(A/N): Yeah, the chapter title definitely gave some of it away, but... we were surprised to. This is pretty much the only story where Scott ever COULD kill the Phoenix, I'm pretty sure.


Chapter 33: The Final Eight


In the Capitol


The commentators on the screen were still cackling over what they called a magnificent showing from the Seven alliance, the fireball in the night sky a fitting visual that they were only too happy to overplay to death, screenshot, and continue talking about.

It had several people — the ones who weren't exactly in the know — optimistic over the possibilities for the little alliance. Others were just gleefully recounting the possibility of a clash between the two alliances left, since there was very little competition left to speak of outside those six.

But after Logan had seen Scott's face after his kill, he stepped away from the gathered group of victors and quietly slipped up to his room. He didn't want to answer any questions.… He didn't want to deal with anyone, and frankly, he knew Scott was not alright. At all. So, instead of dealing with any of it, he went promptly to breaking his word to Jubilee and simply started to drink as the family interviews began. He swore out loud when it started, because he'd forgotten about them — and of course … Scott was up first.

They were clearly capitalizing on the spotlight as Trish gave her little introduction and overview, reminding the viewers that Scott and his brother had been split and that Scott had grown up in Seven's orphanage. She had plenty of practiced pity in the story that most reporters had to pull in from stories about the Games, though if she'd been hoping for a sob story, what she got instead was little Elsie Dee, who was first to answer the door and positively monopolized all of Trish's attention.

"You're here for Scott, aren't you?" she asked, her arms crossed over her chest as she sized Trish up. "You don't look like you're from Seven — or a Sentinel."

Trish looked taken off guard by the precocious little girl before she nodded. "Yes, I'm here to ask about Scott. Did you know him?"

"Of course. He lives here. Duh." Elsie Dee looked up at Trish like she was dense. "You're not very good at this if you don't know that."

"Is there anyone else at home — anyone grown-up that I can talk to?" Trish asked, but Elsie rolled her eyes even harder at that.

"They're all upstairs watching the Games. You don't want to talk to them anyway," she told Trish. "You really are bad at this."

"Why don't I want to talk to them?"

"Cause you want to talk about Scott. Duh. Only…" She put her hands on her hips again. "Don't ask the littlest ones, because they still don't really know anything about anything."

"Well, who can I talk to then?" Trish asked, her amusement growing the more the little blonde spoke. "I'm supposed to talk to people that know him here at the orphanage."

"Well, good luck with that, lady," Elsie said, shaking her head.

"Wait, do you know him?"

She smirked and nodded. "Yep. You're really, really bad at this."

"Well, I'm not a detective," Trish said. "Just a reporter. So why don't you pick out the other kids that know him best and come on outside to talk with us for a few minutes?"

Elsie seemed to consider this for a moment before she nodded and closed the door in Trish's face, returning a bit later with some of the kids from Heather's usual zoo — the older ones that understood more of what was going on, of course.

It was clear Trish wasn't quite used to interviewing a small gaggle of kids all at once as they all vied to have turns at the microphone to tell stories about Scott, like how he was always working but if Elsie asked him with her 'Elsie face' — whatever that meant — he would play with them anytime they wanted. Or how he was nice to everybody, even Sentinels, which had Elsie nodding. "Oh yeah. He's a boy scout," she giggled, and then refused to expound on that statement anymore.

Logan had to snort at that one, nearly spilling his drink. Sassy kids. All of them. And smart enough not to say anything incriminating in front of a reporter. Every one of them was going to get something special when he got back to Seven.

When it seemed that Trish had her fill of being bossed around by Elsie and her squad, she finally ended the interview, looking a bit surprised at how it had gone.


Triskellion


After Scott's interview had aired, Skye was in a fairly good mood. It was a relief to have Jean out of the Games, and things were actually looking up for the little Seven alliance. Maybe her favorite tribute wouldn't lose this year. That would be great.

Plus, it was a blast to watch little Elsie Dee work Trish over. That girl knew she was in charge. Of everything.

