Author's Note

I do not own The Hunger Games.


Nathaniel was small enough to scramble between the thick tree trunks, but Hyperion and Bunny were left with no choice other than to climb over the mass of rocks and mud. Once, he could have scrambled above into the trees or been small enough to join Nathaniel, but now he was too large for either, he could climb but the branches wouldn't hold him trying to jump between them, leaving him stuck on foot.

And all the while he could feel it under his skin, singing in his blood.

Luciente was in trouble.

Luciente was in danger.

Luciente needed him.


The boy from Two's bow appeared to be broken, which was the one blessing they had.

He did, however, still have several very sharp chakrams and many, many large stones that he kept stopping to pick up and launch at them. "You can't stay up there forever!"

Luciente fumbled with her slingshot, slotting a projective into place. "You're wrong."

His rock hit Ilenia's foot and she cried out.

"How can he be- how can he- how?"

Luciente drew the string back, lining up a shot. It flew true, but the boy dodged it neatly, his smile still in place across his face.

"Your brother was so determined to protect you! He just made it so much worse!"

Ilenia let out another wail. "Not real; you're not real; you're not real!"

The dark evil rushed across the ground, black, furious, hungering-

And then there was a flash, a streak of heat, and a new figure appeared between it and them, glowing white hot, a bow in her hand.

The girl from One, Luciente realised with a pulse of recognition. Had she been with him all this time, trying to hold him back, trying to hold him off? Had she been alone all this time?

The darkness shrieked and recoiled, shrinking back towards the boy.

And in the distance, past the forcefield, she felt life.

Reaching into her pocket, she wrapped her fingers around her warm stone. It hummed there, smooth and comforting.

She flicked the forcefield.

There was an explosion of sparks at the top of the rockslide, a flash of crackling yellow electricity and then blue as the forcefield snapped back into place.

Ilenia opened and closed her eyes. "What the fuck was that?"

Luciente smiled. "That's where we need to be."

But there was a problem standing between them and it.


The explosion went off like a farmer's flare. Nathaniel froze and Bunny stopped to stare at it with wide eyes.

"What the hell?"

"That's our signal!" Nathaniel shouted over the roaring rain.

"You can't be serious!" Bunny screamed back.

Nathaniel stared up at the forcefield, wide eyed. "There's life out there."

Hyperion kept moving, faster now. There was no time – no time no time no time notime – and they needed to be there; she needed him!

He stumbled across the rocky, muddy slush, but even now his body knew how to navigate and he found his path with his hands and feet, scrambling over it like he had once before.

"Follow the coyotes Luciente. They know how to live."

She grinned up at him, her pale eyes shining, her mouth coated in blood. "They know how to be free."

There was a flash of green above him, a flicker of yellow up by the forcefield, and ahead of him was the darkness, that cold evil that had hounded him across the arena.

They would destroy it.


People said they were evil children.

Feral.

Wicked.

Dangerous.

People said they were monsters.

Kinslayers.

Bloodstained.

Demons.

People said they were savages.

Animals.

Violent.

Insane.

They were children.

They had grown, amongst the wilds and coyotes, with the ghosts and fairies and sun and moon.

They had become hard, bold, daring, vicious.

They were feral.

They were wicked.

They were dangerous.

They weren't monsters.

They weren't evil.


She felt him, nearer and nearer.

The evil was dark, and the evil was cold, and the evil was powerful, but it was one, and they were two.

(three, if you counted nathaniel)

The girl from Two appeared by the girl from One, and she was holding her knife like she had once before in her one remaining hand, strong and fierce and burning. The boy from Four appeared slightly behind them, hesitant but unwilling to be left behind. Heaven hovered somewhere behind him. Only Bethany stayed away, flickering warm around Bunny and the forcefield.

The forcefield.

It couldn't hold.

It wouldn't hold.

Technology had always had a habit of breaking around her, lightbulbs and cameras and earpieces and tracking devices, and now she was not just one but two with Nathaniel, three with Hyperion, many if you counted the ghosts.

The forcefield wouldn't hold.

It couldn't hold.

The cold was spreading, and so too were the sparks, vivid yellow and white, and they could see the dome now, stretching up over their heads.

Was a cage a cage if you hadn't known it existed?

"Why don't you come down here and fight me instead of skulking up there like little frightened birds?"

Ilenia sucked in a breath. "Maybe I will!"

"Come on then! Come on; come on! Let's give them a fight!"

Luciente growled softly.

Hyperion appeared over the rocks and she could feel Nathaniel beneath them. Bunny was following behind them.

"You're not scared are you Four? Hiding behind all your lower District scum friends?"

"They're not scum."

More sparks.

It wouldn't last much longer.

Luciente closed her eyes, felt for the next branch, and slid downwards.

Just like in the water, she told herself. Strength and power and light, for Heaven, for the boy from Four and girl from Two, for the girl from One who must have been battling this monster all alone all this time, trying to hold it back.

She wasn't alone any more.

She never would be.

They glowed brighter.

The forcefield sparked more.

Ilenia dropped to the ground behind her.

"What are you doing?" Bunny screamed.

Luciente held her hand out for Nathaniel.

Feel it feel it feelitfeelitfeelit.

Burn strong.

Burn hot.

Burn bright.

He burned.

He had always been meant to burn.

He was like her, like Ariel, like Hyperion, pack, family, burning, glowing, shining like a fire in the darkness, glowing like the sun in the sky.

"Oh, what the hell," Bunny muttered, and climbed down behind them. She was still holding her knife, the one Luciente had given her, the one that had killed Heaven, the one the girl from Two had wielded, the one she was still wielding.

Yellow and blue and white exploded up and down the forcefield.

Ilenia screamed and rushed forwards, slashing at the boy with two of her knives. "For Nike you bastard!"

The boy, the darkness, the evil, smiled up at Hyperion. "All for her."

Hyperion snarled, bounded down the rocks on all fours, still holding his spear in one hand.

The evil burnt cold, the evil burnt strong, the evil burnt alone, and they were many. It screamed as it reached for them, a mass of shadows, bubbling, creeping over the ground even though there was nothing to cast them, and it burned as it touched them, hissing away into smoke and salt.

Nathaniel reached for her hand.

She squeezed his fingers tight.

Heaven reached for her hand.

It was warm against her skin.

Cairne parried Hyperion's blow as he lunged, twisting around them, staggering as the darkness screamed and Ilenia slashed a deep cut down his arm. Hyperion swung the spear again, and he swung back, the blade biting deep into Hyperion's forearm.

Warm blood gushed over his skin.

His spear drove deep into the boy's shoulder. He roared, twisting, and drove his own slender blade deep into Hyperion's leg. He stumbled, staggered as his knee buckled and Cairne ripped his word free.

"Outer District filth. Your sister's pretty though."

Ilenia screamed, swung her own spear back, and drove it straight through the boy's throat.

The darkness screamed, howled, recoiled, shrank in on itself.

There was a booming explosion of white and blue and yellow, and the world burnt.

Blue and pink and green and yellow and brown and white.