We got one more addition! Please welcome Nadia Nette!

Nadia Nette POV

Did I win? I was in a hospital bed in the Capitol. There was a Capitolite man by my bedside, which was a little weird. He was watching me while I was sleeping. Gross.

"Good morning," the man said.

"It's done, right?" I asked. I pushed the blankets aside and stood up. The man looked concerned and stood up next to me.

"Careful, you just got up," he said.

"It's okay. It's all over now. I won," I said.

"You didn't win. You died," the man said. My head snapped toward him and my heart flipped. What was that supposed to mean? I was a ghost? This was the afterlife? The room tilted around me and me knees smacked into the floor. I barely caught myself before my head splatted against the tiles.

"Are you all right? I told you you should have stayed in bed," the man said. Two nurses came in and scooped me back into bed.

"I'm dead," I whispered. The man was saying something about another Games, but I wasn't listening. I didn't think anything could be worse than the Games, but I was wrong.

Akari Igneous POV

Someone knocked on my door. When I answered, a woman silently handed me an envelope and left. I opened it to find a typed letter.

Miss Igneous,

I do hope you're pleased to have been selected to participate in my latest project. Most of the entrants were chosen by a panel of gamemakers. I intervened in only one case: yours. Of course I watched your first performance carefully, and I noted a number of promising characteristics. You are resourceful, driven, merciless, pragmatic, and flawlessly self-controlled, traits valuable for both Tributes and rulers. I was surprised you didn't win, and I suspect things may end differently this time. Of course I musn't intervene, and of course you wouldn't want me to, but I don't think I'll have to. I do hope you return and I hope this is only the beginning of a fruitful relationship.

The note was signed, in sparse cursive, "Luperca Galba". I hadn't expected it, and it certainly gave me a boost of confidence. If I didn't already have a token- a black ball from my sisters- I would have taken it into the Arena with me. It seemed I had friends in high places, and I didn't want to disappoint them.

Rapture Kai POV

It was going to be a madhouse in the Training Room. Usually the Careers only practiced what they already knew and tried to intimidate the outliers. This time we were all Careers. It was practically a waste of time. I knew I'd spent most of my training time goofing off with Diamond. We didn't have much time together, and I wanted to make the most of it.

When we got to the training room, there was a single man standing in the center. The stations looked sparser than usual, and there weren't any attendants manning them. We all murmured to each other as we sat in three rows of chairs.

"Welcome, Tributes. As you can see, things are a little different this year. All of you are already highly trained in weaponry and fighting, so more training would be redundant. If you wish to refine or practice your skills, the Training Room facilities are available to you. If you wish to learn another skill, tell me and I will arrange for a top-notch tutor. A general class on attracting sponsors is also available. Finally, should you be confident in your skills or wish to spend more time with your mentor, you need not participate in training at all," the man said.

Now we're talking. I'd be happy to just prowl tha Games center with Diamond until the fighting started. She might say we should use our time more productively, though. She was always so practical. If she did, I'd make the best of it. I'd keep trying to distract her, of course. All work and no play is no way to live.

Steel Keshmin POV

"You're going to want to train, of course," Pray said as we discussed strategy in my room. I had been planning to, but something about her tone didn't sit right with me.

"Why?" I asked. She smiled.

"The Careers have changed a bit since you last fought. It's not like the Academy. These girls trained night and day to do nothing but kill," she said.

"What, and I never trained?" I asked. Did she take me on out of pity? We didn't sit around eating donuts at the Academy. We were Panem's finest, trained to keep the peace and take down anyone who was a threat.

"Sure, you trained. You trained to hold a gun and tighten handcuffs. There aren't any guns in the Games," Pray said. When I'd first seen the other Tributes, I had been intimidated. But I wasn't anymore. I was just mad. Peacekeepers put their lives on the line to keep people like her safe, even if she didn't need it. She was disrespecting everything I'd worked all my life for, and I'd had enough.

I stomped to the door and stood in front of it. It was a standard metal door with two sets of sturdy hinges and no visible lock. Pray was about to make some comment, probably about me running away, when I made my move. I raised my leg at the knee and slammed it into the door between the two sets of hinges. There was a splintering crack as the force tore the drywall beside the door and the door crashed to the ground, raising a cloud of dust. I whirled around and glared at Pray, whose eyebrows had raised even when her body hadn't.

"Well poor little weakling me. What am I going to do?"

Training would be pretty redundant for this group, so you get some more input. Your Tributes can learn a skill- anything from basket weaving to semaphore. They can go to the sponsorship class and learn how to get more sponsors, since sponsors usually favor Careers but this time they're all Careers. They can practice or pick up a new skill in the conventional training room, or they can goof off and get their screentime in the general Games Building. Anything to shake up the usual formula and keep things fresh.