A/N I've finished writing, uploading every few days now.

I end up watching the climbing challenge in a large café alongside Clara, Gamicus, Perry and a rowdy group of their other friends. Most of the boys have bets flying back and forth as today's ten unlucky victors, all dressed in skin-tight climbing suits each race their way up the giant construct that's been set up in front of yesterday's stage. The "tower" has a heavy base with artificial climbing rocks and holes, which molds into an artificial tree-like series of upper branches. The trunk of this leads to a series of wobbly rope nets that seem especially unstable in the gusty late winter winds. All around the structure, bright golden rings about the width of my hand span are hung on hooks for the climber to collect. Each of them have six minutes to make their climb, gathering along the way.

The men appear to have an obvious advantage, as they tend to be taller and stronger than most of the women. However, once they clear all the rings around the lower levels, the lighter, more agile women seem to do better on the thin, spindly "branches" and on the twisting ropes. Eight of the ten victors involved are careers, by nature quite competitive and, despite the windy weather, appear keen to excel in this purely physical challenge.

Brutus (to the cheers of Perry's friends Thannicus and Uriel) appears to set an unassailable record over his district fellows Toria, Terentius, Lyme, Arturus and Rhea. He also makes a screaming claim that he can't be defeated which gets a responding cheer in the café. In the background of the screen I can see Whisper, who is getting strapped in to her harness blatantly roll her eyes. For once I find myself agreeing with her.

Brutus' record lasts exactly five and a half minutes into Whisper's climb. The lithe nineteen-year-old from District Nine, who at one stage during her Games climbed silently down a twenty foot rock-face at night to strangle one of her victims practically dances through the narrow branches and fluttering nets. True to her name, she doesn't say much in her post-climb interview beyond a breezy comment that she finds climbing easy. Uriel, one of Perry's fellows at the university grudgingly pays up to Clara who, when pressed, put her bet on the lithe woman.

Glory is apparently not keen on heights, and struggles once he gets past the lowest of the branches. He shrugs off his failure with a laugh and just seems thankful to have his feet safely back onto the ground. Denissa gives us the first fall of the day when she loses her grip on the lowest net and tumbles all the way down to three feet off the ground before the rope harness catches, with a small scream. She picks herself up, cheeks flaming red and a purplish bruise already spreading across her jawline, where she clipped the edge of the stone tower. Most of the café are laughing, and one older man I don't know makes a loud suggestion about something else she could fall on. I notice that Clara, sitting in the darkest corner of our booth, isn't laughing. She glares at her drink, and at the men around us until she notices me watching her. I at least get a small smile.

"What's she like?" Clara asks, nodding at the screen, where the chirpy reporter has a microphone shoved in Denissa's face.

"She's…well.." I think back to my few interactions with the fiery woman from Four, who has always seemed short-tempered and arrogant. I remember conversations with some of the other victors from Four, in particular Mags, who was Denissa's Games mentor. I got the distinct impression that none of them like their younger district-fellow either. I must pull some sort of disparaging face because Clara raises her eyebrows and says, "Really? I just assumed…never mind."

Assumed that she was nice, at least in private just because she's a girl? A survivor of the Games? I definitely pity Denissa for the way she is treated and objectified, but it doesn't make it any easier for me to like her.

Third place gets claimed by the last climber, an unpleasant man from Five who won his Games nearly eighteen years ago. A prolific climber, Warrick's skill makes up for his reduced strength, though he too is slowed by the loose nets. The wind seems to have died off a bit, judging by the lack of fluttering pennants, which makes his run easier, and he touches back down with a whoop to rival Brutus. The golden rings jingle around his belt, though he comes up two short to beat the score of the fuming victor from Two. Whisper stands between them, nearly a full head shorter with that sly, self-satisfied smile on her face and gives the crowd a single nod.

I don't remember her having too many sponsors during her Games, being average looking and not particularly personable, even in her post-Games events. Like me, her fans were limited to only a handful once someone more attractive and popular came along, though I bet she's won a few of them back now.

The gushing reporter takes to the stage after trying (and failing) to get some final words out of Whisper, to announce the final event and I groan before she's finished. It will be an obstacle course, a series of challenges that will require both physical and mental strength, and creative ingenuity. I have no doubt, with that description that my name will come up. Instead of competing alone, there will be five paired teams who will have to work together. These will be male-female, but the pairings will be randomized once the ten people are chosen. All I can hope is that I don't get stuck with someone like Brutus.