Of course, the next interview up on deck was another from that same alliance. The Capitol clearly wanted to capitalize on the spotlight for that group, and when Trish rolled up to the cute little house in one of the few nice neighborhoods in Six, it was immediately clear to see where Kamala got her sweetness from as her mother waved Trish and her cameraman inside with a warm smile and Kamala's father made it a point to offer them both something warm to eat, though they declined.

Kamala's big brother Aamir, though, was clearly not as warm and welcoming as his parents. He was being polite, but his gaze kept slipping to the television every second his parents spent being nice to Trish before the interview had even really started. He wanted to check on how his little sister was doing, not sit down with a Capitol interviewer.

"Are you proud of how far your daughter has made it?" Trish asked once they were all settled, though both of her parents glanced at each other at the question, even if Trish looked like she hadn't thought it would be a hard one to answer.

"We're certainly glad she's alive," her father, Yusuf, said slowly.

"And we're very, very glad that she hasn't had to shed innocent blood," her mother, Muneeba, chimed in, looking entirely earnest.

"Not that it'll last," Aamir muttered from his place on the far end of the couch, his gaze still on the screen of the television, even if it was off.

Both Khans shot their son a look, and he shrugged as if to say 'what, it's true,' before they turned their attention back to Trish. "We're just grateful she's still alive," Yusuf repeated, this time more emphatically.

"And do you have anything you'd like to say to her? You know , any message—"

"We just want her home," Aamir said, turning her way with his eyes narrowed. "She's thirteen and innocent, and she has no business being in a place like that."

Yusuf put a hand on his son's shoulder and shot him another look. "Aamir has been looking out for Kamala since they were little," he explained to Trish with an apologetic sort of expression.

"And now she has a protector in the arena too — two protectors, in fact. Isn't that good to know?" Trish offered.

"It will just be good to have her home," Muneeba said diplomatically.

"We're grateful for what they're doing, really," Yusuf added. "But we'd just like her to be home away from all… that."

The interview continued pretty much the same way until Trish was politely escorted to the front door, and Skye couldn't help but watch all the way through with a frown. It was clear Kamala's family was upset.

She didn't really think about it as she pulled her tablet a little closer and pulled up the messaging app and wrote to Logan. It's not gonna be easy this year. I think the adorable sweetie pie thing is genetic, and there's still six left.

She stared at the message for a moment, wondering if she should even send it, since she was sure that Logan would feel the same way. Worse, probably, since he knew the orphanage kids better than she did and he didn't know about Tahiti. So it felt a little selfish to complain to him.

She edited the message quickly.

The adorable sweetie pie thing is genetic, clearly.

There. Much better. She nodded at the message and then sent it off, setting the tablet aside as the next interview cued up.


Phil Coulson's Triskellion Office


The Games coverage was playing quietly in the corner of Phil Coulson's office as he looked over the preliminary field reports on Fitzsimmons' final monstrosity for the Games. The reports were scrawled with little notes from both Fitz and Simmons, some in Fitz' messy scrawl and some with Simmon's neat print. They all said basically the same thing, though — they didn't want to send out their biggest project this year.

The problem was, the thing performed 'admirably,' at least by Games standards, and while Fitzsimmons had certainly helped with the mutts, they weren't the only ones on the team of creators, and the rest of the R&D department said it was perfect. Essex had signed off, too, which meant it was guaranteed to be horrible.

It was a good thing this was the last Games, because Coulson's team… he didn't think they could hold up under the pressure if they ran another one. They were all getting far too attached.

He was only half listening when he heard Clara's name in the broadcast as her interview was up next, and he paused, intrigued. There had been a few surprises this year — like Jean stepping in to volunteer without being on their list at all — but Clara had been by far the biggest one.

Coulson had been completely in favor of sending her in, hitting Creed where it hurt, but now, he found that he was rooting for the girl, and he'd already sent in at least three official requests to put her on the Tahiti list. He knew she wouldn't make it through, not when Thanos wanted Creed punished, but that didn't mean they had to sentence the girl to death.

