Dear Readers,
Sorry it took so long for me to update this time. I've been super busy! But I hope you all find this chapter to be worth the wait!
ALSO; AND THIS IS IMPORTANT! I might be adding a little Clove/Marvel (but more of an accidental clove/marvel scene) and jealous cato (with no reason to be jealous because Clove and Marvel are just friends who possibly get caught in a moment). Soooo my question to you all is; if I were to add in an accidental kiss between Marvel and Clove (because Marvel is so grief-stricken over Glimmer), and neither of them meant for it to happen and they don't like each other like that, it was just an accident, then what would you all have to say to that? Would you like it? Would you absolutely hate me? What would your reaction be? Please R&R about this idea so I can decide which road to take. And PM if any of you want to or if you have any helpful suggestions, creative criticisms, or ideas you think I should hear!
As always; thank you for your reviews! You guys are awesome! Keep it up with the reviews and feedback, it really keeps me going and reminds me that people are actually reading my story!
To;
: Thank you so much! You have no idea how good that makes me feel to hear you say that :)
DianaLover18: I love that you are so obsessed with this fic; I'm pretty obsessed with their characters! And I know, I wish they wouldn't die... people keep reviewing for me to go away from the storyline and keep them alive... I'm having such a writer's delimma! Keep them alive or follow the storyline... decisions decisions!
followsrabbit: Thanks! I'm so glad you didn't hate it! And it makes me very happy to hear you say how well written that scene is. Thanks so much!
Now, without further ado, here is the next chapter! R&R and enjoy!
The sky begins to brighten a bit, and Clove knew she should open her eyes and wake up. But laying in Cato's arms always had a calming affect on her, and she felt like she had just fallen asleep 5 minutes. Plus, she still wasn't feeling all too great, so she allowed herself to just lay in the warmth of Cato's arms.
Suddenly, there is a huge crashing sound and a loud, ear-shattering buzzing sound. An angry buzzing sound. Clove's eyes flew open, and what she saw was pandemonium. There was a smashed nest and maybe hundreds of tracker jackers. Shit.
Clove shot up in a heartbeat, not thinking about anything but getting out of there. She felt Cato's hand on her back, pushing her forward, telling her not to wait for him, just to run. She felt a shooting pain in her leg and then her arm as she darted away. She could outrun most of them, but she knew a few tracker jackers had already made their mark on her. She twisted her head around to look for Cato; he was right behind her. Marvel and Peeta were not far behind. She did not see Tara, nor did she see Glimmer. Clove wasn't sure what to think of the other girls absence, but when she heard blood-curdling screams (Glimmer's most likely), Clove couldn't help but shiver. She was screaming and begging the others to come back. Even if Clove wanted to, she knew they couldn't go back for her. Glimmer, if unable to evade the tracker jackers, would in fact be dead. If the rest of the Careers didn't get out of there, they would be too.
"To the lake! To the lake!" Marvel shouted at them. Clove was speeding ahead, running as fast as she could now. Marvel was right, they had to make it to the lake; that was most likely the only way to evade the tracker jackers now.
Clove couldn't help but notice the screams had stopped, and all was silent. And that freaked her the hell out. They heard a yell, a male one, and saw a slight boy (from District 3, Clove remembered), dashing after them. She guessed the tracker jackers following them had flushed him out too.
But Clove didn't have time to worry about the insignificant District 3 tribute. As they burst into the main clearing of the arena, Clove was focused on one thing; getting into the lake. She already felt the tracker jacker venom coursing through her, distorting the world in front of her. She forced herself to keep moving, and splashed, face first, into the lake. The others eventually crashed into the lake after her.
Once they had stayed under for long enough, the tracker jackers had gotten confused, unable to find what they perceived as their enemy, and retreated back into the forest. Clove felt dizzy as she crawled out of the lake. The Careers, while still mindful enough, turned on the District 3 boy immeadiately. Cato, who seemed to be angrier than ever (most likely the venom was feeding his paranoia and temper) started screaming at the District 3 boy. "Why shouldn't I kill you right here and now, huh? Give me one good reason!"
He looked fearful for his life, this small, dark-haired boy. "I, I, um..."
"Tick tock." Clove taunted.
