It felt so good to finally have a knife in his hands.
Not that Toby Darya was intent on using that knife more than he had to. It was certainly not the boy's goal to end up a murderer by the end of the Games. But Toby also knew that he needed to be able to defend himself. It was outright stupid of Moss to completely ignore the weapons stations. Yes, he might get injured in training, but this was the Capitol! They'd be able to fix him up so fast! And even if he did go into the Games themselves with a slight disadvantage, at least he'd have a chance to defend himself in hand-to-hand combat.
Toby had considered working with axes, a logical conclusion for someone from Seven, but quickly realized that knives were easier to manipulate and far more versatile. If there was time after he felt comfortable enough with knives, Toby was interested in moving over to axes for a bit, but his priority was getting good with one weapon, not good enough with multiple.
As Toby wrestled the knife out of the dummy he was working with, his eyes fell onto the pair from Six, working at the medical station. The two both seemed like strong potential allies; in fact, Toby had had his eyes on them since the Reaping Recaps as people he wanted to work with. But Moss was so committed to District Seven loyalty, to keeping themselves safe and away from anyone who could possibly betray them, that Toby hadn't been able to propose the idea. But now that Moss wasn't here, maybe Toby could do something to get the Sevens more allies.
Or maybe Toby could just jump ship.
Toby placed the knife down next to the dummy and began to walk over to the Sixes. But as he passed Amber, who was working alongside him, he heard her ask in her sweet, small voice, "Where are you going?"
"Oh," Toby replied. "Just… over there," he said vaguely.
"Can I come?"
"No, you should stay here and keep working."
"But Moss said we were supposed to stay together," Amber said, confusion seeping into her tone.
"Well, maybe we don't always have to listen to Moss. He isn't here, is he?"
But then Toby made the mistake of turning back to look at Amber. The girl's brown eyes were full of worry, looking up at Toby like a child far smaller than she was. "Moss knows what he's doing. I trust him a lot. And he said you'd stay. Please stay with me?"
Toby tried to ignore the girl's words, but he just could not. He hated how strongly his protective instincts kicked in every time he looked at her. Objectively, Toby would have a better chance of surviving in the Arena without being attached to a twelve-year-old. But there was something about this girl that made him not want to leave her alone.
It didn't occur to Toby that Moss felt precisely the same way about him.
"All right, I'll stay," Toby conceded, trying not to sound as upset about the matter as he was.
"Thank you!" Amber gave Toby a quick hug before getting on with her work.
As Toby picked up his knife and moved over to another dummy, he couldn't help but look wistfully at the Sixes again. He knew – well, he assumed that staying with Moss and Amber was the right thing to do. But he so badly wanted to be with the Sixes, to be on his own, away from Moss, able to do whatever he wanted, with people who were both able to protect him; Amber was just too young, and Moss's ideas about protection would only get him more hurt in the end. It would be so easy to just… go, to get away from everything that could screw him over and find a way for him to survive.
No. He couldn't. Not today.
Toby forced himself to rip his gaze away. Now wasn't the right time to split off. But if he got the chance in the Arena, he wasn't sure he wouldn't take it.
Brandi Hahn had never considered herself to be that much of an introvert. She'd spent a lot of time growing up in large, crowded groups, as large numbers provided protection for each individual rebel attending protests; the more people there were, the harder it was to find one person. But as the third day of training ticked on, Brandi realized that there was something really nice about being in an open space, where she had room to breathe and walk around and not feel like she'd step on someone with every move she made. And while the training room felt big enough with 48 tributes milling about in it, it was practically perfect with half that number.
Well, as perfect as anything could be three days before one's inevitable death.
No, Brandi. Not inevitable. Likely, sure, but if you play your cards right, you have a chance.