Of course Thanos wanted her dead. She was nothing like her brother. Compassionate, kind, and even tender to those she put around herself. Her protective drive was right up there with the kids currently in the Tahiti program too — and that was saying something. How in the world those two were from the same household was a mystery. And it just wasn't right that she had to pay for Victor's failings, even if she had seemed to expect it.

The interview with Victor for his sister had been as Coulson had expected. One fleeting glimpse of a bit of humanity immediately shoved away as he stormed by the interviewer and her camera. But the interviews from Seven were much more interesting. Her other living brother was out and out worried for her. A dead ringer for Victor — though a bit shorter, and a lot more concerned about someone else's welfare. Their mother was incredibly quiet and answered Trish's questions honestly and softly as what looked like a massive timber wolf kept vigil at her feet.

He had to shake his head. Something was definitely off about the family as a whole, but Clara seemed to be the best of it. And one way or another, he was going to make sure Fury put her in Tahiti.


July 15: Day Nine of the Games

Tahiti Wing


The family interviews had run for the little alliance of Sevens and Kamala through the night, but as the Capitol went to sleep, they died down, picking it back up again around breakfast the next morning with the members of the second 'Team Awesome.'

Kitty's parents' showing was almost a repeat of watching Kate's dad from the year before. Stiff, very little emotion, and although her mother was wide-eyed, she really didn't say much about anything — even when Trish asked her a direct question. As a result, the cameraman had made a point to edit the interview so that whatever they did say was shown with a voiceover of the answers while the images on screen displayed almost a walkthrough of Kitty's portraits on the walls of their home. Very few snapshots. Mostly posed photos where she was wearing something that she'd hated, and in every one, it wasn't the smile that Kurt had known his whole life. It was a fake one — cold and hollow.

What's worse was that her father's answers were not at all descriptive of the girl on the screen. "It's like he doesn't even know her," Kurt said softly.

Kate watched Kurt's face instead of the interview playing and leaned over to kiss his cheek. "That's what she's got friends like you for," she whispered in his ear. "Family's not just blood."

"Yes, but what good does that do when I'm not there to defend the real katzchen?"

Kate shook her head. "I don't know, but you can give him a piece of your mind when this is all over if you want. I'll make sure Peter gets it on film so Kitty can watch it whenever she feels down," she said with a little smile, clearly trying to cheer up her upset Elf.

He turned her way for a moment to give her a quick kiss before they turned back to the screen, where Kitty's father was trying to say how much he'd taught her before she'd gone into the Games about being light on her feet — though even Kitty's mother had turned to look his way on that one.

"She likes to dance," Kurt said.

"She can share Natasha's studio when we combine Tahiti and the other side of SHIELD," Kate said with a little nod.

"She would love it," Kurt agreed.

"Clint will make Natasha share. It'll be good for her," Kate promised.

Kurt let out a deep breath and nodded, though he was frowning. "Do you think they'll really do that?"

"If they don't, they'll have an uprising on their hands, and we know how to handle pointy objects now," Kate pointed out as she gently kissed his cheek again.

"I want her to win," Kurt said quietly, but he drew in a breath and held it for a moment before he continued. "But I want her to live more."

"Yeah," Kate said, her tone more subdued than before as she had to nod beside him. "Yeah… I get that. I really do." She pressed another quick kiss to his cheek and rested her head against his. "New plan, then? Let Logan have his kid, make him happy. We get all our friends; we're happy. And nobody has to die or kill anyone to get there. Deal?"

"I'm sure that's not how this works, Kate," Kurt pointed out, and she scoffed at him.

"Nonsense. I'll run it by Van Helsing in the morning. He'll approve of it heartily, and everyone will be happy and eating pancakes by dinner."

"If only it were that simple," Kurt replied with a little kiss.

"Not everything can be so straightforward as you and me, sweetheart," she teased him, just to get him to kiss her again, which, of course, he did.