He looked over at their supplies, then the platforms, and his eyes lit up. "I can help protect your supplies even better. I can reactivate the platform bombs."
Cato and Clove exchanged a look. "Now that, is something we can make use of. Get to work."
Marvel was watching the forest, hoping to see Glimmer come bounding out at any moment. Clove knew better. She also knew that the venom was starting to make her hallucinate, and the trees were turning into ugly, foreboding creatures. A few seconds later, a cannon fires. Clove could see the pain on Marvel's face as he sank to his knees. Only when the second cannon fired, signifying that both Glimmer and Tara were dead, did Cato get really angry.
He started charging towards the woods, screaming about her making a fool of them couldn't be tolerated anymore. Lover Boy tried to stop him, only causing Cato's anger to peak. Lover Boy, realizing he couldn't reason with Cato, made a break for the woods. Cato followed, running after him into the woods, screaming curses at Lover Boy and Katniss. Clove called for him to come back, but he didn't.
Clove sat down, feeling the world spinning around her. The venom was taking it's toll on her now. She felt the world shifting, seeing bugs bursting from Marvel's eyes, mouth and nose beside her. She jammed her eyes shut, forcing away the nausea that the venom was causing. She also reminded herself that she had been through worse in her nightmares. After what felt like hours (but was most likely only a couple of minutes), Cato came into Clove's sight, still cursing and angry. There was blood on his sword, and Clove hoped briefly that it wasn't her imagination, and hoped that he had killed Katniss. As Cato collapsed on the ground beside her, she finally just let the hallucinations take her. She didn't try and fight them; she knew it was easier that way.
When she started to come too, Clove concluded that Marvel was inconsolable and unreachable. Plus it didn't help that he was still having hallucinations. Clove started to feel like she really did have an edge; her own insanity helped her to accept the horrors of the arena easier than most. Especially hallucinations. She had experienced many before. When they weren't hallucinations, they were realistic, hellish nightmares from which she could not escape.
Clove recovered much quicker than the rest; probably because she was the fastest and was able to get away from the tracker jackers faster than the others. The fewer the stings, the less venom, the lesser the effects. Her stings still hurt, but she was not much worse for the wear than when she first stepped foot into the arena.
She was not a very motherly person, but she did look over the boys to make sure neither were going to meet the same fate as Tara and Glimmer.
The second day, Cato was getting better too. Clove hugged him tightly when he said her name; he finally seemed to see her. She thanked the lord at least one of the guys was back in reality, because the District 3 boy was boring as dirt. Her happiness was short-lived. Not only was Cato as surly as ever, he did not support her plan to go flush Katniss out considering she was probably stung pretty bad by the tracker jackers herself.
"But we can take her out now while she's weak!" Clove said for what felt like the fifteenth time.
"Clove, you're acting foolish." He said, turning around to look over at Marvel, who was still out of commission. Clove suspected it wasn't just the tracker jacker venom that was keeping him out of reality at this point. At any rate, Cato was being super frustrating, and Clove made a face at him right before he turned around to look at her. "You're as impatient as ever, and while you know I admire that single-mindedness, it's reckless. We don't know where she is, Marvel's still in la la land, and there are other tributes lurking."
"None of those other tributes could hold a candle to us!" She argued. "We could kill her and anyone else easy!"
"Yes, but charging into the woods screaming her name isn't gonna help us."
"Coming from the guy who literally just did that two days ago." She said, crossing her arms. True he had been under tracker jacker venom influence, and he did cut lover boy pretty bad, but still. He was being a huge annoyance to her right now. She had been waiting for the boys to recover for what felt like forever and now that Cato was back he still didn't think action was a good idea yet. But all she wanted to do was kill something. Cato was coming close to being that something if he wasn't careful.
He chose to ignore her comment. "Clove, don't freak, we'll slaughter her soon."
"Well I'd rather it be sooner than later." Clove said, stalking towards the woods. "Besides, I don't need your help. At this rate if I wait for things to go your way, I won't get to enjoy killing her at all."
"What do you know, not only are you still impatient, but you're still stubborn too! You haven't changed a bit." Cato said with a smirk. Clove kept moving but flipped him the bird over her shoulder. "Oh, such a charming, lady-like gesture!" Cato called to her, rolling his eyes as she disappeared into the trees.