Brandi turned her focus back to the task at hand. Carefully, she picked up the bottle of iodine to her left and dripped four drops into the bottle she was working with. If she'd used the proper ratio of iodine to water, the blue liquid inside would turn clear; if not, it would turn either purple, if she used too much iodine, or green, if she used too little. Brandi was never the most delicate person, so she was surprised that she was able to put the precise number of droplets she wanted to into the bottle, especially given that she'd failed at precisely that the day before. She held her breath as the drops sunk into the water, waiting to see if it would work.
And at precisely the moment that the water began to clear, the blue fading out like the sky on a summer's evening, Brandi realized why she was having such an easier time today than any day before.
Cain wasn't here.
With a shudder, she thought back to the way that Cain had followed her around constantly for the first two days of training. It didn't matter where she went, or how long she spent at a station; Cain trailed her to every part of the room. Even when she explicitly told him to fuck off, that she had no interest in allying with him, he stayed nearby, watching her every move. Brandi was not nervous about Cain killing her; in fact, she was confident that with his "rebels stick together" ideology, he wouldn't come anywhere near laying a hand on her. But she was also fairly sure that the harm that associating with Cain would do in the eyes of the Gamemakers would far outweigh the good that having an older boy as an ally might provide.
Brandi didn't think Cain's presence had affected her as much as it had. If she was this stressed about Cain outside of the Arena, she couldn't imagine how bad it would be inside of the Arena. Brandi needed a way to protect herself from Cain, and she needed it fast.
Suddenly, as the last tinges of blue finally dissipated from the bottle of water in front of Brandi, she caught a glimpse of something on the other side, as if a vision was coming to her through a portal. There, somewhere within the recesses of the training center, were a pair of tributes that she'd been eyeing for quite some time. Every time she thought about getting away from Cain, the pair from Six was the pair that popped into her head. But every time she thought about going to them, Cain was magically at their station, so Brandi naturally dragged her district partner elsewhere. It was as if he was actively trying to prevent Brandi from allying with anyone that wasn't him.
But now Cain wasn't here. There was nobody to stop her from finding other allies.
Maybe if she worked with the Sixes, she could finally shake her rebel reputation.
Acadia Nimmo was hard at work, stitching up the cut in the arm of the dummy she was working on. It didn't come as much of a surprise to her that the medical station had been busy for most of training; nearly every outer district tribute had taken their turn there. Acadia had decided to wait a little bit longer, in the hopes that she and Leyton could spend most of the third day of training alone there, with the trainer's full attention on them. And fortunately, that strategy had worked; the station was practically empty today as the other tributes prioritized filling in their last bits of weapons knowledge. It was the perfect opportunity for her and Leyton to get the undivided attention they needed to learn the skills that would make the difference between living and dying.
As she finished her last stitches, she heard the sound of footsteps shuffling behind her. Acadia quickly glanced backwards, spotting two tributes standing awkwardly behind her, the beige accents on their shirts indicating that they were from Nine. Acadia tied off the wound, put the needle down, and turned to face the pair. "Are you just gonna stand there?" she said with a smile.
"Well, we were hoping not to," the girl replied. "Brandi Hahn, Nine. This is my district partner, Izan."
"Pleasure to meet you! I'm Acadia, Six, and this is my partner, Leyton. What can we do for you?"
"Izan and I were interested in forming an alliance."
Acadia raised her eyebrows. "An alliance, you say? This late in training?"
"I know it's late in the game. But I've been looking to work with you from the beginning. I just… haven't had the chance to come over yet."
Something about Brandi's tone – or maybe it was her demeanor, she wasn't sure – struck Acadia as odd. But when she looked to Leyton, he didn't seem to give it any mind; the boy was just contently listening to the conversation happening in front of her. "Give me a second," Acadia insisted. She leaned back and whispered in Leyton's ear, "What do you think?"
"More allies this year is always good. Less people who will kill us."
"You don't think there's something odd going on?"
"If you're concerned, ask her. But I think having more people clearly on our side is a good thing."
Acadia turned back. "Can I talk to you for a moment, Brandi?"
"Surely."
The two girls moved away from their district partners and began to speak in hushed tones. "What's going on?" Acadia asked. "You're hiding something, I can sense it."