Peter still had the run of the rec room, and most of the others were completely content to give it to him. He'd actually overheard Jan suggesting to Ororo that some of the other kids would trickle into the rec room for the peace and quiet as the Games went on and, inevitably, somebody was going to lose the friend they had in the Games.

But seeing as that hadn't happened yet — besides to Sin, who was absolutely not going to sit in the rec room and do anything that looked like she might have cared — Peter had the room to himself as the family interviews played.

He wasn't entirely sure why he was still watching. The hit to Team Awesome 2.0 when Billy died had been hard enough to watch and had completely derailed any good mood he'd started to build. And then the family interviews….

See, he'd never watched those when he was growing up. Aunt May didn't like them, because she couldn't stand to watch the parents, aunts, uncles, siblings… She didn't like that the Capitol capitalized on grief. So Peter didn't watch them either.

And he could totally see why. Watching the interviews, it was clear to see that these people were suffering, living and dying with every second their family and friends were on the screen, just like Peter had been watching Gwen… just like Gwen had probably been watching him.

With the Sevens alliance done, the interviewer had moved on to Team Awesome 2.0, and Peter tried to pay a little more attention when Trish started up her introduction on Miles. The kid had done everything he could — more than could have been expected of anyone else in his position — to try and help Gwen and even to try and help the new alliance stay positive. Or… as positive as the arena could be.

So Peter was a little surprised to find that the little ray of sunshine for Eleven didn't have anybody, really. Trish knocked on the door of the apartment but found nothing, so that had been edited out to just showing where he lived. The awards from school that he'd nailed up above his headboard on his bed. That sort of thing.

They did, finally, find someone to ask about Miles, and when they found the sweet, stoutly little boy, it was easy to see why he and Miles were best friends.

"Oh, he's going to be back," Ganke said, nodding confidently. "You don't know him like I do, and he's got a big heart. And he's the fastest kid in school."

Trish had to smirk at that. "So you're saying he'll win by outrunning all the other kids?" she asked.

"I'm saying you gotta give him credit," Ganke insisted. "I know he's no good on ranged or… well… weapons. But give him something smart to work on. He'll be out of there in a second!"

"I'm afraid the Games aren't quite like a school competition," Trish pointed out, but the young man seemed adamant.

"Just wait and see. This year, we'll have a Spider-man victor from Eleven, I can just feel it. Can't you?"

"It certainly is a very different year than any other year we've seen," Trish allowed.

Ganke broke into a huge grin. "Exactly!" he said. "Nobody's seen any of this stuff coming. The Careers are gone, and Miles is doing well - I'd say things are looking up!"

Trish smiled at Ganke's enthusiasm and then leaned in a bit. "Still… do you have anything you'd like to say to him? Just in case?"

Ganke's expression fell as he glanced at the microphone, uncertain for the first time since he'd started speaking. "Um… well. I guess," he muttered quietly. He squared his shoulders to look down the camera lens. "Miles, buddy, you'd better win. But if you don't, I just want you to know you're my favorite Spider-man."

Peter couldn't help but smile at that as Trish wrapped up the interview with Ganke and the feed switched back to checking in on the arena while they queued up the next one.

This kid, this new Spider-Man… he was so going to be invited to the team. Just one big Team Awesome all around. He was sure Logan wouldn't mind. After all, Peter had seen the evidence. Logan loved them anyway.


There were only three interviews left, and both Kate and Cassie were braced for what they knew had to be America's. After all, there was only one member of the second Team Awesome left.

That really didn't make it any easier, though, as when Trish made her way back to the dilapidated little shack for the second time in as many years, the only two members of their team to greet her were Nate and Eli — exactly the two boys that she didn't want.

"I'm looking for Thomas Shepherd and Theodore Altman," she said.

Eli had his arms crossed, standing in front of the little house. "No."

"I need them for the family interview. We went through this last year? Remember?"

"Last year, you were asking for America," Eli pointed out. "And she was just fine to talk to you."

"I promise, it will be brief," Trish argued, which had both Eli and Nate sharing a look between them.

