A/N: And now, the chapter you've all been waiting for - the one that brings the number down to the final eight.
The arena will mess with your mind. You have to think clearly despite this.
Jack adjusted a shivering Ava on his back. On the one hand, he was reluctant to head into the winter wedge. He had too many bad memories of empty cupboards and a desperately coughing little sister. On the other hand, just down the slope he could see the bright glint of sunlight on ice that meant there was a pond in there. It was a ways in - the bare trees let him see a good distance - but they could easily make it that far, and they needed the water.
He could leave Ava out here. She was smaller than he was, and she wouldn't hold up to the cold as well.
But that would be dangerous too, and as long as they didn't linger here, it should be fine.
"The snow's so pretty," Ava whispered. "It isn't muddy at all."
It wasn't soot stained either. The perfect snow was reassuring. It meant no one had been here to stir it up. That was another thing they'd have to be careful of; his footprints would be fully visible. The sun was already low in the sky though. Maybe the long shadows would help disguise the prints.
"We need to get that water," he told her in a low voice, just in case there was something around to hear. "If anyone comes by, they'll see my footprints but they won't know about you. That makes you our secret weapon."
Ava nodded solemnly against his shoulder.
Jack adjusted his grip on his makeshift staff and headed in.
Caspian was dead. Susan's thoughts kept circling back to that moment.
Caspian was dead, and Susan had killed someone. The thoughts echoed around in her head, surprisingly distant.
She had lost the girl she'd run after. Part of her was glad of that. What was she supposed to do if she caught up, after all?
The boy's body drifted through her head in answer.
She let out a long, shuddering breath. For a moment, the air gleamed purple in front of her. She pressed a hand over her mouth.
Something was wrong. She'd known that for a while, but Caspian's death made it more urgent. There was something inside her that kept wanting her to lay down and give up. Something that was trying to carve up bits of her until it was the only thing left.
She curled her hands tighter around her bow.
Lucy. Edmund. Peter.
She had to make it back. She was stronger than this. She could beat it. It wasn't a rational enemy. It was just a feeling.
Magic, something in her whispered.
She shoved it aside. Now was no time for childish superstitions.
Robin watched Will stumble across the snow on the screen. "If he doesn't get some rest soon, he's going to do something stupid."
"Sleeping in the snow might not be the best idea either," Tuck pointed out.
Robin watched Will jump and strike out at a shadow and flinched himself. The sponsorship numbers were still too low to send anything in. "Snow's keeping the mutts at the edges. Close enough to hear but not close enough to fight. He's trying to herd him somewhere. Pull up the map. Check where he's headed."
Tuck complied. "There's a frozen pond up ahead," he offered. "He could get some water there - Ah."
Robin glanced at the screen. Two beeping dots that indicated tributes were already there.
Not good.
Kate leaned against a tree and tried, once again, to scrub the image of McGee with an arrow in him out of her head.
What had happened? What had he been thinking?
She kept her face steady though. She needed food, and if Tony was going to get her sponsors, she couldn't be seen crying on screen.
As if in response, a parachute came beeping down. She snagged it from the air.
Crackers. Those could keep her going for a while. She must have more sponsors than she thought if Tony could afford these.
"Thanks, Tony."
Jack set Ava down in the middle of a tangle of dead bushes she could crouch behind. "Keep an eye out," he told her before going to check on the pond.
The ice was thin. That would make it easier to break through, at least, but it would mean he'd have to get some from close to the edge of the pool. He'd just have to hope it was clean.
He hit the ice with his staff. It started to crack.
Will could hear them growling. They were close. So close.
He wouldn't let them get him. Not like -
Will dry heaved at the memory. Not like that. His stomach twisted hollowly. How long had it been since he'd eaten? He needed to eat. Needed to -
The moment he slowed down, he heard the mutts' growls get closer.
Keep going. He had to - had to keep going. Like Robin always kept going, no matter what.
He could see a pond up ahead. Maybe that would help. He'd had water already today, but more would be good. Maybe he could slow down for just a second. Maybe -
"There!"
The high pitched shriek didn't register as a word. Something jumped out of the bushes and lunged forward.
More mutts, more mutts, why were there always more mutts -
He stumbled back frantically and swung his staff down at the neck. Only way to kill them. Had to hit the neck.
The blow connected with the skull. He swung again. The mutt went down.
A cannon boomed.
Cannon?
Someone was shouting. He looked down.
Not a mutt. A . . . girl. A little one that had never had a chance to win.
Like Rowan.
His mouth dropped open. A keening sound crept out of it.
"Ava! Ava!"
Ava.
He looked up. Another boy with a staff . . . Jack . . . was almost there. His staff was raised. His face was twisted. Angry. Horrified. Tears spilling down his cheeks.
Will took another step back. "I - I didn't mean to. I thought - "
Jack swung wildly with his staff. Will twisted around it and took another step back. His back was to the pond now.
"I'm sorry - I didn't - "
"You killed her," Jack spat. "She was twelve years old, and you killed her!" He swung again.
