Author's Note: Just a brief thank-you to my reviewers—Lord Axxingtons, White Weasel, Obiwanlivesforever, and Lilac Winters21!

Klavier hits the ground without dislodging the weapon. When the spearhead is completely buried in his abdomen, it's not mystifying.

"Klavier!" Before I can get any closer to him, Aristotle tears the spear back out, nearly dumping my ally headfirst into the stream in the process. I catch Klavier's shoulders before he can flop forward any more. Considering the choked, gasping sounds coming from him, he's not dead yet, but that wound is bleeding badly.

Teeth gritted in fear, I flash my gaze back to the 6, who's just now aiming the spear my way. My hand goes for the sword handle—if I try to deflect it bare-handed, this situation could end even worse than it already is. I manage to block Aristotle's weapon with the broad side of my blade, but he recovers quickly. The next jab isn't aimed at me, though.

It clangs off the side of Simon's handcuff just before the 2 snaps his other wrist forward, sending the metal links crashing into Aristotle's teeth.

The 6 immediately steps back, a hand flying to his bleeding mouth. He barely gives us another look before fleeing into the trees.

Simon stands poised with his hand above his hilt before straightening up. "Hmph. The blood of such a coward isn't worthy of staining my blade."

Pulse pounding in my temples, I shakily sheathe my sword and look back at Klavier. He's slumped to the ground, propped up on one elbow a little bit. He's still breathing, but he's still bleeding.

I have to... I have to pack the wound, right, when it's this deep? Or something?

"Hang on." I kneel down, setting my backpack in front of me and getting the package of bandages out.

Once he tilts his head enough to see what I'm doing, he grunts. "Save it."

"Are you kidding?" I open the plastic covering. "People can survive with some pretty bad wounds, you know—"

"Save it!" He scowls before his face relaxes. "You're not going to be able to help me. I've been climbing the stairway to heaven for a long while now—even if we stop the bleeding, I'm... not going to make it."

"Wh-what?" Robin has come up on his other side, Athena and Juniper behind her. "What are you talking about?"

He either clears his throat poorly or chokes in pain. "I assume it's the head injury. I don't know exactly what happened, but... I'm sure you all noticed that I've had headaches and my sense of balance is gone. But that's not where the damage stopped... I've been... slowly losing control of my body. Legs, arms, eyes, hands... It's been hard enough today just to keep my words from slurring. Whatever happened has been getting worse, and there's no question I would die from it." He coughs, and the edges of his teeth are suddenly red. "Not that this is very much fun, either."

You… You've been dying…? This whole time? How did you keep that from all of us? How did I not figure it out? Surely he had some nervous twitches about this—

But he couldn't have twitched if he can't control fine movements…!

Athena did pick up on his panic, but, to think, he kept his secret so tightly guarded. Beneath a smile, even. A Gavin family trait, I guess.

Klavier put it to much better use.

"There's no way!" Athena's fists are clenched, although Widget is a deep blue. "You're telling me you have a million sponsors, but they can't send something to save you? I don't believe it! Apollo! Give me the bandages. I'll fix this up myself."

"Do you think I would've thrown myself into that spear if I could have recovered from this?" snaps Klavier. "Certainly not if I could've helped it. It should've been clear there's something wrong with me after I got that head wound, but no medicine was sent. And m' brother may not be an angel, but he wouldn't let me die like this 'f he could help it."

I swallow, remembering Trucy frantically checking Ema's pulse. "So you think you needed surgery."

Hugh stares down at him. "And it would be foolish to trust any teenagers with the task of performing an operation on your brain, expensive tools supplied or otherwise."

Klavier shuts his eyes. "Show's over. Now the seats're all empty... Let the roadies take the stage..." He hacks again, almost sitting up from the effort before whimpering and lying back down.

"Here!" Athena reaches underneath him to get at his pouch and the pill bottle inside. "If you're going to... Never mind, just—" She fumbles with the lid.

"Nein." The 7 waves an arm at her. " 'll be dead before..." I can't make out the rest of the sentence, but I think I can figure it out easily enough. He knows very well how long those painkillers take to act.

Athena lowers the bottle, hand still clamped on the lid. That's when the parachute lands near Hugh. The donation is in sight before the cloth obscures it, and Athena snaps up the syringe before anyone else can reach for it. She looks it over before inhaling choppily and taking the cover off the tip.

"Klavier?" She nudges her way past Trucy and kneels by his side. "It's all going to be okay now." She scrunches up his jacket sleeve, revealing several bruises she doesn't comment on as she tries to find the right place to insert the needle. Robin helps her out, and the clear liquid is gone from the syringe in a few seconds. Klavier starts to relax almost immediately. I imagine it must have been the highest quality painkiller money could buy. There's nothing else for his sponsors to spend it on.

