Sorry this has taken so long! School started again and it's exam year for me! I got set 4 pieces of Homework on my first day! My physics teacher is evil, he's basically Voldemort reincarnate. Anyhoo, Pivotal, Pivoting is on hold at the mo', as my creative brain cells are on holiday, thinking through plots for my brain-child, the 'Conflicts' series. Ask no questions and I will tell you no lies! Mwahahah! Now read and review! It's almost the final 8, and then there'll be interviews at home, which I may or may not write. What do you think I should do?

Disclaimer - I do not own the Hunger Games. I am Hungry, and I do own Hungry, Hungry Hippos, so I do technically own a Hungry Games. But my lawyers tell me the two are different. Sadly.

NEWSFLASH! THIS WILL BE UPDATED! I'VE GOT EXAMS AT THE MOMENT, BUT IT ISN'T ABANDONED! DON'T FEAR!

Breaking

Dawn comes for me, and I am awoken by the sound of Panem's anthem. At first I just stay hidden in the bush, not really caring about what might be shown in the sky, but a second later I remember what happened the night before. The cannon blast in the night which means that one more of us is dead, and I'm one person closer to getting back home. And it sickens me to know that one small part of me feels relieved about this fact. My one saving grace is that the rest of me feels ill with anticipation. Kai could be dead. Dou could be dead. Anyone could be dead and I don't even know it yet. As soon as that Anthem's finished, someone will be dead.

Schrodinger's Cat.

I wriggle myself out of the bush, still covered in the dark blanket. That was a bad idea; it can be clearly seen in daylight, and I just have to count myself lucky that no-one happened to come past the place I was sleeping. I've been relying too heavily on luck – luck is never guaranteed in the Arena, far from it most of the time.

And so I stare up at the sky, the urge to know, but yet still to not know, filling me completely.

And then the face flashes across the sky.

I feel myself sway slightly, but make no move to stop it.

'No…' I think, blinking slightly and staring back up at the face, hoping that I'm just too sleepy to see properly, and he's not dead. He can't be dead…

But the face stays the same, staring down at me without seeing. And he will never see again.

And with one final flash, the image of Dou fades away from the sky.

I stay still, still staring up at the spot where his name was displayed, nothing but dull shock entering my brain. If I thought it was bad when I kil- when the girl from District 7 died, it was nothing compared to this. I was filled with grief and guilt, and I wished I could just die and stop the pain, but now… I am just empty.

Well, almost.

Some emotion is returning to me as I continue to gape at the sky, but it isn't the emotion I would think it would be. Not grief or guilt but just… Anger.

I want to find the person who killed Dou. I want to find them and show them exactly why the Capitol calls me the Rage Girl. I want to hunt them down and make them hurt until they beg for the pain to stop.

I want to fight.

My guilt over killing has been completely overridden by my urging for vengeance, now, for the death of a friend. He was innocent! He didn't deserve to die! Least of all in this hell-hole, he should have died at home, with people who loved him, not here in this dump! And not in the way he died, because I know the maths, and the places. The only people who could have killed him are the boy from 12, the girl from 5 or them. And I know how they would have done it.

And I want them to pay.

Fuelled completely by anger, I grab the pack through the branches of the bush and rip it straight out, leaving strips of black flapping pointlessly in the window, tell-tell markers that I was there, making it easy for them to track me. But I don't care anymore, not now. Let them find me, and I'll make them hurt.

I realise now that I've been clutching my bag so tight the blood has left my hand, leaving it cold and bloodless, white against the black of the bag. Almost corpse-like in appearance. I chuck it over my shoulder and grip my spear ever-tighter in my hand. I make to take a step forward but almost fall at the first step – I'm still swaying so badly – I right myself and let the rage show on my face, so the Capitol knows. I was wondering about whether I wanted to win a few days ago, but now I know.

I want to win.

I want to go home.

I want to win and make their lives hell.

So I stumble through the forest, looking for a fight. I don't care if it's 5 against 1, I will win, and they. Will . Pay.