~xXx~

After an evening chatting with Beetee, who has spent the last four days at the Dixon's workshop working on their VR visor I head to my room to get some likely necessary sleep. As I step out of the lift I notice that the first door on my floor is open and a few words drift out.

"I don't particularly care what you do to my brother, or the rest of my family. I won't mourn their loss. Not interested."

There is a clatter, a phone being hung up and I hold my breath as I tiptoe past, not wanting to have anything to do with Whisper, or whatever she's got herself caught up in. My mind jumps to a conversation on my Victory Tour in Four, about the tragic house-fire that killed two of Denissa's cousins when she refused to return to the Capitol the year after her victory. I'm very glad that I'm not as attractive or interesting as most of the other victors.

I flick on my television on the off chance that Whisper's recent popularity means I won't have to spend another day in front of the cameras. Unfortunately it seems we've both jumped ahead of some of the older Career women instead, and I'm actually the second pick, just behind Denissa. Whisper is third, the most athletic of the women from Two, Lyme is fourth and there's a scattering of others around equal for the last place.

The top five men are all Careers, as expected, though as I'm watching I see Beetee overtake Warrick from Five in sixth place. I guess people paid attention to the line about being innovative, because by morning Beetee has overtaken Morstan as the fifth man, and my friend Diya claims the last place amongst the women. Our style teams briefly reappear to dress us in the days outfits—more body-fitting jumpsuits, which are warmer than I expected—and to do some basic make-up and hair fixes.

Once downstairs we're driven across to the stage, where yesterday's climbing structure has been mostly removed. One face of the twenty foot high rock wall remains, a row of metal rods suspended along the top, each holding a dangling metal cage. At the base rests five large wooden crates. I hate to admit it, but my curiosity is piqued.

We are lined up on the stage to the cheers of the thousand-odd live fans in the crowd, plus the many more watching on large screens in the surrounding streets, and the young man who was announced as Narcissus Elkheart's replacement as Games announcer runs the show. He has a lucky contest winner from the audience join us onstage to draw our random pairings by selecting colored balls from a black bag. The girl, a giggling teenager, flutters her eyelids at Brutus as she hands him the green ball, gives Terentius an admiring glance as he gets the yellow and sniffs derisively as she hands a disgruntled Beetee the purple. My mentor was surprised as anyone to find himself chosen for one of these challenges and had already arranged to spend the day more productively.

Glory and Arturus round out the last of the men, and if I can't be paired with Beetee I hope for one of them. The man from One has been only friendly to me since we met while mentoring the last Games, while the quiet man from Two has been passingly pleasant. Even Terentius wouldn't be terrible, though I feel sorry for whoever gets Brutus. Our reigning victor really doesn't like losing, and this is his last chance to succeed.

I breathe a sigh of relief as the first of us ladies in line, Whisper gets green and moves across to stand beside the big man who she out-climbed yesterday. He glares, she smirks and I have a sneaking suspicion that his losing streak is going to continue. Quite possibly deliberately.

Quiet Arturus gets Diya and gives her a friendly nod, and Lyme and Terentius both seem pleased to be working with a district partner. Denissa scowls furiously when she gets matched with Beetee, which leaves me with the handsome man from One. I'm perfectly content with this arrangement, and to my surprise Glory is too.

"If there's anything that involves climbing, you're doing it," he mutters to me as a production assistant ties blue bands around our arms. "I'll take the heavy lifting and running, and you can do the heights and the thinking. Between us we have this covered."

I'm not entirely convinced, and not sure I want the extra attention that will come from winning. His grin is infectious though, and I see him throw a sidelong glance at Brutus as we line up once again to receive our instructions. I guess Whisper isn't the only one who enjoys seeing Brutus sulk.

Our host, a snide man named Claudius Templesmith explains the rules as though we're children: There will be a series of four challenges that will test us both physically and mentally. The last pair to finish each challenge will be eliminated from the next round, with just two pairs contesting the final round. The winning pair will receive a two-part trophy, a glamorous make-over and a whole host of TV appearances. Their districts will also receive a grant for a community project. This last convinces me to at least put some effort in, otherwise I'd deliberately throw just to avoid the media attention.

For the first challenge, each pair is given one of the crates and a small key, and assigned one of the locked cages. Our aim: unlock the cage and retrieve the fancy key inside for a later round using the provided materials. The cages are suspended on the end of a five foot rod out from the wall, twenty feet above the ground. In true Games fashion they give us a 60 second countdown from a line twenty-five yards back and make us run for our supplies.

Glory gets there well before I do and already has three yanks at the crate lid, which is nailed down.