"You're not gonna let her just go off on her own are you?" Cato turned around and saw that Marvel had finally come around and was able to be present in the real world.
"Ah, he speaks." Cato said, trying to be comical. Marvel didn't laugh. If Clove had been with them and not off trying to be a warrior princess, she would've laughed. Or maybe not. "Clove can take care of herself."
"You're unbelievable." Marvel said in disbelief.
"It's not like she defected from the alliance, Marvel. I know her, okay? She's just all riled up and needs a breather. She'll be back." Cato reassured him.
"But what if she runs into trouble?" Marvel asked seriously.
"Look, I would go after her, but she would just stab me to prove her point." Cato said, leveling with him.
"And what point is that?" Marvel asked condescendingly.
"That she doesn't need my help." Cato said. Right as the words came out of his mouth, there was a loud animal yell that sounded suspiciously like Clove. "Did you hear-" It happened again, and before he could even finish his question, Marvel stood with his spear.
"Yea. We going or what?" Cato ran into the forest, thinking he could just stay at the camp instead and let Clove die. He should anyway. He didn't want it coming down to just him and her after all and if he didn't see her dead or dying he thought that maybe he could handle it. He knew immediately that what he had just thought was bullshit. She was a pain in his ass, but he couldn't let her die any more than he could kill her.
They heard her struggling and knew she was close; Marvel stopped Cato from charging after her. "Wait; whoever she's fighting was able to catch her off-guard."
Cato nodded, realizing he was right. "True; there's no other way in hell she would have ever screamed." From that point on they moved cautiously, staying hidden and peered into the clearing and saw her. Clove was netted up to a tree; someone had set a trap, and she had walked right into it. Probably because she still wasn't 100% after the tracker jacker attack, Cato thought to himself, there's no other way she could've been caught off-guard like this.
He saw her struggling to get to her knives, but when the net had wrapped around Clove and the tree, it had trapped her hands above her head. The knife she had been carrying was not in her hand anymore.
Marvel nudged Cato, pointing to another figure in the clearing. This was the first time Cato noticed anyone else was in the clearing but Clove; he had been so fixed on her he hadn't noticed the other person.
"Well, well, well." The person said, limping towards her. Cato realized it was the boy from District 10 with the bad leg; he was unmistakable. How he made it past the bloodbath on the first day, Cato would never know. "A Career tribute in my trap? Out here all alone, so far from your territory?" The boy said with a sneer. Cato noticed the glint of Clove's knife in the boy's hand. He gave Marvel a look, nodding at the knife. Marvel nodded and Cato could tell he was on the same train of thought as he was; they needed to do something and they needed to do it fast. Marvel nodded in one direction, mouthing split up, surround, attack slowly. Cato nodded in agreement, and then Marvel moved soundlessly, disappearing from Cato's sight to position himself on the opposite side of the clearing.
Clove was still struggling against the net. "I'm not alone. The others are circling around and should be coming through here in a moment." Clove said with bravado. She smirked at him, looking angry and psycho and everything but scared.
"For some reason, I don't believe you." He said, surveying her, placing the knife at the tip of her chin, tilting her head up.
She shrugged. "Doesn't matter to me, it's you're funeral. They'll cut you down in a second. After all, what are you gonna do; run away?" Clove taunted. It was amazing to Cato how even in the face of death Clove managed to still taunt her tormentor. She didn't look scared. Which probably meant she was insane (which she was) or that she didn't think she was going to die yet; Cato figured it was a little bit of both.
Clove struck a nerve with the kid, clearly. He pulled back from her and then punched her in the gut hard at her words. Cato had to hold himself back; he wanted to kill the kid but it wasn't the right time yet. Marvel probably wasn't even in place yet. Cato bit the inside of his cheek roughly, and soon he had the coppery taste of blood in his mouth. It took her a second, but Clove was used to taking hits from Cato in training; the boys punch must not have had as much force as he had hoped because Clove recovered fairly quickly. "Oh ouch. Really? You punch like a little girl. The District 11 girl could probably do more damage than you."