Now I have a purpose time seems to have sped up, hours are no longer the torturous passage of time that I endured after the girl from District 7's death. I seem to be walking quicker now, and the steps I take seem to resonate sound throughout the forest, practically broadcasting my location to the whole fucking world. Why don't they just come? Why don't they just come!

I feel like screaming, just so they'll come, thinking I'm injured or weak, just like Dou, and then they'll pay.

They. Will. Pay!

'I'M HERE!' I yell inside my head 'I WANT TO FIGHT! COME AND GET ME IF YOU THINK YOU CAN!'

And still they do not come.

So I'll have to come to them.

The first place I look is the Cornucopia, though it takes me 3 hours of fast walking to find the damn place, I must have walked so far yesterday. The gold glints off it without a care in the world, but the place itself is empty, of both people and things, though they might still be near there, on the other side of the river. They could have hidden themselves around it to spring a trap, though it's not the most likely thing to have happened. Most likely they moved on when they realised all the 'prey' was on the other side of the river.

Talking of the river…

If I thought it was deadly looking yesterday, I wouldn't have wanted to see it today. The rain has increased from cold drizzle the previous day to thick droplets that splatter audibly. The river has swollen again to become twice as thick as it was the day before.

But I'm crossing it.

I secure the pack tighter on my shoulders to stop it falling off in the river. The spear almost stabbed into me yesterday, so I won't risk it again today. I gaze around the other side of the river bank, wondering whether I could chuck it across.

Does it really matter?

No.

I ready my arm to throw and chuck it hard, watching with some satisfaction as it digs itself into the mud about 3 feet behind the river with a dull 'phutt' sound followed by a loud plop that seems to echo around the place. And now for me. I raise my arms alongside myself and push myself off in a perfect (if I do say so myself) swan dive. The dive itself propels me across most of the river, and the rest of the swim is practically easy now, for some unknown reason. The raging water is nothing compared to me. I reach the bank on the other side in mere seconds this time, only moving a few feet downstream. I push myself up and reach forward to grab my spear, clutching it firmly as I pull it out of the mud with a squelch that reminds me of the girl from 7 again.

I straighten up fully, glancing around the clearing in the vain hope that they will appear, but they don't. The only sound apart from my shallow breathing is the river, pounding loudly. No-one could hear me if I screamed, not that I plan on doing so, anyway. I walk towards the Cornucopia, and gaze inside it, but I find it completely bare of anything that could help me, or anything that could lead me to their location. I guess I'll just have to wander around the place until I find them, which shouldn't be that hard. I'm looking for them, they're looking for me, and the Capitol wants both of us to find the other. I'd give it half an hour.

I walk towards the sea this time, not willing to swim the river again, and dive into it. The waves are massive, and I have to swim hard to keep them from pulling me under completely, but I manage it. I swim around, feeling the river's mouth pushing me out, further to sea, further into the waves. Luckily there isn't any current or I could be sucked down into the bottom and drown. Also luckily there aren't any mutt animals in the sea, or I could be eaten. I swim at a 45 degree angle to the shore, passing by the river in a few strong strokes and slowly moving further back towards the shore, a grey-golden smudge between the green-grey forest and grey sea and sky.

When I reach it, I turn quickly towards the forest, where wind can be heard howling between the trees. That's where they'd be, if the Cornucopia was empty, they'd be in there. Hunting. The hunters are now the hunted.

A shout can be heard over the sound of the wind and I turn towards it. Through the sheets of rain and trees I can see several indistinct silhouettes of people ahead. Multiple silhouettes of people. It's them.

I step forward quickly, spear raised above my head as I come close enough to hear their voices, brought to me by the wind. All of them are there, and they seem to be hunting. Or perhaps they found the person they were hunting and they're just playing with their prey. It wouldn't surprise me at all.

"What're we gonna do with you, eh?" One of the voices says as I step closer. I can't make out who is who though, not from this distance, but I can recognise it as male. One of the Trolls or him.

