Author's Note: Thanks again to my three reviewers! This project takes a lot of my time, so I'll take all the feedback and advertisement I can get, haha.

"It's no good if you end up dropping all of it! Here, I can at least carry yours for a minute." Athena seizes the yellow backpack with a 2 on it, and Simon can't stop her with his arms full.

The weight of the bag, however, can.

"Oof!" She stumbles forward, the bag hitting the rocks with a clanking rattle before she hauls it back up to her stomach level. "What on earth is in here?"

"I haven't peered inside yet. I only took enough time to confirm that the other was for my sister."

I grip an exposed root for balance as we go ahead. "There was no reason to stick around too long, I guess. We weren't even sure who those cannons were for."

"Herr Rimes and—" Klavier lowers his voice as he looks to Hugh—"your district partner, I suppose."

"Hm." Hugh keeps looking ahead. "It's not like I knew the girl personally."

I guess district partners don't have to be allies or friends, after all. Still, it's hard to believe they didn't even try to get to know each other. But, I guess if Hugh thought she was beneath him...

"What happened to the boy from 4, though?" Juniper doesn't look much less troubled. "He seemed very strong."

Trucy leans forward. "It was probably that explosion."

"Yeah, wasn't Ted trying to warn him about it?" I add. "He must have set it up himself."

"Really?" Klavier catches up to me. "He ran straight into a trap his own teammate had set up? How do you figure that?"

I scrunch my eyebrows together. "Well, he could have been elsewhere when the trap was set up. I know I wouldn't want to be around someone rigging explosives if it wasn't completely necessary."

"That's possible," he concedes. "But surely he would tell his own teammates where the trap was."

"Yeah, but... Marlon could have forgotten?" I stop myself from pushing my hair spikes back. "I mean, he must have been chasing after the 9 girl, right? In the heat of the moment, he could have overlooked it."

Klavier hits the rock behind him with the side of his fist. "But why set a trap in the first place if you're going to run after the tributes, anyway? It's dangerous, and it defeats the purpose of laying a trap. Surely the Careers are better strategists than that."

I glance at Robin, who has taken the paint-stained headband out of her gift bag, before looking back at him. "Fine, then what do you think happened?"

"Either a different tribute set up the trap and Herr Tonate happened to spot it first, or our mad bomber had decided to turn against his teammates. I can't say it would be wise, but the field has thinned, and he could always seek weaker allies."

I shut my eyes for a second. "Turn against them? Now?" The Career pack has dropped in number pretty quickly, I have to admit. "But he wouldn't risk something like that when an alliance as large as ours is around, right? Especially when we have our own Career—" I glance at Simon—"of sorts."

"But did Herr Bomber have any idea where his lost teammates had rambled on to? Fräulein?" He smiles at Athena. "Did you give them any reason to think you were approaching us when you left?"

She frowns as Simon hands her her box from the feast. "No. They barely even knew we were leaving."

"There. He had no idea our alliance was so large, and he was confident enough that he could take on smaller groups—especially by snaring them in traps!"

Is... that really it? It's certainly less for us to worry about if the Career pack is completely broken up like that.

"I feel like we're missing something." Trucy looks over at Robin and Hugh, who seem to be discussing their district gifts, before staring ahead. "What exactly was it that happened again?"

"Exactly? I can't say, really; I only know what I heard." I pause before giving a start. "That's right!"

I point at Klavier. "Ted called out to stop him from running into the explosion! Why would he compromise his position if he wanted Marlon dead?"

He falls silent at that. Apollo: 1, Klavier: 0.

"So, if he didn't set it up, some other tribute must have, right?" Trucy looks to the trio. "I guess it wasn't any of you."

"Of course not." Hugh glances back at us. "While it would be an excellent idea, I'm certain that there was only one large set of explosives at the Cornucopia. There were a few other chemicals that may well do the trick, but nothing that would do as much damage as what happened at the feast. He wouldn't have used every bomb he had, but I'm sure they're meant to pack a punch."

"Someone could have stolen some," Trucy suggests. "Your district partner seemed pretty sneaky, after all."

He tilts his chin up with a smugger look. "If she did have the brains to pull off that kind of heist, she wouldn't have run straight into her own trap."