I realize I'm gritting my teeth to keep from crying. This is the best we can do. I've done everything that I could for him. I even tried to prevent this, but this is what he wanted. Nothing to blame myself for. But what a horrible way to be dying, and to finally die... And all for what? He kept his friend out of the Games from the beginning, but he didn't make it out alive.

Is that really it? No victories? Even if I have tried to help, what difference does it make to him now? What does it matter that I have Phoenix's badge if I can't put it to good use? But what else can I really do? It's just about being trustworthy, and trusting in each other to the end.

I do trust Klavier. Death wish or not, he got me away from that spearhead, and, honestly, he hasn't been that bad a guy. I'm kind of ashamed I was so completely suspicious of him in training and the first days, just because...

Just because of his...

It hits me. The self-sacrifice and constant aid to earn his allies' trust rightfully. The fear of having killed someone, even someone who attacked him. Maybe he could really be that good of a guy, but... For him to panic so much about possibly, inadvertently causing a killer to die by someone else's hand...

I fist my hands, pulling them back. "Klavier! For what it's worth... You're nothing like your brother."

Hand draped across his wound, he gets out a surprisingly clear laugh and manages to smile until his cannon fires.

Juniper's group of friends has clustered further upstream. They're not taking it as hard when they didn't know Klavier as well, so they're sorting through his supplies to see who gets to carry what now. Simon, standing between the two groups, offers to carry the chains since such a weight is nothing new to him, anyway.

Athena, Trucy, and I aren't too far upstream of where the last tribute died. This is a good spot to refill our water bottles and canteens. I guess they'll fill up Klavier's over there when they get to it.

Trucy just stares at the water's rippling surface, while Athena can't stop fidgeting.

"You guys doing okay?"

"Mmm-hmm." Trucy nods. "As okay I could be. Athena?"

She covers an ear with her free hand. "Yeah... I'm okay."

My wrist tenses. "You know you can talk to us, right?"

"Of course! There's just... nothing wrong, besides the obvious."

Trucy, eyes fixed on her, frowns. "Athena. Your hand has brushed your throat both times you told us that. Can you please tell us what's on your mind?"

Ah, is that what her twitch was? I was looking at the wrong spot.

The 3 sighs quietly, gripping her arm. "I... I just... RAAGH!" With a cry, she picks up a smaller rock and hurls it across the stream and into the grove beyond. "I hate not being able to do anything about this! I've studied psychology so I can finally help people, but it doesn't even matter here! We're just going to keep dying whatever happens, and I... I might as well not be here at all...!" Eyes and teeth clenched, she hunches over, shivering.

"That's not true!" I try to catch her eye. "Of course you don't deserve to be here, but you've done us good. You helped out Robin before we even set foot into the arena, and I'm sure he's not the only one. Even here... you haven't spent much time with this alliance yet, but you're still looking after us. And none of us could keep Klavier from dying, but you were still the one who tried to take away his pain—and you did."

"I know it may not seem like much in the face of all of this—people dying, people being seriously hurt..." Trucy clenches her fists. "But that doesn't make you useless! It's a hard situation to work with, but that's not your fault! And just because you don't have all of the equipment doesn't mean you can't stage a good show." She holds out her palm, my badge sitting plainly on display. "See?"

I slouch. "You've... got to stop taking that, Trucy."

She pouts, fists against her hips. "I needed some visual aid, and I wasn't about to take something of Athena's when she's so upset!"

"Fine. Can I have it back, though?"

"Sure."

By the time I fix the pin on my shirt, Athena is smiling.

"Thanks, you guys. I needed that."

"No problem." I rest my bracelet wrist on the rocks. "We all need some assurance sometimes."

"And it feels like it's been ages since I've done a trick." Trucy folds her arms, gazing at the clouds. "Maybe I could do a full show tonight. The viewers would love it, right?" She bounces a little, grinning. "They sure enjoyed my magic panties on interview night!"

"You... didn't smuggle those in here, right...?" I sweat.

"Of course not. But I have plenty of other tricks up my sleeve!"

I cross my arms, smiling. "I'm sure you do."

Eyes on the back of Athena's head, I pause. Her tell was touching her throat? What does that have to do with being helpful? Breathing? Swallowing? Her voice? What's in her past that would make her equate those things...?

Now's... not a great time to ask. We have enough to deal with already.

I toss an iodine tablet into my full bottle and screw the cap on.