"Dunno" says a female voice, "What do you suggest Loki?" Copia, it's got to be her. Nyx had a quiet voice and Pomona sounds like an utter imbecile when she speaks. This voice is high and cruel.

Then there's a sound of a something sharp being removed from a pouch and I walk quicker. I might be a murderer but I want things to be quick, apart from for them. Gasps of surprise echo around the clearing as I realise that it wasn't one of them who removed a weapon, but the prey. Or the not prey. They're still outnumbered completely though, 5-1.

'No' my mind think viciously '5-2'

And I leap out into the clearing.

The 5 of them stand in a semi-circle around the prey, weapons held out towards a figure holding a bloodied mace. I can't tell whether it's animal or human.

'But it better not be his…'

More gasps of surprise, thought these ones are quickly stifled. I look around at them, trying to stop the thumping of blood pumping through my head, making it hard to hear anything. If I want to liv- if I want them to die, I need all my senses with me. His face looks at me, something between fear and surprise etched on his features. I know instantly that he doesn't want to fight me, be it because he's my District partner, or just because I might put up a bit of a fight. Dou wouldn't have put up a fight, and they know it.

But I will.

The person next to me stiffened when I appeared, perhaps thinking I was with them, and now she was outnumbered 6-1. She looks at me in confusion, before the confusion turns to fear and then confusion again. Maybe remembering the last time we met.

And how I let her go.

She cocks her head to one side like a dog, asking for explanations, and I nod slightly before turning back to them, holding my spear tighter than ever. My knife is held in my left hand, withdrawn from the pack after I landed on the shore. My arm no longer aches with the pain of my first wound, and I look at them.

'Come on then. Cowards'

I speak for the first time in days "Come on then!" I say. My voice comes out louder than I was expecting; I thought it might be hoarse from underuse. "Or don't you like it when your opponents are armed?"

Copia laughs slightly from the centre of the group. Her hair's still golden and smooth, and she tosses it over one shoulder as she talks. "I thought you might be able to count. There's 5 of us" she gestures around at them all of them and I see Kai look even less happy with the situation than the girl from 5, Din. "And only 2 of you." She gives me and Din a demeaning look.

Oh well, time to flip off the Cthulhu.

"Yeah" I say flippantly "You don't like it when the odds are fair, do you?"

Din's now looking between me and them with a look which quite plainly says 'What. The. Hell?'.

Copia lets out a small snarl of rage and leaps at me with a knife held in her arm. Stupid move to do, especially when I'm holding a spear. I sidestep her and she shoots past me into a tree, giving a small *oof* as she hits it hard in the face. Din lifts her mace up (hand on a second, where did she get a mace? She didn't have one last time…) and slams it down in the direction of Copia's head. Din's weeping face appears in front of my eyes. Was all that an act last time?

This seems to set everyone off, and everybody storms forward. Kai still stands still, looking slightly nervous.

Camulos strikes out with a kick, knocking Din sideways and causing her mace to swing wildly on its chain, just missing my head. I chucked myself to the ground just in time and it whizzes (mostly) harmlessly over my head, falling back down on Camulos who lets out a bellow of pain. I'm about to help Din when something slams into me hard, and I can tell from the smell who it is.

Pomona doesn't even have a knife as far as I can tell.

I grasp for my spear, which flew out of my hands when she tackled me to the floor, but it's inches out of my reach. Pomona lifts her foot up and brings it down, hard, onto my face.

I hear a crack like a bullet as my nose breaks, sending warm liquid streaming down my face. Pomona brings her foot up again, this time aiming for my neck, I close my eyes.

A sound of pain and a loud thud.

I throw my eyes open in time to see Pomona staggering back, the whole of the left side of her face bleeding profusely, hands clasped against it.

She removes her hand and reaches for a weapon, and I supress the urge to vomit with difficulty.

Her left eye is hanging out, and the rest of her face looks like a slab of raw meat, bloodied and raw. I whirl round to see Din holding the mace, a look of pure fury on her face.

The Capitol obviously got the wrong girl when they named me the rage girl.