"Furthermore, that boy was very protective of his belongings," says Simon. "Combined with the typical security of the Career pack, no other tribute would be able to steal those incendiaries."

"And we've already decided that the Gamemakers wouldn't set a trap just outside the feast." Klavier points at me this time. "So no one but Herr Bomber could have caused that explosion!"

"I..." Is that true? I was so sure I was onto something. "But you still haven't explained why he would warn Marlon about the explosives if he didn't want to kill him!"

He grins. "Who can say? Perhaps he merely wanted to keep the other Career from knowing he had turned on them. Or do you really think it's more rational for Herr Rimes to have suddenly forgotten where the trap was?"

I mean, I doubt he was scatterbrained enough for that; he seemed coherent enough in his interview. So unless he was just that grieved about his district partner's death, or if something else happened—

Something—! Something else did happen!

I slam my fists down. "Actually, that's a completely rational possibility! You wouldn't expect a person to forget something that important, but Marlon had a head injury so bad he had to keep it bandaged up! Couldn't he have had memory or thought issues after that?"

Klavier flinches back.

"Now that I think about it, who was it that attacked you during the bloodbath?" I fold my arms.

He's sweating visibly. "Marlon..."

"So you know very well how hard he was hit—hard enough to send blood splashing across your jacket, no less. Would a resulting brain injury really be that hard to believe?"

"No..."

"All right, hold it!" Athena climbs down between us. "No matter who's responsible, the fact of the matter is that Marlon was killed because he was trying to murder another tribute. He... deserved it, okay?"

"Right..." Klavier swallows.

W-wait... I thought he was just distressed about losing the argument, but I guess I've more or less said Marlon died because of that injury he dealt.

"Whoa, whoa." I hold my palms up. "I-I'm not trying to push the blame on you, or anything like that! I'm just..."

I... What am I trying to do?

"Just trying to get at the truth." He shuffles the chain on his shoulder. "Not one bit of shame in that."

I'm not sure what to say, so I go with:

"Uh, thanks."

I clamber ahead in silence for a minute before I'm suddenly hit with the significance of what Hugh said. As far as the limited explosives—sure, fine. But more importantly, he saw something at the bloodbath that I didn't. And if there's one thing, there could very well be another.

Gripping the straps of my backpack, I hurry forward to catch up with the 9.

"Hey, Hugh?"

He gets a sideways glimpse of me and adjusts to make room. "Yes?"

"During the bloodbath, did you happen to see—" my mouth suddenly feels dry, but I don't stop—"who killed Clay?"

"Clay, huh?" He falls silent, shutting his eyes for a moment. "No, I don't believe I caught a glimpse of him until after you had."

He watches me, and I flick my gaze down. So that means he saw me trying to save a dead man, huh?

"All right. Then..." I pull my backpack off one shoulder and find the usual pocket. "Did you see anyone holding this knife before that?"

He looks it over before shaking his head. "Nothing with a blade that small, I'm afraid. I take it you don't know any more than I do."

"N-no." I grimace.

Juniper falls back to my other side, frowning despite the skein of red and pink yarn in her hand. "What's wrong?"

I straighten myself out. "Oh, nothing—I'm fine; I just wanted to know if any of you had seen Clay at the bloodbath."

She gazes down, her left hand resting just below her mouth. "I was... preoccupied with some other things, so I didn't see much of anyone." She looks back at me, frowning. "I'm sorry."

"It's nothing to apologize about!" I steer the knife closer to her. "So I guess you didn't see this, either?"

"No..." She stares ahead suddenly. "Robin?"

The 11 "boy" turns around. "What are we looking at?"

I let out a breath. "This is the knife that killed Clay. Do you recognize it?"

She scrutinizes it, but I can tell in her eyes what she's going to say before she does. "No luck." She rubs under her eyes like she's trying not to cry. "And no idea who would do such a terrible thing to Clay, either! I'm sure he even made friends with some of the Careers."

"That would come as no surprise to me." Suppressing a sigh, I put the knife back. "Thanks for your help, anyway."

"No P-R-O-B!"

None of them had any tells, either... Though I guess it would be harder on me if they did. I still can't figure out what Athena would be lying about.

I... I don't know. But there has to be some way to find the truth, and I swear I'm going to. For Clay, for everyone he's been a friend to. I have to get to the bottom of this.

Somehow.