Later in the day, she wakes up and rises to the surface.
"Time to continue looking for that treasure." Rae makes her way back to the stormy seas.
It doesn't take long for her to encounter another tribute, however.
This one tribute looks like she is out to get Rae, because aggressively, the girl with the number 3 on her uniform is trying to get her hands on Rae.
"Hey, fuck off!" Rae calls her off.
The girl from Three wearing an Aquus struggles against Rae. They are about the same size, and Rae can tell that the girl looks about fourteen, the age she drowned Aveline.
So… is it time for history to repeat itself? Not that she would normally like to drown just any fourteen-year-old, but one: Aveline is annoying for not letting her be the queen, and two: She needed to drown the boy from Twelve to win. The latter is applicable for a third use case, and you know what they say: Third time's the charm!
Rae goes for the Three girl's neck.
Three kicks Rae on the chest, unexpectedly forcing Rae to let go.
Rae doesn't give up though. She didn't win this vest for nothing!
The girl from Three only has an Aquus after all, and yet, she tries to stab Rae on the neck.
Only for Rae to dodge it and the girl to miss. Rae then uses this opportunity to vengefully kick her in the chest as well.
The girl struggles, and now Rae tries to find her knife. She grabs it out, and before she can even stab, the girl is faster than her, surprisingly.
The girl takes out another knife and aims for Rae's chest.
But she has a vest, surely she can't-
She can, and she just did.
Rae can feel her chest opening up, but it is merely a surface level slice or stab. She doesn't bleed too much. It doesn't reach her heart.
The girl tries again.
But Rae dodges it yet again!
"Fuck off!" Rae repeats.
The girl doesn't respond. She simply keeps trying.
Rae is not going down without a fight, so she takes out her knife as well and goes for the girl's arm, to weaken her.
The girl's arm gets a long gash, but not a deep one. It causes her to flinch though.
This gives Rae the opening like going for her chest, but that's too good to be true. She instead kicks the girl with all her might. That's how they dive deeper down the sea.
The girl manages to stab Rae on her left foot though.
Rae winces in pain, and so she puts the girl in a chokehold as revenge.
The girl is able to free herself yet again. You think you can suffocate me? Think again!
Rae uses her knife again, this time going after the girl's leg.
She doesn't dodge it, but she also manages to stab Rae at the back.
And fortunately for Rae, she is able to stab the girl on the leg again, on the same spot too.
The girl can feel pain, but she keeps going.
Rae remembers how she killed the boy from Twelve! She simply had to remove-
The girl is now unbuckling Rae's vest.
But the girl is also vulnerable, as Rae tries to pull the Aquus off of her.
Only for her to miss, but the girl also hasn't finished removing Rae's vest.
Rae tries to put it back.
But the girl uses her head to attack her.
As Rae is off guard, the only thing on her mind now is to pull off the girl's Aquus. Oh but now she has a better idea. She will go deep, deep down where the girl won't have enough time to rise up for air.
As expected, the girl follows her down.
Perfect. Rae makes a sharp U-turn and uses her head to attack the girl from Three to retaliate.
The girl flinches.
Now Rae has the chance to draw her knife and swipe it at the girl's-
The girl twirls away with her propeller. She twirls deeper into the abyss.
Sure! Why not? Rae follows her down deeper, but she's gonna have her guard up this time in case she uses the same strategy. Rae is a warrior. She doesn't go down without a fight, and this girl is helping her prove her status here.
The girl just keeps going deeper and deeper, until they reach the bottom of the abyss. Now she has nowhere to go.
"You can run, but you can't hide!" Rae warns. Now at the bottom of the abyss, Rae swipes her knife near her to intimidate.
The girl dodges, thinking it was a real attack.
But it isn't, as Rae continues swiping, landing a hit on the girl's cheek.
But that doesn't stop her! This time, she uses her head to go against Rae's.
"Ow!" Rae doesn't see it coming.
This gives the girl from Three the opportunity to unbuckle one strap of the vest, before kicking her into the abyss.
