Author's Note

I do not own the Hunger Games.


It was a few minutes before he could stand, shaky and weak, stumbling to his feet. He picked up his spear and collected up the knives, both his and Twelve's, before glancing around the clearing.

Four was knelt on the ground next to what he presumed was the girl from One. There was blood still pouring from her wounded shoulder, mixing with what was pooled already around One's form. She was panting with pain, trying to shake One's shoulders, whimpering. "Ah- ah- ah- Nike- he's gone now – he's gone – it's alright-"

There was no sign of Azrayk.

Coward.

He likely ran as soon as he started fighting with Twelve.

He strode over to Four and the girl from One, who was barely recognisable as human.

"Nike-" Four looked up at him. Her own eye was swelling, her lip split, one hand clamped over her shoulder in some futile attempt to stop the blood.

"Are you just going to stand there?"

Hyperion looked down at her. The girl from One looked still – too still. He hadn't heard a canon – but he had been otherwise engaged.

"She's already dead."

Four swallowed back a sob. By the amount of blood she was losing, so could she soon be.

"She wasn't a Career. I mean, not like the rest of them. She was actually nice."

"Life doesn't care if you're nice or not Four."

Four dragged a bloody hand across her eyes. "It wasn't meant to be like this. I was meant to- oh, fuck!"

Luciente would never cry like this.

Hyperion thrust his hand out. Four blinked wetly at him. "What- what-?"

"Keep up or I'll leave you behind."

"But I- You- I thought-"

Hyperion dropped his hand and turned away, striding back towards the trees. Behind him, he heard Four scrambling to stand and hurrying after him. When she reached his side she had Twelve's spear in one hand and was trying to tear strips from her bloodsoaked jacket. "So what now?"

"Now we find my sister."

She gave him a long look. "Is that why you did it?"

Hyperion kept walking.


The two canons rang out shortly before they got back to the cabin, one first, and then three minutes later another. Bunny jumped at the first and had barely recovered before the second came.

"Who do you think it was?" Nathaniel asked.

Luciente held the stones tight in her pocket. "Not Hyperion."

She could feel him, out there, in the forest, away from her, alone, a glowing bundle of red stained white light.

Can you feel me brother?

If he could, he didn't reply.

They stepped into the cabin clearing. It looked untouched from when they left it. If anyone had been there, they had been and left.

Bunny frowned and looked around the clearing. "Are those trees closer than they were before?"

Luciente glanced about. The cabin had always looked squeezed into the clearing, but now the trees did seem even tighter, a few branches brushing the roof.

"Yeah," said Nathaniel. "I think so."

Bunny shifted her weight from foot to foot. "It could be a Gamemaker trap. Maybe we shouldn't…"

Nathaniel shook his head. "They probably won't spring a trap overnight; it would be boring. We're probably safe for now."

"'Probably' is not comforting."

Luciente clutched the stones in her pocket. They glowed warm against her skin. She could feel it, where the new trees had sprung up in a new circle in front of the old ones, and even beyond that, the trees that had been there for days, weeks, months, years, and the trees that were new life, the ones that had burst into being from nowhere.

Unnatural Capital technology.

She shuddered. The itch under her arm was more with the stone in her hand, burning, and she pressed her hand over it, rubbing at her skin as though that might somehow help. "They're trying to close the trees in."

"If the trees get any closer, none of us will be able to move

to kill each other," Nathaniel pointed out. "They're not going to want that."

Maybe they want to drive all the tributes onto the beach as the endgame," Bunny suggested. Luciente gazed into the thick forest. Hyperion, her brother, her pack, was out there somewhere, alone, unguarded.

"If that's what happening, we should be able to use the cabin for tonight. We can find a new place to camp in the morning."

"Good plan," Luciente said.

Come to me brother.

Find me.

Stay with me.

Nathaniel opened the cabin door, peering inside. "Nothing looks disturbed."

Bunny gave one last suspicious look around the clearing and then followed him inside. Luciente stayed outside, crouching down to dig her fingers into the dirt.

It felt like she could feel the entire arena around her.

Bunny and Nathaniel continued to talk in the cabin, Bunny dictating which bunks they would use and where they would keep watch, but they felt distant, far away.

She could feel Hyperion, in the woods, away from the stream now, injured, hurting, with another, fire and anger and bitterness all rolled into one – Ilenia? – forcing their way through the trees.

Come to me.

Luciente.

Come to me brother.

Where are you.

I'm here; come to me.

She could feel the girl-who-would-be-Victor huddled in the trees in the dark, snacking on berries. Distantly she was aware of the boy from Two, all the way back at the Cornucopia.

She could feel Azrayk somewhere near him, munching on a few crackers, alone and unsure.

Past that, she could feel a barricade, the forcefield, a wall of energy that blocked everything from beyond it. Luciente felt at the energy there, and there was a slight flicker, a faltering when she could feel something, life, trees, beyond, before the wall snapped back into place.

She could feel the hatred, the dark anger on the beach, almost see the girl from Two stood in the waves, glaring into the trees with the intensity of a thousand suns.

At the edge of the sand waited the boy from Four, unsteady determination.

On the cliffs waited Bethany, gazing out across the flat grey sea.

With the girl from Six was a buzz of yellow lightning, curious and lost, whipping around her.

Far, far away was the cornucopia, where a swirling bundle of colours swept around and around, copper and dark green and brown.