Brandi bit her lip. "My district partner and I are victims of unfortunate circumstances," she replied cagily. "We need to ally with other people to prove to the Capitol that we are above the things that got us here."
"And you can't reveal more than that?"
"Not in this forum."
"Let me go talk to Leyton. One moment."
"Of course."
Acadia returned to her district partner, who was making pleasant conversation with the youngster from Nine. She walked around to Leyton's other side and whispered in his ear, "She didn't give me much to work with. Something about unfortunate circumstances and proving to the Capitol… I don't know. It feels fishy. What do you think?"
"I like the kid," Leyton murmured. "And allies are never a bad thing. Plus, we wanted to find more allies, and it's not like we have other options right now."
Acadia wasn't sure if she liked Leyton's logic. There were definitely situations where allies were a bad thing; it was a huge risk in her eyes to ally with someone she wasn't completely sure she could trust. And yet, in these Games, there did seem to be benefits to larger alliances. With multiple Victors at play, your allies didn't need to betray you to survive themselves, and more people with you, even if not fully, meant fewer people who were wholly against you.
It went against so many of Acadia's instincts, but maybe Leyton was on to something. She could only hope that his instinct to work with anyone and everyone wouldn't backfire.
"Sounds good. I'll tell Brandi."
"Awesome."
Acadia put on a genuine smile and returned to Brandi. "Leyton and I discussed and we'd love to work with you!"
Acacia saw relief wash over Brandi; her hands unclenched, her face relaxed, and she let out a quiet sigh.
"Nice."
"So, how are you finding training so far?"
"Fine."
"Did you have a favorite station?"
"Not really."
"Is there anything you still want to learn before our private sessions?"
"Whatever."
"Well, if you think of anything, let me know!"
"OK."
Micah Piprick turned away from his ally and focused on the project at hand: camouflaging his hand into the background printed on the piece of paper in front of him. He couldn't quite figure out how to get through to Helena; no matter what she tried, she just didn't open up to anybody. She was just a brick wall, shutting herself into a cold, tiny space of her own, so different from what Micah was used to back home in Twelve. Sure, sometimes his siblings needed time to themselves, but the atmosphere was one of openness and support, where chatter filled the room from wall to wall and where anyone could, and did, come to anyone else for advice. The warmth he felt in his house was vastly different from the frigid air that seemed to follow Helena wherever he went.
Micah wasn't even trying to pry her for deep information. In an interview, a few well-placed words about training could go a long way. He just hoped she could see that he was only trying to help.
The two continued to work, time passing slowly without the benefit of conversation. Micah stole a glance back in her direction, trying to figure out whether or not to continue talking. He didn't want to push Helena if she didn't want to talk, but he also wasn't used to quiet like this. Micah wracked his brain for any way to get her to engage with him, but he couldn't find anything that wouldn't make her uncomfortable.
Unless he just started talking. Maybe her home was just quieter, and if he got used to being around someone who talked, she'd open up a little.
So Micah started to talk. He talked about his family, how he and his siblings grew up shoulder to shoulder, packed like sardines in their small house. He talked about his work, how he descended deep into the mines every day to help get just a little more food into the mouths of his siblings so that maybe they could hold off on the younger ones taking tesserae for a little bit longer. He talked about his siblings' personalities, how Shale and Slate were always causing trouble, how Lydia was always there to help, how sweet, small Piper was always there for a hug and a kiss and a snuggle. It was as if Micah had taken the paintbrush in his hands and chose instead to use it to paint with words, his verbal picture of Twelve coming to life in vibrant color.
As he finished describing his last sibling, he peeked over Helena's shoulder at her work. "Whoa, that's really good!" he exclaimed. "I can't even see your arm."
"Thank you."
"Have you always been able to draw like that?"
Helena shrugged. "I draw back home," she replied, and unceremoniously returned to her work.