"I doubt that," Nate said quietly.

"Look, that's Billy Kaplan's twin brother and boyfriend. Do you really think I'm going anywhere without talking to them?" Trish crossed her arms and matched Eli's body language exactly, and the stifled chuckle from the other end of the camera told the audience that Trish's cameraman was clearly enjoying the standoff.

But, finally, Eli caved. "You can't go in there," he told her seriously before he disappeared down a hatch door, and the house was quiet for a while.

"You don't need to interview them, you know," Nate told Trish as they waited. "You're looking for America's friends, not his."

"Actually, I kind of do," she defended. "They're all running in the same pack. If she was willing to fight and die for him, I think we can safely say she is friends with his boyfriend."

Nate frowned hard at that one. "It's not Billy's interview," he said.

"Do you want to do the interview yourself?" Trish challenged.

"Me?" He looked taken aback.

"You sure sound like you know more about it than apparently I do — so do you want to do it?"

He thought about it for a moment. "Yeah, I guess I could do it."

"Then you just set the camera up and leave it here — and go find whoever you think would be a better interview for America. Go on." She shooed him forward with both hands. "We can compare notes later."

"There's... not… anybody else…." He looked a little lost.

She raised her eyebrows his way, waiting for it to sink in for him. "I'm sorry, what was that?"

"Can't you just interview me? I thought... "

"Are you friends with her?"

"Sort of," he said.

"Well, then we can start while we wait for the others, but I still want to talk to them."

Nate nodded, but in the few minutes between when Trish started asking him about America and when Eli and the other emerged, it was clear he was struggling. Even America's closest friends didn't have much to say about her. The problem was that she spent so much of her time over the fence or on her own or somewhere they had no idea where she was… there wasn't much they could say on Capitol television.

Still, Trish was distracted from Nate's sub-par answers on America's background by the twin figures of Teddy and Tommy. It was clear that, up until a few moments ago, Teddy had been a wreck, and Eli was half standing in front of him as Tommy, who had already had his moment in the spotlight with Trish the previous year, sized her up with more narrowed eyes than he had last year.

"Thank you for taking the time to talk to me," Trish said. "I really had hoped not to meet you all again under these circumstances."

"Yeah, whatever. Just… get this over with," Tommy grumbled, his arms crossed over his chest.

Trish looked a bit put out, but she did understand the group's viewpoint. She turned to her cameraman and made the cut sign before she turned back to the kids. "Alright, I'm going to be frank: just tell me whatever great things you can about America, and if you let slip anything about Billy, and how they were such great friends, I can all but guarantee it'll air. But try to knock the chip off your shoulder for your own good, okay?"

"What're you gonna do, powder us to death?" Tommy shot her way.

"I'd really rather not have you on camera acting like a bunch of wannabe rebels," she said with a frown. "That kind of attitude will bring the wrong attention."

"You know, guys, she's not wrong," Eli said, which earned him a glare from all three other boys.

"Okay, okay. We'll say nice things about America. Then can we go home?" Tommy all but whined.

"That's all I'm asking for," she replied.

Of course, almost all of Trish's interactions with the kids from Twelve were edited, so what the kids in Tahiti saw of the whole interview was a brief showing of the confrontation at the front door, followed by a red-eyed Teddy as well as Tommy trying to be on his best behavior giving a glowing review of America's ability to win. Which… mostly consisted of Tommy recounting times America had hit him. He seemed to think that was ample evidence to show that she was victor material.

It was actually relatively painless, and both Kate and Cassie were relieved to see that Teddy made it through without totally breaking down over Billy, though he did look like he was teetering on the verge.

Still, it could have been so much worse, and both girls heaved a sigh of relief when it was over, ready for the Games to be done at this point. Neither of them were sure how much more of all this they could take.

They were hardly even paying attention to the beginnings of the interviews from Ten — the guy they were talking to looked like a major creep anyway — when Tivan's voice broke through the broadcast with 'breaking news' from the Games that had everyone in the room sitting up straighter and holding their breaths.