And out through the woods, somewhere beyond Hyperion and his mysterious ally, was a vengeful flicker of red and a black evil, a darkness that encompassed all light, a gaping cold that made her gasp as though it were physical and near her now, stealing the breath from her lungs and the heat from her body Hyperion what did you do-

"Luciente!"

Nathaniel.

He shook her shoulders, knelt in front of her. "Luciente, are you alright?"

She rocked back on her heels, drawing in a long breath, shivering. "There's an evil out there."

She had never felt evil like that before.

The girl from Two was angry – angry at her – but that.

That was evil and hatred and wrongness all churned up into one.

"It's alright. You're safe here."

"No. None of us are safe."

That thing would come for them all.

There was a glowing sense of friendship and protection from somewhere closer, competing with Nathaniel's soft white glow. Luciente shifted, gazing up at the flicker of black, red and green.

Heaven held her hand out and splayed her fingers.

Luciente smiled and reached back to her, their hands close but never able to touch. Heaven's form flickered and dissolved, reforming a half second later between them and the direction of the black evil. She thrummed with a sense of fierce determination.

A half moment later a flicker of yellow joined her, their blurred outlines so close it looked like they were mingling.

Nathaniel was silent, staring at them. "What are they?"

"Friends." Luciente fumbled in her pocket, feeling the still glowing stones and pulling one out. It shone white in her palm.

"I want you to have this."

Nathaniel frowned, reached for it, hesitated. "What for?"

"So you can see." Luciente pressed it into his hand.

He gasped and nearly dropped it. "It's warm!"

She smiled.

He wrapped his fingers around it, clenching it tight, and gazed at the figures in front of them. "But she's…"

"What's dead is never truly gone. They can't hurt us."

"That's… reassuring." Nathaniel turned the stone over in his hand. "What is this?"

"It seems to make things more. And the ghosts are drawn to it."

Although not all of them. Some of them were still with their former allies; some were only half formed, lost and confused.

Lost souls.

Bunny appeared from the cabin, now without her backpack but still carrying the trident. "What are you two doing out here?"

"Keeping watch," Nathaniel replied before Luciente could open her mouth.

"Sure, whatever." She gave the stone in his hand a sceptical look. He slipped it into his pocket. Luciente was unsure whether he would ever be like her and Lucia; he was different, and yet he had the gift.

The Capital anthem rang out. Bunny sighed heavily. "I guess we better see who died then."

The seal appeared above them, before fading away to the first face.

The girl from One.

Bunny laughed. "The Careers are doing terribly this year!"

Nathaniel laughed with her while Luciente waited for the face she knew would come next.

The boy from Twelve.

The blackness.

The evil.

Bunny sighed. "I guess we couldn't have got lucky with two Careers."

Nathaniel looked to her. "Luciente? What is it?"

"That's him."

Blossom frowned. "Who?"

"The blackness. The evil."

Nathaniel shuddered.

"He's out there. He's angry."

Above them, his face faded away.

Come to me brother.

Find me.

Stay with me.

It's not safe out there for you alone.


They had no prey to eat for supper, so they filled their grumbling stomachs with a few crackers and watched as the sun went down.

"We'll have to find some more food tomorrow," Bunny said, finishing her scarce few crackers. The sun was setting quickly, and their clearing was almost in darkness already because of the trees.

"There's almost nothing left from the backpacks."

Luciente nodded. She could hunt, how many times had she done that? Prey was a good supplement when no one was feeding you.

"And I don't think we can stay here for much longer. I'm worried the trees might close in so much we can't get the door open."

Nathaniel shuddered. "That's a good point."

Luciente took a bite from her last cracker and stared out into the trees. She could still feel it out there, dark, waiting.

Heaven and Bethany were still there, patiently guarding the edge of the clearing, but if the darkness came they wouldn't be enough.

"I'll take first watch," Bunny said.

"Third," said Nathaniel.

"Luciente, you okay with second?"

She nodded, popping the rest of the cracker in her mouth.

Hyperion was out there alone somewhere.

And he was so much closer to the darkness than she was.

It was angry.

And it would come.


THE FALLEN

THE FALLEN

District Five Female: Shelley Fisher. Killed by spider mutt of the arena. Placed twelfth.

This was a tricky one. Normally I hate mutt deaths, and it was a fifty-fifty decision split as to whether Shelley would survive or not. Ultimately, I decided it would be better for the plot if she died here. Shelley was kind of a difficult character for me to write at times, but she made for some interesting dynamics between herself, Azrayk and Hyperion. Thank you for her MidnightSalsa!

One Female: Nike Arellano (16) Killed by Sedge Hastings of District Twelve. Placed Eleventh.

This was another tough one, especially since we didn't get to see anywhere near enough of Nike. With that said, her role in the plot isn't over yet. SetFiresJust2WatchThemBurn, watch this space!

Twelve male: Sedge Hastings (18). Killed by Hyperion Ripley of District Ten. Placed tenth.

CURRENT ALLIANCES:

UNSTEADY ALLIANCE: Ilenia Costello [D4F]; Hyperion Ripley [D10M].

STOLEN THE TITLE OF OMEGAS: Nathaniel Volkner [D5M]; Abundance Harper [D9F]; Luciente Ripley [D10F];

LONERS: Cairn Aphelion [D2M]; Arielle Wayne [D6F]; Azrayk Blaze [D9M]; Tamika Tran [D12F]d;"Azrayk Blaze/span [D9M]; Tamika Tran [D12F]/p