It wasn't much, but that was the most Helena had said to him since they met a few days prior. And it was something about herself! Perhaps Micah was imagining things, but he could feel the temperature of the air warm up a little, could sense a few cracks forming in the walls around her.
Helena might not have opened up much. But she seemed a hair more comfortable around Micah than she did before. And that made it all worth it.
"Come on, Cyei! Let's do the agility course!"
"Why are we doing the agility course? We need to spend more time on weapon work."
Bouncing up and down, Camden Hart tugged on her district partner's shirt, begging him to come with her. "Because it looks fun!"
"We don't have time for fun, Camden."
"There's always a little time for fun!"
Deep down, Camden knew that her district partner was right. The Games were not exactly the time for fun. But Camden also knew that there was a chance that she'd never get to have fun again, whether she won or not. And if she got this little moment to be a kid again for what might be the last time in her life, she figured she should take it. So she and Cyei were going to do the agility course whether he liked it or not.
After a few moments of arguing, Camden managed to drag Cyei over to the agility course. "I wanna do it a few times so we can get better," Camden insisted. "Who knows what or who we'll have to run from in the Arena. Once we're done, we can go back to the weapons stations."
"Fine, fine. But we shouldn't take too long. We have more important things to learn."
"Not more than half an hour," Camden agreed as they approached the station. Despite its intimidating black-and-grey color scheme, the four-lane agility course looked like little more than a glorified playground. Platforms of varying heights seemed to disappear in the air, with long, thick rods stretched across them at various levels. Standing on the sides were machines with swinging attachments of various sides, from thin rods to large paddles to what seemed like replicas of rocks and tree branches. Camden could barely pay attention to the trainers as they ran through the various safety instructions and helped her into some protective padding; she was just excited to get out on the course.
Her first run on the course was made more difficult by the fact that Camden was tiny for her age. While the heights of the platforms could be adjusted by the trainers, they failed to consider just how small Camden was. By the middle of the course, it had become less an agility course and more of a strength course, as she struggled to pull herself up from platform to platform. When she reached the end, the trainers took a moment to reset the course before allowing her to run again. Fortunately, the second run was much better; able to run the course without exerting herself too much, Camden could shift her focus to avoiding the obstacles. The course was challenging, but the challenge for invigorating; each time she finished, she raced right back to the start to go again, eager to improve her time.
After a few runs, she heard Cyei call her name. "What's up?"
"Do you want to race this round?"
"Sure!"
The two met back up at the front of the course and took their positions in adjacent lanes, Camden in the leftmost lane and Cyei just to her right. Camden took a few moments to shake out her limbs before bending down into a running stance; at the trainer's word, she was off.
The first bit of the course passed without a hitch; with no obstacles to speak of, Camden was able to scale the platforms with ease, bringing her the first of the more difficult sections. This platform in particular had a number of holes cut in it that were just big enough for a foot to fall through. With a dancer's nimbleness, Camden began to hop around the holes, placing the tips of her toes on narrow beams for just enough time to regain her footing before she took off again.
But as she made her final leap, just a few feet from the end of the platform, she landed just wrong enough that her center of balance was off. She desperately tried to right herself, but before she could, she felt something slam into her back. Camden went flying off the edge of the platform, landing flat on her back.
A mess of blonde curls peeked out from the edge of the course. "You OK?"
"Yeah, I think so."
"Here, let me come down there and help you up." And the curls disappeared again.
It occurred to Camden that Cyei had poked his head over the edge rather quickly, given that he was in the next lane over from the edge. It also occurred to Camden that, from what little of his expression he could see, Cyei looked less concerned and more amused, if not elated, by the scene in front of him. And it also occurred to Cyei that, as he arrived at her side and extended a hand to help her up, there was an out-of-place glint in his eye.
No. Camden must have hit her head pretty hard on the ground; that was the only explanation for the tricks her mind was playing on her. No way would sweet, innocent Cyei be invigorated by something that caused someone else pain, right?
Right?
Bellona Adrina was running out of time.
