Okay, so, yeah. It's been a while. I've been busy. Plus, I had to re-write this chapter, like, twenty billion times, because I couldn't decide how I wanted it to go. But now I've decided! And… Well… Here you go!

~The Doctor Games~

By midnight, the situation at the volcano had changed quite a bit. Nine had lowered his arrow when he'd noticed Christina's head lolling to the side, on the verge of slumber. Lorna, however, had been keeping awake, eyeing Christina and Nine, not sure what to think of either. Sally had put down her one weapon, and has taken up a position back by her little bed, the blanket along the cavern wall.

"Sally," Nine says after some time of standing in silence. "Do you think you can bring me some of the leftover meat?"

"Hungry?" she replies, grabbing a small piece of their food.

"Not me," Nine answers, "It's for them."

Sally pauses, shocked that Nine cared about whether or not their prisoners were hungry. Nevertheless, she slowly walks to hand the food to Nine, the whole time not taking her eyes off the ledge where the ground gave way to a pit of lava. She passes the meat off to her companion, and scurries away, back towards away from the heat, heart pounding.

"I'm sorry," Nine says afterwards. "I forgot you were so scared of the volcano."

Sally nods, and replies, "I just… I just don't want to fall in. I couldn't think of a more horrible way to…"

She trails off, but that's okay. Nine knows what she's going to say. He himself is scared of the pit of lava, but he's managed to dull the fear to a small feeling of worry. He wishes Sally could do the same, but showed no disappointment when she couldn't.

"Hey, Lorna," Nine calls, dangling the meat in front of him. "Hungry?"

She looks up, and sees what Nine is offering. "No," she answers, looking away.

"Come on," he taunts, "You've been sitting there for hours. You're not tired, you're not hungry… What are you?"

"I'm waiting. Same as you," she answers simply, looking to the entrance of the pit.

Seeing he'd get nothing else out of Lorna, he turns to the other one. "Christina! Wakey wakey!"

She opens her eyes and blinks up at Nine. "I wasn't asleep."

"Quite right, too," he responds. "Hungry?"

Christina's response is the opposite of Lorna's. She looks at the food excitedly, saying, "Am I ever!"

Nine tosses the meat to Christina, who catches it and hungrily devours it, relishing in the remorseful looks from Lorna. For a moment, things are light. Less tense. Almost comical, the way Christina rubs her meal in Lorna's proud face. However, all four tributes in the volcano are suddenly met with an icy cold claw of fear, as a voice rings out in the cavernous space.

"Feeding your prisoners instead of killing them?" the voice is identified as Leo Jones, as he is seen coming down the walkway, holding a club in his left hand, and a knife in the other, a stream of blood trickling out of a split lip and down his jaw.

Leo Jones strides up to Nine, who's arrow is back in the bow, and taught to attack. The two men stare at each other, sizing up the competition, not sure what the other is going to do. Sally and Christina's gazes are both locked on the impasse in front of them, knowing the outcome would affect everything else.

Lorna, however, sees this as an escape opportunity. After all, she'd already died once. Fear of another death helped press her to run for freedom. Fast on her feet, she darts across the crater. She makes it to the end of the pathway in, but stops completely, when she finds her way blocked by another tribute, brandishing a spear. And she can't even comprehend that it is Jeff (the Good Looking One, no doubt), when the spear makes contact with her flesh, piercing through her shoulder and out the other side. Nine, Leo, Sally, and Christina all stare in horror as she falls limply to the ground.

In the second of still, nobody is expecting it when Leo Jones tosses his weapons aside, and tackles Nine to the ground, snapping the bow in half, shattering the arrow. The two tributes, locked in combat, slide across the rocky ground closer to the cliff's edge.

Christina, using the same strategy Lorna used earlier, runs to Jeff, and lands a sharp combat kick to the jaw. Jeff reels, and then retaliates at Christina with the spear. She ducks, and attacks again, and soon, Christina and Jeff are in a similar tussle to Nine and Leo, Sally looking on, heart pounding.

She looks over to Nine, and, with horror, sees how close they are to the edge, so close to going into the pit of lava. Leo has achieved the upper hand, and stands behind Nine, arm around his neck, choking the life out of him. Sally can see that Nine is too weak to fight him off.

Twisting around, Nine makes eye contact with Sally, standing against the wall, too scared to breathe. Nine's face has turned a dull blue color. He knows he only has moments left, with the strength Leo has been putting into his death. She knows that, once Nine is gone, Leo will come after her.

With what force Nine has left, he mouths to Sally, I'm sorry, Sally.

That is it for her. She can't stand by and watch any longer. Swallowing her fear, she pushes off against the wall, and sprints across the distance between herself and Leo. She slams into him, full force, wrenching his grip away from Nine. Sally and Leo careen over the edge, and, for a moment, Sally twists her head around to see Nine, panting on the ground, clutching his neck. Her name forms on his lips just as Sally and Leo plunge into the hot lava below with a blood curdling scream. And that, the last fleeting glance and a whip of her head, is the last thing he sees of the blonde girl whom he cared for so dearly.

Two cannons shoot through the air, just as Ten, Eleven, Jack, River, and Amy burst in.