But she doesn't go deeper. Rae is on the floor getting unbuckled yet again. She can't lose this vest!
Third time she does it, Rae uses her bag to knock her off.
Rae quickly buckles back her vest.
But the girl does it to her as well. She re-unbuckles Rae's vest and does her best to strangle her, wrestle her, strip her of the best, do anything just to kill her.
Rae is a fighter. She will compete to the very end, to her last breath.
Rae is a warrior. She will die trying. She will die fighting.
Rae is a queen. She will triumph over this bitch from Three and place herself on top of the girl.
She does that for a moment, and then she gets a knife to the chest.
The girl struggles with Rae for her vest, but in her weakened state, it doesn't take too much to take it off of Rae.
"Toodles," she says, swimming up with it.
Without an Aquus or an aqua vest, Rae is just gurgling the water of the deep sea. She gets a flashback of Aveline, and how she drowned her for the crown. This time, she can recall it being the other way around. She can imagine Aveline being a siren of sorts as she cackles, showing her razor sharp teeth, before continuing to drown Rae.
Ugh…
She's drowning, and it's deeper here than the river she drowned Aveline in. She was diving into the deep, and now she is such a fool to cause her own demise like this.
Karma is a bitch.
Just like that, Rae wakes up and exits the virtual world. She's back in the lab, remembering all the water going inside her system. She was drowning, and lucky for her, this death isn't real. It was simulated for a historic tradition.
Rae should consider herself lucky she didn't actually die from drowning.
Further tests are being done by a few lab assistants in the room, before they let her go, in time for dinner too.
That night, she has dinner with her fellow tributes who were just eliminated – the boy from Three and the girl from Five. Everybody else who was eliminated earlier has been sent home.
During this time, Rae gets to know the girl from Five. Her name is Nebula, and she scored a bunch of kills, which include a bloodbath kill, Hera from one, and Rubie. Rae then realizes why she looks oddly familiar. They've seen each other during the pre-games, but now Rae can remember seeing Nebula naked from a back view.
It turns out that the reward from Trial of Tide was a device that allowed the user to teleport based on the position of the moon. It was a tricky device according to Nebula, but what really did her in was the Trial of Thunder. When she was successful in finally landing herself atop the Storm Cloud, there was something of a boss fight. If she wins against it, she wins an electric weapon, which she was intending to use in the finale, but alas, she died fighting off a storm cloud.
Must've been more epic than being drowned in the abyss, Rae thinks.
One by one, the eliminated tributes are being interviewed. Rae's interview went smoothly. Her success in the abyss is discussed, and if asked if she has any regrets, she says she has none, although she wishes taking home the crown, to feel truly like a queen.
After her interview, she learns from the following interview that the boy from Three won the Trial of Honey, whatever that is. Rae never encountered it, but after collecting seven hex puzzle pieces and then putting them together for the queen, he got something of a bee suit, allowing him to fly short distances while also allowing him to stick on honey surfaces, which he can spawn after a certain amount of time.
Turns out, he died losing to the ally Rae abandoned. Rae can't be more proud of Angela for her to get this close to the finale. Part of her hopes she wins, while a part of her also hopes her district partner wins, considering he's still in it too, surprisingly for Rae.
Life back home has been pretty normal. She doesn't have the victor's crown herself. She continues to work day in day out in the fields. She continues to live loving her family. She continues to find peace within herself.
Aveline is still dead.
Rae is glad that it doesn't haunt her, but the feeling of being drowned doesn't feel good, and having drowned not one but two people in her life at the age of seventeen… she probably deserved it.
From time to time, she would check her social media, keeping in touch with some of the fellow tributes she had made friends with during the Hunger Games. In five months, she would meet them for the reunion, and while it's still months away, she's looking forward to it.
Rae's life goes back to normal. It's pretty simple. Having the experience diving into the deep, she not only has disgust with water now, but she hates the feeling of drowning. Despite that, she is impressed how she was able to win the tool from the abyss. She never had that Rae of sunlight shone at her before.
