Bellona Adrina, 11
District Four Quell Female

Today was the day that Bellona Adrina was waiting for. For six years, since she had begun training, Bellona had been preparing for this very moment. She was finally taking the next step towards her ultimate goal: volunteering for the Games. Yes, today she and her peers would be sparring for the first time.

"Trainees!" called Tace Arroyo, the Victor of the 89th Games and one of the trainees for Bellona and her peers. "Welcome to First Spars. This is a big milestone in your training progress, so you should all feel very proud of yourselves for making it to this day. Now, we know that normally you would have another half a year to prepare for First Spars, so don't worry if you're not doing as well as you think you might. We just want to get a baseline sense of where you're at so we can start leveling you."

Ona knew that she wasn't expected to do well today. No trainee was. First Spars was the opportunity for the trainers to get a baseline read on the skillset of the trainees, to level them into the appropriate classes for the next phase of their training process. Normally, First Spars wouldn't happen until the week after Reaping Day. But with the Quell looming, the trainers in Four had made the decision last Reaping day to move First Spars up for Bellona and her classmates to the week after the Quell announcement, with the expectation that it would be pushed back to its normal time if the Quell twist allowed for it. That had turned out to be a rather felicitous decision, as it enabled the trainers to get their baseline reading with enough time to carefully choose the trainees who would, rather prematurely, become tributes. As such, Ona and her classmates had begun sparring lessons six months earlier than normal, back in October.

Well, Ona's classmates had begun sparring lessons in October. Ona had been teaching herself how to spar for years. Not in a formal way, of course. She and her brother would sometimes roughhouse with each other in their room when they were younger. And then there was the occasional beating up of unsuspecting children in the alleyways of Four after training was over. You know, as one does.

"Now, we have not yet made a decision on whether or not we'll be selecting volunteers from among you. What we do want is to be training you on your level so that, if any of you enter the Games, you have the best chance of making it out alive. So, let's get started!

"If you look on the bulletin boards, you'll find a list of all the sparring matchups. You will each spar four times on your own against someone of your sex and twice paired up with a trainee of the opposite sex to fight against the other pair. You'll be evaluated in a variety of styles of spars by each of the six trainers assigned to your year, and we will post class rosters within the next three days. I will not be evaluating, so if you have any questions or concerns, I am the person to go to. Please be careful not to do anything that might hurt you or someone else, and do not feel afraid to tap out if you feel like you are in danger. We do not want anyone injured now, not with two of you entering the Games in six months' time. And remember the two most important rules of sparring…"

"Nothing over the head or between the legs!" chorused the trainees. This was not a rule that Ona loved, but she put up with it. She knew from watching the older trainees emerge from sparring practice that the rule would go away when she got older.

"Precisely," continued Tace. "We will begin the first round of spars in five minutes. Use this time to stretch, warm up, check to see who your sparring partners are, et cetera. If you're not sparring, please stay in this room; you may chat with your peers but try not to make so much noise that those sparring are too distracted. You are dismissed when you're done. And anyone with hair longer than your shoulders, make sure that it is up, as you should all know by now. Remember your sportsmanship and best of luck."

As she walked over to one of the bulletin boards, Ona pulled her long, straight, golden blonde hair up into as smooth of a ponytail as she could. She was not surprised to find that she would be one of the first to spar; that was what happened when your last name was Adrina. But she was surprised to find that for her second pair spar, which happened to be her last spar, she had been paired with Ace. Ona had been told that siblings were almost never paired up to spar, even if they were in the same sparring classes. But she also figured that siblings were rarely as close in age as the Adrinas were; Ona was just eleven months older than Ace, a fact that she did not let him live down.

Well, twins were closer in age than eleven months apart. But twins also tended to fight far more, at least from what Ona saw, than Ona and Ace did.

Most of the spars of the day passed without incident. Ona definitely had the upper hand on each of her four individual spars and managed to win without even thinking about breaking the two rules, even though she easily could have. Her first pair spar, a weaponless spar, went way less well; she was paired with a boy who had absolutely no muscle, and while their opponents also had no muscle, he was knocked out early, forcing Ona into a two on one situation that ended just as quickly as it began. Finally, it was time for her and Ace to spar together.

"You ready to go, Ona?" asked Ace, tapping his sister on the shoulder as he walked past her.

"I'm always ready for a good fight," Ona said, smirking as she tightened her wrist guards, following her brother over to their sparring ring. When they got there, they were met by another pair of trainees, a girl who was about as tall as Ona and a boy who was about as short and stocky as Ace. Each trainee picked out a weapon then stood in a corner of the mat, waiting for a trainer to come so they could begin the match. Ona turned her dagger over in her hand; it might not be as big as Ace's trident, but it could be just as effective in close quarters.