For the entirety of training, she'd been trying to find an opening to do something to shake things up. The other tributes were getting entirely too comfortable; everyone was contently working at their own training stations, with nobody doing anything to impede anyone else's ability to learn, thereby bettering their own odds. It was just common sense that raising hell for others only made your own odds better. But no, Acestes insisted that "we have to stick to training" and that "we don't want to make ourselves a target in the arena." What did that matter if the others couldn't train because the Adrinas made their life a living hell?
But finally, today, Ace was letting Ona out of her cage. And this would be fun.
While scanning the room that morning – Bellona couldn't be bothered to remember which tributes were in standard slots and which were in Quell slots – Bellona had quickly identified her targets: the twins from Two. She'd had her eyes on the girl, Smash, in particular since the day before, especially once Acestes finally gave in. Ona knew that Ace was a little worried, but she didn't know why; she wasn't going to do anything that would give her a disadvantage in the Games, which injuring another tribute would very likely do. No, she just wanted to get under her skin just a little bit, find those chinks in the armor that Ona could stick a knife in and twist until they bled.
It was all about finding their weakness. Those Twos couldn't be as strong as they pretended to be.
It had taken all day for Bellona to find an opening, a chance to go and interfere with the girl. She'd trailed them to every station, waiting like a coiled snake waiting for the precise moment to strike. But she had to wait until the Twos split up, so she could get to Smash without worrying about Crash. And the two of them had stayed together for the whole day, training literally right by each other's sides. When the lunch bell rang, Ona felt anger and frustration bubble up inside her, until a calm voice from the heavens reminded her that the tribute in the male slot from each district would have their private session before the female.
So when that same calm voice announced, "Crash Hatch, District Two," Bellona made her move. She slid out of her seat next to Ace, who motioned as if to signal Ona to stop, but Ona didn't listen. Instead, she walked over to Smash's table and took a seat on the chair next to her. "Hello, Smash."
"Oh!" Smash exclaimed, jumping out of her seat. She'd been so busy rehearsing her plan for the private sessions that she didn't see the other girl approaching out of the corner of her eye. "Hello."
"How's your training going?"
"Fine." Smash didn't have any interest in revealing more to the other girl; a good Career never revealed her secrets.
"I saw you sparring with your brother yesterday."
"Oh?"
"Isn't it a shame that you couldn't keep up with him?"
Smash crossed her hands over her chest. "What do you mean? Of course I could keep up with him."
"Are you sure?" Bellona could sense that she'd struck a nerve. She leaned a little closer to Smash, allowing a smile to grace her face. "Because you lost every spar you played against him."
"That's blatantly false. Crash and I have been training together for years, and I had never lost against him at home."
"Well, you know that. And maybe he knows that. But the Gamemakers don't. They can only judge you on what they've seen in training."
A small voice in Smash's brain insisted that she shouldn't listen to the girl, who'd appeared out of nowhere and seemed only interested in pushing Smash's buttons. But there was something about the girl's tone that felt genuine, like somehow, despite the fact that Two's trainers were experts in all things Hunger Games, she had information Smash didn't. "I thought they only judged you based on what you did in your private session."
Bellona lied. "Not quite. They primarily go based on your private sessions, of course, but your performance in training factors in as well."
"Well…" A faint tremble appeared in Smash's voice. "What if you were intentionally faking your skills during training? Making them seem worse than they were."
"What the trainers see is what they have to work with. Anything you chose to show them is fair game."
Smash was growing more concerned now. That was not what she and Crash had been told in the Academy, where they'd been rehearsing for their private sessions for months. Her performance in the training days couldn't affect her scores. She couldn't get a training score lower than Crash. For her whole life, she'd been outperforming her brother. She was always the better twin in training, pleasing her trainers and scoring better on assessments. How could her sullen no-fun of a brother, who never even wanted to be there, possibly best her?
"Smash Hatch, District Two."
"Well, best of luck then!" Bellona said, her tone becoming jarringly jovial. "I'm sure you'll do great!"
