Mako's POV

The outside of the caves is very open and spacious, but it's dark. My watch tells me it is around eleven at night. The moon above the surface barely lights the arena. But after 100 yards down, the moon is no longer seen, like we learned in school. Better not go too deep.

After a while of swimming out in the open I suddenly feel a sting on my foot, and then another. I look down to a horrifying sight.

Hundreds of jellyfish are swarming beneath me, and growing in numbers. I think they are coming from the trench below. I scramble to swim upward and away, but they are piling up, getting closer and closer. I switch on my propeller and head for the nearest tunnel.

Please have land. Please, please, please don't just be an air pocket.

I feel more and more stings as the jellyfish seem to follow me. They must be like the tracker jackers. I kick as much as my legs can bear, but the pain is unbearable. I reach the tunnel, but the jellyfish don't stop. Now in a smaller area, they pile towards me even faster. These aren't like the jellyfish back in the Districts. They don't follow the current.

They follow you.

My torso is starting to go numb as they sting further up my body. I can only swim with my arms now. Everything is starting to look fuzzy, but I can just barely see a cave coming up on my left. I scramble for it. My chest is starting to feel numb. It's getting hard to breathe. With the last bit of strength I have, I haul myself up onto the floor of the cave and collapse, hopefully a good distance from the water. I look around, the gem lights fuzzily dimming from my eyes. The last thing I see before I black out is a pair of bright green eyes approaching me

I awaken to the smell of something minty. My whole body aches. Everything starts to spin when I try to sit up straight.

"Lie back down," says a tiny voice. "Or you'll pass out again."

I reach for my sword, but it isn't there. I look and see its black blade gleam in the hands of the young boy from District 5. His shaggy, wet, red hair falls into his green eyes. Hundreds of freckles dot his nose and face.

"And don't more your legs. The medicine won't work," he says.

"Medicine?"

I look down. My scuba suit is zipped open with a sticky paste lathered on my chest, stomach and legs.

"What the-"

"I got it from a sponsor," the boy adds. "I got stung too, but not as bad as you."

I stare at him for a while.

"Why did you save me?" I ask him. "You could have easily let me die."

The boy whose name I now remember is Scurry, looks down and puts the sword to the side, still out of my reach.

"You didn't go with the careers," he whispers. "That was the coolest thing I've ever seen. You're like a rebel."

I laugh, leaning my head back.

"I guess you could say that." I stretch my neck. "So, it's Scurry?"

He nods timidly.

"Mako," I say. His eyes widen.

"Like the shark?" he says. He smiles from ear to ear when I nod.

"That's so cool!" he exclaims. "I hate my name. It makes me sound like a rodent, like a mouse or a rabbit."

"Of a fox," I add with a smile. The corners of Scurry's lips drop in a frown and he drops his head.

"What is it?" I ask.

"Fox," he mutters. "Yeah, it would make sense."

"I don't say anything else for a while. The drip drop of the cave makes the silence less awkward.

"So," I say slowly. "Do you want to be allies?"

Scurry snaps his head back up at me.

"Why do you want me for an ally?" he asks. "I got a 2 on my private session.

"So? My girlfriend got a 5 and she's a career."

"Girlfriend?" You're not related to her?"

"That would be a little weird wouldn't it?"

Scurry laughs a little and says, "Ok, allies."

Finnick's POV

"Haha, Finnick!" Brutus guffaws at me. "You're boy just teamed up with a nine-year-old! He's screwed for sure."

He's drunk yes, but he has a point. Mako teaming up with that boy might have just sealed his fate. That kid will only slow him down. Annie glares at Brutus.

"I think he'll do just fine," she says between twitches. "Did you see what he did with his propeller? That kid can move!"

True, the Scurry kid is smart for a nine-year-old, but he is still young and naïve. He probably won't last much longer. Enobaria wrenches the liquor bottle from Brutus' grip, telling him he's had enough.

"He's not nearly as bad as Abernathy though," adds Cashmere, drinking her own mixed beverage. Gloss rolls his eyes and sips on his water.

"I'm still surprised that kid made it and his sister didn't make it past the bloodbath," says Annie quietly. "She seemed like such a fighter."

But it isn't enough just to be a fighter is it? You have to be a killer too.

A/N: I underestimated how small my rough draft was until I typed it up. Sorry this chapter was so short.