues that get to be more than you or Soorim can handle, please let me know. And if there's nothing else you're free to go!"

Millicent looked at Violet and Soorim, who both nodded. "Thank you, Madam President." She quickly stood up and made a beeline out of the room.

"Now. Soorim, let's talk about some upcoming challenges. I've reviewed Reed's paperwork for Four again and come to the conclusion that it is probably for the best that April does not participate in the morning challenge. She'll place last, of course, but I'm more worried about her long-term mental health than her performance in one challenge where her team placing last doesn't mean much. I'm willing to tell her that myself if you think it's better; whatever works for you."

"That's a wise decision," Violet replied. "I think it's fine to notify her by note, or, as the in-Arena announcer, I can inform her of our decision in her individual room before the challenge."

"Works for me. Also, I want to double check on the status of the District Seven challenge. I know that's the biggest one we have left so I want to make sure that everyone is in sync with what they have to do to pull it off."

"We're all good," Soorim insisted. "Reed has been very effective at managing the ground crews so I am not worried in the slightest. Construction should be done within the next two to three days."

"Fantastic. Soorim, do you have anything else to discuss?"

"No, all is in order on our end."

"Spoken with the conviction of a soldier. You know where to find me."

"Yes ma'am," Soorim said. They stood up, gave a quick salute (as they'd been trained to do), and walked quickly out of the room.

"Violet, can you hang back for a moment tonight?"

"Sure thing."

Once Soorim was out of the room, Ruby asked, "We haven't had a chance to really touch base with everything going on. How are you feeling about everything?"

"Pretty good, honestly," Violet replied, "at least if you're talking about the Events."

"Oh?"

"Yeah."

Before Violet could say anything else, though, another knock sounded. Ruby checked the cameras by her desk, then opened the door. "Good evening, Cerise."

"Good evening!" Cerise said, placing a cup of coffee down on Ruby's desk. "I need the key to the room with all the Events slips in it. We're going to start sorting tonight."

"That's a very good plan." Ruby reached into her pocket and pulled out a keyring, which she flipped through until she found the particular key she was looking for. She opened up the keyring, removed the key from it, and handed it to Cerise. "Bring it right back once you have the door unlocked."

"Will do."

"Does she not have her own key?" Violet whispered as Cerise left the room.

"Nope. After the mess with the slips during the Games, I decided to take further precautions. If either of them need the key now, they have to ask me for it, to make sure that the right slips are in the right place."

"But Lavender and Cerise are both smart. Do you not trust them to do the right thing? They're both more than capable of keeping things straight."

"The stakes are too high to take chances," Ruby asserted. Violet exchanged a knowing glance with her brother and mouthed what both of them were thinking: She's getting too paranoid.

Ruby waited until the doors were securely closed before pressing a button, allowing a soundproofed sheet of titanium to slide down in front of the door. "Do go on."

"I do not trust what's going on with Alexios," Violet snapped. "Not in the slightest."

"What do you mean, Violet?"

"How is it possible that Alexios, the very man who has been running from us for 35 years now, if not for as long as I have been alive, just turns himself in when he's arrested? Why did he not put up a fight?"

Garnet piped up, "I agree with Violet. It's just too coincidental for this to just be Alexios being in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"He is getting old, you know. Perhaps he just got tired and was ready to be done. Maybe he just wanted to rest. So when we got the tip he decided not to fight."

"But wouldn't that imply that he was no longer a rebel? What if by this point he's been pushed out, or they've moved past them? He might not know anything about what the rebels are doing if that's the case."

"Even if he doesn't, we have intelligence. There's no way that whoever the rebel leader is now, if it's not Alexios, knows nearly as much as Alexios does, or ever did."

"But what if it's a plant? Like what if he has some sort of a tracker on him and the rebels are going to track his location? And then they break in and…"

"Violet, I think you're being a little paranoid. We have more security at the President's Mansion than anywhere else. Even if the rebels could get in, there is only one key to the high security prison cells and it is right here, on this key ring. It does not leave my sight. All of our plans are watertight; there is nothing that the rebels can do."

Another knock sounded at the door. "Probably just Cerise," Ruby remarked, lifting the sheet of titanium up and opening the doors. "If you have more concerns we can keep talking after-" Ruby trailed off as her eyes traveled past her daughter's figure, landing on the man entering behind her. "Oh, Vexler, you're not usually here so late."

"Madam President, I've just received word that Secretary Toritius was admitted to the hospital tonight. It seems to be something natural but rather serious. He may not make it to the morning."

"Thank you for letting me know," Ruby replied, not a hint of fear in her voice. "He lived a good long life."

"That he did."

"I will head over there momentarily to bid my last farewell to him."

"I will wait for you at the door."

Ruby held her hand out to Cerise, who placed the key she'd borrowed earlier into Ruby's hand. "Thank you, dear. Tell the kids I say hi?"

"Of course, Mother." Curtly, Cerise picked up the coffee cup, then turned and walked out.

Ruby turned back to Garnet and Violet. "If you guys want to continue this conversation later I'm more than happy to," she said in a low voice. "But I really don't think there's anything to be worried about." She began to tidy up some papers on her desk. "I have a couple last things to do, but I'll see you in the morning, all right?"

"See you tomorrow, Mom."

"Good night, Aunt Ruby."

As Violet and Garnet left Ruby's office, the two fell into conversation, keeping their voices as low as possible so nobody could hear their conversation. "Are you getting concerned about Mom?"

"Yeah. I feel like her priorities are a bit skewed."

"Exactly! Like how are you more concerned about an easily reparable error with the Reaping slips than the leader of the rebels magically turning up on your doorstep?"

"I don't know."

A look of deep concern spread on Garnet's face. "I don't know what's going on in mom's head but it doesn't seem to be good. I think we need to keep an eye on her. Something feels to me like it's going to go horribly wrong."

"Well, how do you suggest we do that?"

"Is it too far to suggest bugging her office?"

Violet thought for a second, then said, with a bit of fear in her voice, "I don't think we have another option."

A little birthday update for my Wednesday, cuz I felt like it ;)

Well, things seem to be picking up here a little bit, don't they? I've been building towards subplot stuff for a while, and while my plans have changed quite a bit from where they were in like November of '18, I'm very excited to get things really moving! It's going to get very exciting from here on out!

A quick update on the rest of the story: I had so much fun writing the D9 chapter that I decided that I wanted to keep playing around with the different format idea, partly because at this point it's the only way this fic is getting done. Like I mentioned a bit ago, I'm still going to be hitting all of the plot points I've planned out, just in a slightly faster and more condensed fashion than I'd even thought six weeks ago. I want to finish up the story on a nice round number, so we're looking at a total of 50 chapters, though I'll be writing the entire rest of the fic before I decide how exactly the rest of the events of the story are broken up into chapters. So if there's a delay between updates, that's why. The goal is to open subs for the sequel in the early summer so subs are open while I'm at camp, so I'm feeling a lot less pressure now honestly.

Anyway, thank y'all for sticking with me! I don't have any specific questions for this chapter, so I'm honestly just curious to hear what you all thought.

See you soon with the continuation of the Events!

-goldie031