"Good morning, trainees.

"Good morning, trainer Dobbs," chorused the four eleven-year-olds.

"Welcome to your first spar of the day. Shake hands." They did. "Remember that you should be trying your best, but we do not want anyone to be injured. This spar ends when both members of the pair have been dotted in critical areas three times." Dotted referred to the red paint on the end of the sparing weapons. "You may take a moment to strategize with your partner, and then we will begin."

Ona turned to Ace. "Any ideas?"

"I think we should just go at them weapons a-blazing. Just slam into them."

"Ace, we can do that with our fists but not quite as easily with these weapons."

"So? What's the difference?"

Ona shook her head. Her brother might be much stronger than she, but he certainly wasn't the smartest. "Look, I think we need to take down one of them so that we're both focused on the other. Which one do you think will be harder to fight?"

"I dunno. Maybe her?"

"Yeah, she could be a tough one. But you see how he's really stockily built like you?"

"Yeah?"

"He probably has a bunch of muscle. If we gang up on him quickly and take him down, I bet she'll be easier to beat without his support."

"But you don't have a bunch of muscle and you're still kinda strong."

"Thank you?"

"You're welcome!"

Ona sighed. "Why don't we see how they fight, and then we'll knock out the easier one quickly and take on the harder one together."

"That's such a good idea! You're so smart."

Ona and Ace turned to face their opponents. When the boy recognized who he was up against, his face morphed into a look of complete terror. The girl, on the other hand, had a look of serious concentration on her face; Ona caught a glimpse of something that she couldn't quite read in the other girl's eyes, which did kind of scare her. Ona tapped Ace on the shoulder and motioned in the direction of the boy. Ace nodded; Ona just hoped that he understood what she was trying to tell him.

"Bellona, Acestes, are you ready?"

"Yep!"

"Sebastian, Marina, are you ready?"

"Yeah…"

"Get into sparring stance… ready… and, go!"

Immediately, Ona launched herself over towards the boy, dagger in hand. She knew that she had to catch him off guard to get the upper hand, but she kind of hoped to draw his attention towards her well enough to allow Ace to come up from behind and quickly dot him three times. But lo and behold, Ace had decided to go right for the girl! "Ace! What are you doing?"

"You motioned…"

"Not what I meant."

"Oh."

Like an obedient dog, Ace immediately turned around and ran to Ona's aid. Ona tried to stop him, but it was too late; the other pair of sparrers already knew Ona and Ace's plan. Ona now had to act fast. Everything in her wanted to get the upper hand on the other pair of sparrers, but the only way she could think of how to do that was decidedly against the rules. Normally, she wouldn't care about a little kick in the nuts, but she didn't really want to jeopardize her chances of getting picked for the Games by breaking that silly rule. So all she could do was hope to lock up the boy in combat while Ace dotted him in the back of the neck.

Unfortunately, the other girl didn't seem to be nearly as moral as Ona was trying to be. As soon as Ace turned around, the girl lifted up her fake sword and slammed him over the head. Immediately, a whistle blew. "Everybody stop! Bellona and Acestes take the win by default."

Immediately, Ona threw her dagger down to the ground. "I cannot believe that bitch!"

"Ona, come here," Ace commanded, leading his sister to the corner of the sparring ring and putting his own body between Ona and the other girl.

"I could have very easily broken one of the only two rules we have right off but I did not. And not only did that girl break a rule, but she put you in danger! You could have been hurt, really badly hurt! Plus now we won't be able to be evaluated on this spar! She might have just ruined our chances of getting into the highest class! I could just…"

"Ona, you're not going to. The trainers will probably give us another chance to prove ourselves in another spar. They're not going to judge us based on an incomplete battle. Plus, breaking the rules is probably going to dip her down in the rankings, which is going to be very good for us."

"But she ruined the thing I was most looking forward to!"

"And we will have many more spars. Many more. I know it."

Ace took Ona by the hand and led her to the locker rooms, where the two packed up their training bags. As the two of them left the Academy, Ona caught sight of the girl walking in front of them. She tapped Ace on the shoulder and motioned towards the girl. It took Ace a second to register who it was, but when he did, he nodded, his own smirk forming to match Ona's.

The girl who had ruined Ona's day would pay.

Acacia Andalu, 18
District Two Standard Female

The sound of clinging and clanging echoed through the room where the top trainees in Two were practicing their sword-fighting. It was the week after April cuts, so all twenty-four trainees in the room were still riding off of the adrenaline high that came with being declared one of the best trainees in the district. Most of the trainees had taken this opportunity to let their guards down; it would be at least another month, if not two, before a volunteer was selected, so the majority of the top trainees had taken this week to relax and let their guard down.

