After Athena has cried herself out and confirmed she'll still be carrying me, we get going. The journey's a little rough, but, thanks to some previous mudslide, we find a clear path to the false summit. The trees aren't dense, but they're enough to obscure us.

I haven't even done any climbing, and I'm still exhausted... I might end up collapsing face-first again...

I still get to work setting up a sleeping bag. "Athena, I can take your watch tonight. You could use the rest."

She twists the end of her ponytail between her fingertips. "So could you. Don't worry about it. It's easier for me to be active than try to rest, anyway."

"Isn't that all the more reason to make sure you get enough sleep?" Juniper frowns, eyebrows tilted outward. "Neither of you has to take a shift tonight. The four of us can handle it, right?"

"Right!" Trucy and Robin respond in unison, while Hugh gives a curt nod.

I accidentally sigh in relief. "Thanks... I don't know if I could pull it off, honestly."

"Then why did you offer to?!" Athena clenches her fists. "That could be dangerous for all of us!"

I cringe back, a jolt going through my shoulder. "S-sorry..."

Exhaling, she rubs her arm. "You're just trying to help... I know."

"Anyway, let's get everything laid out so you two can start resting properly." Trucy eyes the horizon. "We probably don't have enough time to find more food..."

"That's all right," Juniper says, reaching into her bag. "We still have a few things that should be plenty for tonight. Thena, here." She pulls out something and offers it to her.

Necklace still dark blue, Athena takes it and turns it around in her hand. "Is it a tangerine or an orange?"

"It's an orange!" The 11 smiles. "My grandma says... that orange is the color of strength and endurance. I can help you peel it if you want."

"No, I'll be good. Thanks, Junie." She shuts her eyes for a second, clutching the orange to her chest with tears in her eyes. Then she straightens up and starts digging her nails under the peel.

Juniper hands me another one before splitting up the rest among Trucy and the others. I'm not sure if I have the energy to eat this... But I'm hungry enough, and I'm sure I can handle a single orange.

I still only manage to claw at it a few times before my hand starts sending out shooting pains, at which point Juniper rushes to my aid. I have a feeling she still hasn't forgiven herself for "causing" my injuries.

The alliance remains silent as we chew our food and see the Capitol seal flash in the sky. Athena watches Simon's face come and go without a word.

This must have been hard on her, but she's trying so much to keep up her usual pace. I don't know if it's for her sake or ours. Maybe both.

What was she even saying while she was trying to revive him? Something about saving him "this time"? When did she fail to save him before? He's clearly alive now—w-well... not now, but... a little before. So she couldn't have been referring to his life.

Unless she meant the death sentence...? Did she try to save him from that? If he's that important to her, I'd certainly believe it. I don't think she believed for a minute that he killed her mother, either. If she did, she had forgiven him astoundingly completely. I don't think she would have been willing to lay down her life for him after that. Did she know who actually did it, then...?

Well, I certainly can't ask her now. She's in no condition to think about something that traumatic—and maybe she never will be.

There was something else that she said that seemed weird... Something about having done some terrible things. What on earth could she have meant by that? Just that incidence of failing to save Simon before? Or something else?

Suddenly I remember the 2 speaking to me in the Training Center.

"So then, what will you do? Struggle against every last one of us in the faint hope that you may live? Or will you work together with me, with Cykes-dono, with others, to save the life of an innocent girl?"

...! Why did my bracelet react at "innocent"...?

Was that... Did he know something she had done? What?

Did it have anything to do with his conviction? With her mother's death?

Did... D-did she... kill—?!

No! That's not right! There's no way she could have killed her own mother. Just because she was certain Simon didn't do it doesn't mean she was the culprit. She probably trusted him, or heard his innocence in his words. That's all. I'm sure mentioning those "terrible things" was just her beating herself up.

I mean, I may not know her that well, strictly speaking, but she's not a killer. I don't think she would have been a few years ago, either. If she was that kind of person, she certainly would have killed someone in the Hunger Games of all places by now, and—

"I've never seen it, sorry."

A throb goes through my wrist as I stiffen.

But that... that doesn't mean that she killed Clay! She could have been lying because she saw it and didn't remember enough to tell me.

But if she didn't remember at all, how was she aware that she was lying...? She wouldn't have tensed up otherwise, right?

I... I mean, it is a possibility... But—! This is Athena we're talking about! She's an incredibly caring person! She tries to help her allies as best as she can—she even carried me all the way over here when it would have been a lot easier to leave me to die!

"It's all right, Vera." Kristoph smiled. "I'll do everything I can to keep you safe."

My breath catches in my throat as I catch myself shaking. People play-act. People try to earn trust by being altruistic when that's just a means to their murderous ends. Isn't that what I suspected Klavier of?

Did I... Have I been mistrusting the wrong person all along...?!

I... I... don't... know...

I'm fine I'm fine I'm fine! I'm just exhausted and not thinking straight and I need to sleep. I need to go to sleep right now—!

"Apollo?" Trucy pulls her sleeping bag closer to me. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." It's so close to a whimper I doubt I've been less convincing in my life. "I just..." I cup a hand over my injured eye. Why did Athena have an unconscious reaction to that knife? What would she be lying about?