"That's for Worke" She says with a hiss, but before she can raise the mace any higher I reach out with my left hand, the forgotten knife still clasped between my fingers. Pomona gives a small yelp as redness spills around her stomach. Then her eyes close and her breaths stop.

*BOOM*

A cannon goes off loudly, and I hear some gasps, of pain or surprise. I cannot tell. I look up from her corpse to see Nyx, Copia and Loki, still fighting Din. She's managing to keep her own against 3 (well, 2 and a half) trained killers. True, 2 of them are utter idiots. Copia's holding a weapon now, one which isn't a short knife. Her Katana dances around Din as she leaps about, missing Loki's wild swings too. Like Pomona, Loki fights without weapons, just his fists. Nyx has a row of knives stuck to her belt, but Din's attempts to reach her are stopping her from using them. That's probably why Din's targeting her. Kai's still hovering at the edge of the fight, not wanting to run away, but not wanting to fight either.

I look at Pomona's ex-body.

"And that was for Dou you bitch!" I say quietly as I turn back towards Din and the others. I reach down and pick up my spear, meaning to thrust it towards at Loki or Copia, to help Do-Din. They seem to hear me, and Loki ducks, somehow aware of my presence, but stays fighting Din. Nyx somehow saw my efforts, and turns to me , leaving Loki and Copia fighting Din. Nyx is fighting me.

Nyx is fighting me.

Was all that weakness an act too? Like me, like Din?

Did Dou have an act?

Is anyone real here?

I am about to throw the spear at her head, when something stops me. I never liked Pomona, but Nyx? She was nice, could I really kill her. A sneer shoots across her face as I realise, this was her plan.

I can't kill her. I don't think I can.

I duck as a knife is thrown at my head, and it hits the tree behind me with a loud sound.

'Why did I think this was a good idea!' My brain shouts at me 'I'm going to die now!' I throw the spear blindly, and a scream sounds as I see Nyx staggering back, spear embedded in her right thigh.

And now I have no weapon.

Nyx seems to be in no state to fight me though, so I step forwards to help Din when I hear the breaking of twigs and crunch of soil underfoot sound behind me. I manage to whirl around in time to see the large form of Camulos bearing down on me, large sword held above his head. Obviously Din didn't kill him, because he looks very much alive to me.

And where did he get a sword from?

No time to worry about that now.

I leap aside but the sword slams into my knife, cutting it clean in two. The metal is cut through like a warm knife through butter.

Oh crap…

Sword vs. Spear? Maybe I had a chance.

Sword vs. Knife? I can at least try.

Sword vs. Broken Knife? Oh crap…

I chuck the plastic that used to be my knife's handle at his head, and it makes contact with a loud thunk that makes me want to laugh for some reason. I wonder vaguely about picking up the other half of the knife, but just as I think that, a whiz of another knife sounds, and I feel something yank my hair.

A knife is quivering ominously by its point in the tree, matted mousy hair being blown about by the wind, pinned down by it.

My mousy blond hair.

I duck, without even knowing if a knife is flying towards me and my instincts turn out to be right. Another knife soars by the place my head was mere seconds ago, joining the other knife in the tree. If I was standing upright I'd be swaying right now.

'I almost died. I almost died. I was one inch away from death…'

I spin round to see Nyx, teeth gritted in pain, holding another knife up, preparing to throw.

With a yelp of fear, I dive to the side, moving too slowly. For the second time in this Arena, a knife hits me in the left shoulder, just above where it was last time. And on my front this time.

Pain explodes around the area, but I wrench the knife out anyway and chuck it back at her. My aim is slightly off target, and it hits her in her side. At that exact moment a mace swings out of nowhere, slamming into her head.

The sound of Nyx's scream mixes with the blast of the cannon, as Copia and the Trolls turn towards me.

Kai is nowhere to be seen now.

Din steps towards me, limping slightly on her left foot. I can see a trail of blood behind her, and a rip in leg where a knife or sword had hit. We stand shoulder against shoulder, looking warily at the three of them. They are uninjured, and Loki has managed to find an axe to use as a weapon, and they stand facing us. Copia's Katana is hanging limply at her side, blood smeared all over it, a slightly smug look on her face.