"Corner," I gasp at him and try to tilt the big wooden box when he looks at me blankly. He seems to understand when I pull it briefly up onto an edge and picks up the four-foot-square box with ease, dropping it sharply on the point. One edge falls easily open, and our supplies tumble out. To my left I see Arturus and Brutus immediately copy Glory's move, though Brutus drives his crate so hard into the ground that two of the sides fall out and a third splinters noisily. Further down, the pair from Two succeed in forcing the lid with brute strength and start pulling out their own collection of objects.

While Glory lines up our supplies I look up at the cage hanging above us, trying to examine the lock. The key-hole is perpendicular to the ground, meaning we'd need a rotating component or an angular bend, assuming we can construct a pole long enough to reach. I look down again at our materials: four foot-long sections of slightly bendy plastic tubing, two three-foot wooden poles, a small roll of wire and a larger roll of electrical tape. And the crate, still four feet tall and probably strong enough to hold our weight. Suddenly I'm back in my senior science class, our teacher has just handed us this term's project challenge and I'm ready to go. I have the plastic and wood pieces alternated and taped before I look up to see Glory grinning at me, letting me do my thing. The last plastic piece goes horizontally with the key attached by the wire.

"Anything I can do?" he asks as I check the sturdiness, and I point him at the open-sided crate.

"Put that flat, see if it holds…"

He does as I ask, flipping the open side face-down and gently climbing onto it. He bounces on the balls of his feet a few times to confirm it's sturdy enough and gives me a thumbs-up.

"That's cheating!" Brutus bellows from ten yards over. We all look to the nearest official, who shrugs and says that there's nothing in the rules against using the crate itself. Immediately the three other groups flip their boxes to stand on while Brutus glowers at the broken wreck of his own. I pass Glory the pole, though as expected he's a few feet short of reaching. He frowns and turns to me.

"If you-"

"Shoulders." I say, and he grins, apparently already on this line of thought. It turns out to be easiest for me to climb on the crate, get on his shoulders while he's on the ground and stay balanced as he gets back up. The first try I nearly fall and he has to fumble to catch me. Around us we hear the audience laugh and I blink, surprised. I'd been so caught up in the task I'd forgotten they were there. The second try goes better and with me on his shoulders, it's an easy reach. I slot the key on the tenth try and tug down and to the right to turn it. The door falls open and I use the horizontal piece with the first key still attached to snag our target. It ends up falling and bouncing of Glory's face.

"Ow," he says, wincing as he lowers me down gently, rubbing his eye once his hands are free. Then he grins and grabs me in a hug, spinning me around, though he lets me go before I start to panic. I realize there's cheering and look around. We're the first ones done. I collect our prize, this one a bright golden key with a gemstone inlay and hand it to my partner, who raises it above his head and waves to the crowd. I'm perfectly happy to let him get the attention, and I sit back down on my crate to watch the others.

Diya and Arturus replicate our method and soon have their own key free. Past them, Brutus and Whisper try to do the same as well, but without the extra height from the crate they can't reach. Terentius and Lyme use their extra height and strength to advantage and, though their pole is inferiorly crafted, they too get the lock undone. At the far end Beetee and Denissa are arguing loudly, their pieces still scattered around their feet. Judging by the tape still fluttering on some of the pieces, Beetee saw the same solution I did but the feisty girl from Four disagreed and pulled apart what he had made. She is still yelling at him when Brutus and Whisper, who don't have a crate to stand on or a pole sturdy enough to hold come up with their own solution.

The helpful stones which were attached to the wall yesterday for climbing have been removed, but there are still enough crevasses for Brutus to get nearly six feet up. Whisper, who doesn't look entirely thrilled at his suggestion, uses his body as a ladder and climbs onto his shoulders, bracing herself against the wall. She wobbles slightly, standing on her toes as he roars "Just do it girl!"

To the gasps of all of us watching she crouches, then leaps upwards, her hands just catching the horizontal metal bar. She manages to drag herself upwards until she is sitting on it and lies flat, crawling along until she's balanced over the cage. Brutus, at her nod, throws her the key and after a few minutes of wrestling with the lock and unhelpful yelling from the victor from Two she gets it open and retrieves her prize. With the remarkable agility that helped her win her Games she swings down on the bar and drops the roughly fourteen feet to the ground with ease. Brutus roughly snatches the key from her hand and holds it up for the cheering crowd, sneering at Beetee and Denissa.