"Is it hurting?" My district partner leans towards me. "I can look at it if you want."

"Ah!" I lower my arm slowly. "Sorry. It's... not really my eye."

"Oh..." She puts her hands together, looking down before facing me again. "Polly, we're still friends, right?"

I have the urge to sit up, but I don't think it would be worth it. "Of course we are."

She doesn't brighten up just yet. "So you know you can talk to me, right?"

"Right." Letting out a breath, I shut my eyes. "It's nothing, though. I'm just exhausted and thinking strange things, and it's scaring me. I'll be fine in the morning."

"If you say so." She smiles, reaching towards me before pausing. Apparently deciding it will hurt me the least, she pats me on the forehead. "Sleep tight!"

"You, too."

I don't sleep tight at all. It's not so much the injuries—although the medicine is still wearing off—as my own thoughts. Could Athena have really killed Clay? I refuse to believe it—but I can't just trust her blindly, can I? Not when so much is at stake. With only one Career left, almost all further conflict would have to come from within our group, and how are Juniper, Robin, and Hugh going to achieve their dream if our group falls apart? And... Clay was my friend...

I still don't know much about his death. There's the knife. Not one made for throwing. For it to successfully hit his heart, the attacker must have been trying to kill him. Athena was the only one in my alliance who recognized it at all.

And then I have the jacket. The only scratch is the one that was over his heart. No failed swipes. The attack was too fast and precise for him to fight back. And since he was stabbed in the front, it must have been someone he didn't think he would have to fight. Someone he had befriended.

Am I... on the right track? Does that all make some kind of sense? Am I jumping to conclusions? Am I so suspicious of my friend that I'm just trying to find reasons to accuse her? What am I doing? What am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to figure this out?

I'm on the brink of driving myself mad when it's time for Trucy's watch. Once Hugh is asleep, I ask her what she saw at the bloodbath.

"Not all that much. It was pretty hard to track down the throwing knives. I did see the girl from 4, although I didn't know what Ema was carrying at the time." She frowns. "I remember Sasha looking kind of surprised when the blade went in. And then, um... Later, the girl from 12 was running for Athena with a mace before Simon forced her back."

"Hold it!" I sit straight up and grunt in pain. "You... You saw Athena?"

Startled, she leans back. "Yes. Why?"

"What else—" gah, my stupid back—"do you remember about her?"

"Well..." She folds her arms loosely. "I don't think she had been hit on the head at that point. Um, I don't remember her carrying anything."

"What did she do after Simon forced the other girl back?"

She frowns. "I don't know. I picked up the shield and went looking for you then."

So that was a little while into things, huh? In that case, Athena not holding anything doesn't give me any more information, especially when the wound wasn't bleeding much. Shoot...

"Hang on a second... You said Simon forced the other girl back? With his katana?"

She shakes her head. "He hadn't even drawn it yet. He just hit her bare-handed."

"And she came back?"

"She must have, if what Aura said was true."

"Something about having to kill that girl so you wouldn't get your skull crushed in?"

I frown. "Wasn't she saying he lost sleep over it, too?"

Her hands fold together. "Yeah..."

"That's kind of strange, isn't it? I know he's not—um, wasn't, I mean—a traditional Career, but..." My brow furrows. "Was that his only kill?"

"If he didn't even have his sword out, I don't think he would have gotten anyone else at the bloodbath, and he hasn't killed anyone while we've been with him. I don't know about in-between, though."

Huh... Surely he's had plenty of chances the whole time, right? It's strange that he wouldn't have had his sword ready at the bloodbath. And he was definitely going easy on me in our battle, seeing as he didn't off me in three seconds like he did that mutt. And he didn't even suggest killing me right after I was injured and holding everyone back, including Athena...

I grip the cover of my sleeping bag so hard it makes my arms throb as I realize it.

"Simon never wanted to kill anyone."

A look of astonishment crosses Trucy's face before she looks down. "I... think you're right. Even though he wanted to save Athena, he wanted to spare people as much as he could."

A-all this time... All this time, I couldn't figure him out... All this time, he was really our friend. And now he's dead. I finally make real friends, and they all keep dying... I can't even trust all of the friends I have left, I'm still mangled from the explosion, I'm half-blind, I can't even do anything about it...

"I hate this place!" I scream loudly enough my ribs twinge. Gritting my teeth, I lower my head and pant. I-I... I can't do this anymore... Let me out of here... Please let me out of here... I'll do anything, if you just help get me out of here...!

Arms wrap around my shoulders, careful not to squeeze too much.

"It's okay. I hate this place, too."

I slowly reach up and grip Trucy's wrists. "Please don't die." My voice cracks.

She rests her chin on my shoulder. "I'll do my best."

Once I get my breathing settled down, I notice stirring to my left. "Aah... Did I wake everyone up...?"

"I'll go tell them everything's all right." Trucy pulls away but looks down at me for a moment longer. "You try as hard as you can to get some rest, okay?"

"Okay..."

I guess this time I'm spent enough to drift off.