"Now this, this is just unfair" I breath, panting slightly "On you, that is"

She gives me a glare and raises her Katana to fight. I raise my fists and Din her bloodied mace. I have no weapon, both of mine reside in Nyx's lifeless body. If we fight, I'll be dead in minutes.

'For Dou' I think.

Another crackle of wood, and I whirl around to see the figure of a man join me and Din.

A man who isn't Kai.

I try to quash the disappointment that rose up when I saw the man's face, it would be suicide to join us against the Careers. Me and Din have to, he could just run away; he did just run away.

The man, tribute, person who joins me and Din is one I haven't really seen before. Or at least, not in the Arena. His handsome, carved face makes me think of statues, and I recognise him almost instantly as the tribute from 12, the tribute who isn't scampering over rock face at this very moment.

He holds a sickle, completely clean of blood, in one hand. In the other is a dark brown bottle, smeared with mud.

The three of us stand, facing them, daring them to fight.

All of us here, baring Kai and the climbing girl.

Career against us.

Us against Career.

And they look between each other.

"Oh come on!" Copia yells, looking madder than I've ever seen her before, madder even when I was taunting her. I can see why she's angry. We just killed two of the Careers, and another has abandoned them completely. Their group has halved in number in a matter of minutes, and they are outnumbered by us. Us who haven't quite lost ourself to the Game.

Or have we?

"I told you that you didn't like fair odds" I say, trying to stop my shallow breaths. "Why don't you piss off back to your lair?"

Copia gives us a dirty look, but doesn't attack us again. She may be stupid, but she isn't that stupid. She backs away into the trees, with the Trolls trailing behind her. After about 30 seconds of walking, she turns tail and runs, and we listen as the sound of pounding footsteps disappears, replaced by rain.

We stand for about a minute, not moved from out positions.

I can see rain dripping off my nose, and I blink slightly to remove it from my eye.

"So…" say a deep gravelly voice that makes me and Din jump. I realise a second later that it has to be the boy from 12's voice. I recognise it from the interviews. I struggle to remember a name, as we lapse into silence again. It suddenly occurs to me that I'm still weaponless, and if they chose to attack me, I'd stand no chance.

"Gerani" I say to no-one in particular, and the boy from 12 turns to me "That's your name, right?"

He nods, and I turn to Din "And you're Din…" my mind flicks back to Pomona's death, and what Din said before it, "And Worke was your District partner… They killed him"

"And they killed Dou." Din says in a flat voice. I recognise that voice from the interviews too, that thin, quiet voice.

We lapse into silence again, leaving the unasked question floating in the air.

Then Gerani turns away and begins to leave, in the direction the Careers went. I raise an eyebrow at Din, and she shrugs, rolling her eyes slightly, non-verbally saying. 'It's his life'.

I wanted vengeance for Dou, and Din wanted vengeance for Worke. What does Gerani want? I saw his District partner earlier today, completely fine from what I could tell.

I turn away from Din again, the unasked question still hanging in the air. I walk over to Nyx's body and pull out my spear, as well as removing her belt of knives. A large pack lies beside Pomona, and I remove it and throw it over to Din's feet. Din deserves it more than I do.

I straighten up, and look at Din, our eyes connected.

"Well, bye" she says awkwardly.

Neither of us move.

A flash of lightning illuminates the sky, and Din turns, moving deeper into the forest. I turn too, aiming back to the Cornucopia and the cliffs.

Suddenly, a voice calls back, a quiet voice that still carries above the storm that's going on.

"I would have said yes, if you asked" it says, and I smile slightly in the rain. I don't call back.

I continue walking towards the Cornucopia, heart lightened slightly, though still weighed down with grief and guilt and anger and emotions I can't even start to name. But the thought of what could have been makes me happier, for once.

I think to a time where the Games never happened. I think Din and I would have been friends.

And the unasked question about an alliance?

I think my answer would have been yes too.

Reviewers will join my alliance.