Will managed to knock it off course. The stroke still hit his shoulder hard enough to bruise. "I'm sorry!"
Not good enough. Never good enough.
The last ray of sunlight glimmered on the ice. Jack grabbed his staff with both hands and tried to shove Will onto it.
Just like home, Will thought distantly. Just like in training.
So just like in training, he stepped to the left - Swung his staff at his opponent's knees -
At home, he would have knocked Robin off balance.
Jack was shorter than Robin. Half-starved, which Robin was not.
Jack went flying onto the thin sheet of cracked ice and landed hard.
The ice broke.
Jack's panicked face was visible for just a moment before he went tumbling into the dark water.
Will scrambled forward. This happened in the forest sometimes, in winter. Jack was already reaching up, one pale hand above water. He just had to extend his staff and keep his weight spread. Pull him out bit by bit.
Seneca Crane zoomed in on the fight. "Is he actually trying to save the other boy?" he asked incredulously.
"It appears so, sir," one of the techs said nervously.
"Well, that won't do," he murmured. For one thing, it sent entirely the wrong message. For another, President Snow had been quite clear that Will was not to emerge the victor from these Games, and Crane had been progressing in that goal nicely until now. A potential ally to help keep Will sane would meddle with his plans unnecessarily.
"Activate the trap."
Jack grabbed the staff and started to pull himself up. The second his head cleared the water, he gulped in as much air as he could get.
The water beneath him started to spin.
He lost his grip on the staff immediately. The whirlpool knocked him into the jagged edges of the hole in the ice. He bobbed beneath the surface.
Ice began to spread over his head.
No! He swam frantically for the surface. A skin of ice had already formed over the hole.
And it was thickening.
He'd lost hold of his staff ages ago. He pounded against the ice with his fists. Above him, he could see Will's staff pounding the ice above him.
Why would he bother?
Jack didn't know.
His lungs burned.
"No, no, no, no - " With every denial, Will's staff pounded the ice. Cracks stubbornly refused to appear.
He hadn't meant meant to kill Ava. He couldn't kill Jack. He didn't want to kill anyone, he wasn't a murderer, he wasn't -
Jack's fist stopped pounding the ice. The pale shape he could only just see slowly fell away.
"No," he breathed.
The cannon boomed.
"Oh, Jack!" Tears were streaming freely down Toothiana's face.
North bowed his head. "He fought bravely."
Bunny just stared blankly at the screen. Both of them. They'd lost both of the tykes, just like that. He hadn't had a chance to make up for any of it. They were just - gone.
He had failed. Again.
Sandy patted his arm gently. He was sniffing into a handkerchief of dream dust.
It had been a long time since Bunny had felt this small.
The moon was high in the sky before Will remembered he had to move away. He had to move away so that the hovercraft could come.
He stumbled away towards the trees. He could sleep in one of those tonight. If the mutts got him, they got him.
He climbed up to a thick branch and huddled near the trunk. He pulled his jacket tighter around him. It kept the heat in well. Just not quite well enough.
Beep. Beep.
A parachute landed on the branch in front of him. Will slowly unfurled himself just enough to grab it.
There was a square of cloth attached. He unfolded it to reveal a silvery sheet of material. A heat reflective blanket.
Will wrapped himself up in it like it was cocoon and tried to take comfort in the warmth.
The phone was still ringing off the hook. The sponsorship numbers were better than they'd been for the last three Games.
Robin stared at the number in disgust. The editing for today's events had made the deaths seem a lot more ruthless than they were. It seemed people suddenly thought Will was a good bet after all.
Marian rubbed his shoulders comfortingly. "It got us what we needed," she reminded him.
"There's nothing we can send him that will fix this," Robin said, quietly enough that he hoped the bugs couldn't hear. "Nothing fixes this."
But the blanket would keep him alive through the night. In the Games, that was the best anyone could do.
The claw descended and retrieved Ava. It descended again and punched through the ice of the pond. It scraped the bottom for a second before happening to catch both Jack and his staff. Both were white with frost.
The moon shone down on the corpse.
The boy had done well. He had tried his best to defend the girl. He had died trying to see justice done for her.
And if the things were to change, the man in the moon needed a Guardian unbound by the Capital.
The claw pulled the boy inside. The techs dumped the body by the girl's.
The girl had been so brave. It pained him to let her go. But he only had the power to keep one.
The hovercraft landed. The techs carried the bodies out.
The last trace of Ava moved on to what waited.
The boy rolled off the cart. The staff went with him. The techs didn't notice the missing weapon.
The boy looked around. He saw two people wheeling two bodies away. He ran after them. "Hey, wait up! Who are you? Where are we? What's going on?"
His reaching hand went right through the tech he reached for.
And one of the bodies on the carts looked exactly like his reflection in the metal.
He stumbled to a halt and looked down at his shaking hands. "What am I?" he whispered. "Who am I?"
And the moon answered, Jack Frost.
(Thinking clearly in the arena is a pipe dream. Ask any victor.)
(For that matter, ask any victor if they can think clearly now.)