The woman from Four throws down the two pieces of wooden pole in disgust and glares at my mentor. Beetee gives a rueful shrug and murmurs something inaudible over the still applauding crowd. I have no doubt he's happy to get out of all of this nonsense, though he makes some effort to look disappointed when the camera points in their direction. Denissa apparently doesn't buy it and as soon as the cameras aim back towards Templesmith she violently shoves my mentor back, over their cracked crate where he flails and hits the ground hard. Lyme steps in and grabs her before she does anything else while Brutus laughs loudly and Whisper smirks. I run over to my friend and help him upright. Both of his hands are scraped and bleeding.

"I'm fine, really," he says as he gets back onto his feet and wipes his hands on his sides, leaving two vivid red stripes on the creamy white jump-suit. Finally several harried production-officials descend and order us all back in our positions. I decide, as I walk past Brutus and Whisper, that maybe I do want to put some effort into winning after all, if only to hurt our newest victor's pride a little more.

~xXx~

We get an hour to rest while they set the stage for the second challenge. I sit in the corner listening to Diya and Glory chat about their pets (three cats, and a dog and a custom-bred pine marten, respectively) while nibbling on some of the sandwiches provided to keep us energized. Glory offers to rub my shoulders when we're given our five minute warning, trying to pump me up, which seems to amuse Diya for some reason.

Brutus elbows his way to the front of the group to lead us back out onto the stage, where we find our second task and the cheering audience already waiting. We have to take turns racing across a narrow balance beam to collect as many large puzzle pieces as we can carry, though if we drop any on our way back we have to start the crossing over. Once we have all twenty-four pieces we have to put them together to build a 3D replica of a Games cornucopia. One of the twenty-four pieces won't be used and we have to then race across the beam once more and place that piece on a latch, releasing a second bejewelled key to add to our collection.

Glory goes first and hauls eight of the pieces back with him. The men from Two try to do the same, though all three of them take at least one fall and have to start their crossing again. I'm slow but not terrible at balancing and manage another two pieces without any slips. My partner races out again, dancing gracefully across the narrow beam, while to his left Terentius slips and falls with his second arm-full, landing painfully for a man. He swears loudly as the golden pieces go tumbling to the sides and struggles to stand. I do fall once about four feet along my second run, banging my shin painfully on the way down. Hobbling slightly, I re-gather my two pieces and limp my way back, exceptionally glad I have an athletic partner to do the hard work. He practically sprints back with our last five pieces and tosses them at my feet, ready to start solving. Only Brutus and Whisper beat us to the puzzle stage and I take one quick glance at their progress before diving in to our pile and trying to build. Glory hovers around the edge, occasionally offering suggestions or helping hold bits in place while I work in my focus zone until the construction is done. As I'm placing the last two pieces I hear a loud roar and look up to see Arturus and Diya waving their key at the crowd. I hand Glory our extra piece and he leads the charge across the balance beam into second place. Once again I let him bask in the spotlight while I sink to the ground and poke at my sore leg. The two remaining teams appear roughly even throughout the construction, though in the end Terentius' nasty fall and resulting time loss costs them and they lose to Brutus and Whisper by half the balance beam length.

This time all of us except Glory and Whisper line up for the medical staff in our hour-long rest. The young doctor pulls three wooden splinters out of my shin, douses the scrape in a stinging wash and hands me a painkiller pill. Glancing around I see some of the others have fared worse. Terentius in particular appears to be limping badly and has Brutus hovering nearby laughing at him to make it worse. Diya, the long, shallow scrape along her arm bandaged, hobbles over where I'm sitting and pokes at her leg, which appears to have suffered similar splinters to mine.

"I don't care about winning as long as that jerk from Two gets beat," she mutters, and I nod my agreement as our newest victor laughingly re-enacts Terentius' painful fall, wildly flailing his arms for added drama. Glory, who has spent his time productively demolishing the remaining plate of sandwiches, grins at her.

"Aw, come on Diya, we all want to win here. That's why we're victors."

"Maybe you volunteers are," she replies. "The rest of us, well, we just want to get by."

"By winning," he counters, still grinning as he licks the last crumbs of his lunch off his fingers.

Diya rolls her eyes and says, "I bet you were that kid in school that had to win all the prizes for everything too."

Glory thumps his chest proudly and says, "Of course. My family raised me to be the best, and they clearly succeeded."

"Ugh, watch out. I think Brutus' condescending jerkishness is contagious" she replies, also smiling.

Glory winks at both of us, leaning in to dramatically whisper, "I've heard there's a great cure known as getting his ass repeatedly handed to him by a bunch of older victors who he's previously disrespected."

"Then let's deliver it to him. For his own good, of course."

We're still laughing when the officials call us up for the third round.