Acacia Andalu was not most trainees. She knew that the trainers were always watching them, and particularly with a Quell approaching, every move that everyone made was being recorded and taken into consideration. There was not a second where Acacia felt she could act as though she was anything other than the best possible representative of District Two, and she swore not to let her guard down until she was coming back from the Capitol a Victor. After all, that was the mistake that her brother made.

Acacia's older brother, Avery, was unquestionably the physically strongest tribute in the 98th Games, a fact confirmed by his training score: a whopping eleven. However, he trusted the other Careers to a fault, and so when the opportunity came to take him out, the girl from One wasted no time. She literally stabbed poor, unsuspecting, Avery in the back. And what was worse, Avery's conniving district partner did nothing to stop her. But as much as it pained Acacia to think about losing Avery, and as much as she knew that a part of her died with him, Acacia knew deep down that it was Avery's own fault for letting his guard down. Sure, her father drilled that fact into her every single day, but Acacia knew it for herself too. If she wanted to achieve her greatest goal, to win for Avery and bring glory to Two, she had to learn from her brother's mistakes and keep her guard up until she knew for sure that she was out of the woods.

Acacia took one last swig from her water bottle before tightening her wrist guards and stepping back onto the mat. She would be sparring against her twin sister, Alli, who was the second of two backups for the top ten girls. Alli was in no way the twelfth-best girl in their year, a fact that even she was aware of, but her high intelligence and ability to explain difficult concepts made her a top candidate to be a trainer for elite tributes, and so had been selected as the second backup so that she could experience the thing she would one day have to teach.

And it wasn't like Alli had much of a choice in that matter. Unless your parent ran some sort of independent business, like a bakery or toy store, the fate of every child in Two was tied to the Academy, as the school system was Academy run. And the Academy would provide one of four career recommendations for all those who did not become tributes – miner, Peacekeeper, teacher, or trainer – that parents in the district would encourage their children to follow because they themselves followed the Academy's recommendation. The Academy had so much power in Two that the Mayor was mostly a figurehead; it was the Victor who ran the Academy, currently the terrifyingly strong Brutus Dertia, that was truly the head of District Two.

"Ready, Alli?" asked Acacia.

"Ready to go. Go a bit easy on me?"

"Swords are not my strongest weapon, so I think I will by default."

The two girls settled into their sparring stance. But before either could give the go, another trainer approached the trainer coaching the spar. "At ease, ladies," instructed the trainer. "I'll be right back." The two trainers conversed for a moment, then turned back to the girls. "Acacia, Brutus would like to see you in his office."

Acacia's stomach plummeted. Trainees were only called to Brutus's office for two reasons: they were being released from the Academy, or they were being chosen as a volunteer. But there were still two months until volunteers were selected. Acacia didn't think she'd done anything meriting a release, but nothing else made sense. With her spirits low and her head down, she placed her sword in its rack and made her way to Brutus's office. She was surprised to find the door wide open when she arrived, and that Brutus was… smiling?

"Hello, Acacia. Come on in."

"Hello."

Brutus closed the door behind him, then took his seat behind his desk. He still had a remarkable amount of spring in his step, even at seventy. "So. This is a bit of an unconventional situation. But, we're also approaching a rather unconventional Quell. And as such we have to take an unconventional approach to selecting our volunteers. We have been very impressed with your drive, determination, discipline, and focus over your time in the Academy, and especially in the past few days, and so want to offer you the spot of the female volunteer for the Fourth Quell."

Acacia's heart fluttered. This was it! This was what she'd been dreaming about for her whole life! She tried her best to keep her calm and respectful exterior, the hardened appearance that her father demanded that she have, but the joy threatened to burst forth from her chest and expand in the whole room. As she opened her mouth to respond, though, Brutus cut her off.

"However, before you accept, I need to explain a few things. I will request that, whether or not you accept, you not repeat anything I say in the next few minutes to anyone. Not even your father."

"I understand."

"As I'm sure you can guess, we have a source in the Capitol who is privy to confidential information regarding the Quarter Quell." That did not surprise Acacia; Two only had the training system it did because it had all kinds of support, not the least financial, from the Capitol. "Obviously, this source cannot tell us everything, but they have informed us that it will be possible for all four tributes from a district to leave the Arena alive, but that they might not all necessarily be Victors. We, obviously have a vested interest in having all four of our tributes survive the Arena, both because obviously we want people to live and because we want to be the district that gets to gloat about its four survivors when no other district could accomplish that. Now, we wouldn't be so concerned about this if we had either other option for Quell tributes. But this is a very difficult task to accomplish with two eleven-year-olds in the mix. So we've put together a strategy that we think will be the best bet for accomplishing this somewhat impossible task.