"Oh ha ha ha. You think you are so funny, don't you?"
"Who, me?" Clove smirked deeper. "I personally think I'm hilarious." Cato realized, while he did know Clove loved herself and thought she was hilarious and awesome, that she wasn't taunting him without good reason. She was following her survival instincts; because as long as she kept this kid talking, she was still alive.
"You career tributes are so arrogant." He put the knife to her throat.
"Well I don't know about arrogant... I mean, it's not necessarily arrogance if you actually are this great. I'd say I'm just... embracing my awesomeness." Clove said, looking quite amused.
"Shut up!" He shouted at her. "No more talking!" He continued. "Time to die." Cato saw Marvel stand across the clearing from himself; the district 10 tribute was so enthralled with Clove that he didn't notice.
"Well, what are you waiting for? DO IT!" Clove shouted. "Stop stalling and just stab me already." Clove said, an insane glint in her eyes. She was goading the kid, calling his bluff; she obviously thought he didn't really have it in him. After all he hadn't even killed anyone yet.
Marvel nodded his head and Cato stood as well, drawing his sword just as the district 10 kid said, "I am most definitely going to enjoy this." He said, lifting Clove's blade above his head. She was so focused on the blade she hadn't even seen the boys.
Both Cato and Marvel charged at the boy, each of them grabbing an arm, slamming him down to the ground. "Wha-I-how did you-"
"You should've listened when she said she wasn't alone." Cato said, and then he looked over his shoulder at Clove, who looked pretty surprised to see them herself. Their eyes met and he knew she was mad he had come to save her, but he was just glad she was still alive.
"He's right you know." Marvel said, staring down at the boy with a hard look. He looked up at both of them in complete terror and shock. "You should've beat it when you had the chance." Marvel looked over at Cato. "Go help Clove. I got this." He said, almost as if he was reading Cato's mind.
Cato snapped his attention from Clove to Marvel. "You sure?"
Marvel gave him a look, saying. "He's a cripple. It's not like he'll be hard to kill." The kid looked furious at his words, but Marvel was right. Cato also remembered Glimmer's recent death, and he realized if it had been Clove who had just died, he'd be looking to take his anger out on someone too. Cato grabbed Clove's knife off of the ground and stood, turning to Clove.
Cato looked at her in her eyes, saying her name softly. She looked as if she had been pissed at him, but her eyes softened. He started cutting the net to release her.
Behind him, Cato heard Marvel say, "I guess it's just you and me now." The kid tried to fight, but a split second later, Cato heard Marvel drive the spear into him and then the kid wasn't struggling anymore. Then, a cannon fired, signifying that the boy from District 10 was dead. Clove was free from the net a second later.
"Are you okay?" Marvel asked Clove, pulling his spear out of the kid as he stood.
"I'm fine." She said stiffly.
"Oh stop being pissy." Cato said and then he grabbed her and held her tightly. "Can't you ever just be happy to see me?"
"I would be if it weren't for the fact that I didn't need your help, Cato!" She said angrily, pushing him away. "I had it under control!"
"Under control?" Cato yelled at her in disbelief. "He was seconds away from plunging a knife into your heart Clove!"
"Oh please. He wasn't actually gonna kill me. He was a coward." Clove snorted a laugh.
Cato exchanged a look with Marvel and then said, "You're delusional."
"Yea, I'm with Cato on this one." Marvel said. "Besides, having people who will have your back if you need help isn't a bad thing, Clove."
"Well the only problem with that is that I don't need help!" Clove spat at them, turning back, stalking towards their camp.
"You say that," Cato called after her as Marvel and he caught up to her. "but we just rescued you from certain death, so..." Cato smirked.
"Shut up. I didn't ask for you to come storming in like a neanderthals." She said, crossing her arms, pouting.
"Oh come now, at least we are sexy neanderthals." Cato said, waggling his eyebrows at her as he slung an arm around her shoulders. Marvel smiled a bit, but he was not as happy as he was before Glimmer had died.
Clove tried to get out of his grasp, but Cato held her tightly. "Ugh. You smell like a neanderthal, that's for damn sure."
"Yea, and you smell like a freaking rosebush." Cato said, rolling his eyes at her.