Smash took a deep breath as she stood up. She wasn't used to the feeling of moisture on her palms as she approached evaluation. Usually, she was confident, fully aware that she'd perform the best of everyone. But now she didn't know. Smash tried to tell herself that it was okay to be nervous, and that it was okay to not be the absolute best because she was eight years younger than some of the other tributes, and that even some of the untrained tributes would probably outperform her. But deep down, something inside her knew that that wasn't enough, that her vague attempts to calm herself down couldn't do nearly as much as they needed to do here.
As she took cautious steps towards the doors to the training room, a small pit formed in the girl's stomach. For the first time in her life, Smash Hatch might be worse at something.
And she didn't know how to handle that.
And with that, we're done with training! This might be my favorite of the training chapters so I hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I think there are some very neat arcs kicking off here so I'm excited to get to see things through! I tried something a little different by wrapping Smash and Bellona's sections into one longer bit rather than two shorter ones and I think it worked pretty well honestly (I'm way more willing to take more chances with my own characters than with others' but this was a good vibe!). And I can't believe I only have 3 more chapters to post before the bloodbath – where has the time gone?
I've put together a final alliance list that I've put after I sign off because, as I wrote it, it turns out that the list is very long. And if you think that's long – next chapter, the private sessions, is way longer. On Microsoft Word it's about 12,500 words, and FFN pads word counts, so I can only imagine how long it's gonna be. Now, here's a good thing: you don't have to read it all. I'd like it if you did, of course, but the format of the chapter is a little dossier for each kid. I think I've sprinkled in some fun information about the kids that we might not have seen in story yet, so feel free to look for that! A lot of it is in the non-POV kids' reports because this is the best way to backstory drop for them.
I'm so excited to hear your thoughts on this chapter! And I'll hopefully see you next week!
xoxo, xxxi
Final Alliance List
District One Careers: Jaesa Briton (D1QF), Khada Oromonio (D1QM), Tyranny Bomber (D1SF), Lydia Leah (D1SM), Shine Scott (D12QF)
District Two Careers: Acacia Andalu (D2SF), Nikau Melusine (D2SM), Crash Hatch (D2QM), Smash Hatch (D2QF)
District Four "Careers": Empra Ichinose (D4SF), Fenris Shute (D4SM), Helena Blackwell (D7QF), Micah Piprick (D12QM)
Murder Children: Bellona Adrina (D4QF), Acestes Adrina (D4QM)
VACuum Cleaner: Vidja Zavala (D3QF), Arlie Poplin (D8SM), Clemency Trimble (D12SM)
We Are Definitely Not Allies What Are You Talking About: Runar Theron (D5SM), Astrid Evans (D5SF), Lena Magney (D5QF), Pallas Gallagher (D5QM)
Big Siblings Little Siblings: Moss Darya (D7QM), Toby Darya (D7SM), Amber Elmore (D7SF)
These Are Our Only Children, Quiinn: Orchid Ursinia (D11QF), Quiinn Jones (D11QM), Cyei All (D11QM), Camden Hart (D11QF)
These Two Are So Dead: Saskia Calahan (D8QF), Harlen Enetrust (D8QM)
Spiderman Guns Meme: Nerida Nyansas (D3SF), Maximum Acceleration (D6QF), Arnav Newton (D6QM)
Marie and the Code Breakers: Marie Gagne (D12SF), Ritz Marquette (D9QM), Ryelee Blackburn (D9QF), Evion Viscose (D3SM)
(Bonnie Tyler Voice) I Need a Meat Shield: Lambell Rose (D10QF), Hodge Winchester (D10QM)
Us Against the World: Viktor Wayland (D10SM), Rowena Wayland (D10SF)
Our District Partners Suck: Acadia Nimmo (D6SF), Leyton Gresley (D6SF), Brandi Hahn (D9SF), Izan Peralta (D9SM)
Rebel With a Cause (That Cause is Brandi): Cain Mohen (D3QM)
Lone Wolf: Poise Baroque (D8SF)