"What we're hoping to accomplish is to use our two older tributes to do whatever it takes to get the youngsters out of the Arena first, so effectively acting as bodyguards for the youngsters. Then you two will be able to go at it for yourself. This also means that there will probably not be a Career pack in the traditional sense; we're anticipating that once this news spreads to One, they will ask to not align with us this year, because they will have four strong tributes on their own, and nobody knows what Four will do, as usual. So it's going to be you and your district partner and the two children going at the Games without other support.

"In most years, we would not give you the following option. But considering the circumstances of this year's Games, we need to make sure that you're ready and willing to approach the Games in this way. So, do you accept the spot?"

Acacia thought for a moment. Under normal circumstances, she would not even think of saying no. But this was a much more complicated year than most, and she felt that she needed to know what she was getting into before she got into it.

"May I ask a couple of questions?"

"Surely."

"Who will my district partners be?"

Brutus thought for a moment but eventually decided to answer. "We have not yet picked out who the other Standard tribute is, which is to say who the other volunteer. We're also still debating what to do with the younger kids. There was a thought of not choosing volunteers among the youngsters, but with that we run the risk of having a truly untrained child in the mix, which is worse than choosing someone who might not be quite ready or who may be a volunteer candidate in the future. So right now, we're leaning towards Smash and Crash Hatch."

Acacia audibly groaned, then immediately covered her mouth with her hand. She froze, waiting to see how Brutus would respond.

"Care to elaborate?" asked Brutus.

"Anyone who has set foot into a training room while the two of them are there knows that the two of them just do not get along. Crash has a tendency to throw tantrums at the drop of anything that goes wrong, and despite her bubbly persona, Smash enjoys nothing more than turning people against her brother. And that's just the kids. Don't even get me started on the parents."

"See, that's the issue. We technically cannot make decisions about the Games for children under the age of sixteen without their parents' permission; this was a part of our original training agreement with the Mayor when we set up the Academy. So we need a set of parents who are willing to send their kids in at age eleven when they would normally have seven more years to prepare for the Arena. And the parents that we think are most likely to agree…"

"…are Ember and Stallion Hatch."

"Precisely. Look, we know that Smash and Crash are a bit of a liability. We're fully aware of the fact that the two of them don't exactly get along. But each of them has the skillset to at the very least survive in the Arena, if not make kills. And we're pretty sure that they're the only two kids whose parents would let them go into the Arena. You know how great Ember and Stallion will feel if their kids are the first twin Victors, and just giving them that idea will make them all for it."

"That all makes sense."

"So this is the situation you're going to be in. We're going to do our best to pair you up with a partner you can work well with to protect the twins prevent them from killing each other. You'll be spending the next two months working with your partner to train in partner spars so that you can be the best possible team. We might do some training with you two and the twins as well but we'll have to see how they handle things." Brutus paused. "So?"

Acacia paused for a second. She was not thrilled about this situation, to say the least; to be put in a position where she had to rely on her district partner, to trust someone in the place where anyone could betray you at any moment with deadly consequences, was the opposite of her plan going into the Arena. And she certainly didn't want to have to look after other people. It would be difficult enough to survive on her own, much less with two young wards to look after. But Acacia also knew that this was the only shot she would get to enter the Games. Turning it down, no matter how challenging the circumstances might be before and during the Games, would likely be the biggest regret of her life. And a little voice in her head had to remind her that her father would be more than disappointed if she said no.

And there was a certain advantage to the whole situation: if she didn't have to ally with District One, she'd feel much more comfortable exacting revenge on its tributes.

"I accept, gladly. I'm ecstatic for the opportunity to represent District Two."

"Excellent. We could not be prouder to have you represent us."

Well, another day, another chapter! I was intending to have more of the intros being based on the Quell announcement but then I started writing this chapter and it just flowed so well! So it's possible that some future chapters will move backwards in time, but I'll try my best to indicate in the section when this takes place in relation to the Reaping. For some timeline context, the Quell announcement takes place in January, and the Reaping is on July 25th.

Anyway, what do you think of this pair of tributes? Both of these were some of my favorites to write the first time, so returning to them felt like putting on an old pair of shoes. What did you guys think of both of them? Is there one you liked more than the other? We know Acacia will volunteer, but what about Bellona?

I still have not settled on a date for subs to close, but I now have no summer plans, so expect a whole bunch of writing from me this summer! Hopefully I'll make really solid progress on both this and IDIDE. I'm so excited to keep working with these characters!

Thanks for your support, and see you hopefully sooner than last time!

Goldie031