A/N: Thanks to PrincessLyoka, mangesboy01, Sophia Aphrodite and Kiliflower for reviewing! :)

This chapter's quite a slow-paced one, featuring the final of my created victors in the Third Quarter Quell. Every chapter after this one will feature one of Collins' victors.


"Console me in my darkest hour

Convince me that the truth is always grey."

- Brandon Flowers, 2008.


The 75th Annual Hunger Games (The Third Quarter Quell) - Day 2, 7.30 am

Yvonne Grady (35), District 5 Female (victor of the 57th Annual Hunger Games)

The Killers - Losing Touch (2008)


The white sun rises in the pink sky over the arena, leaving the air cooler but just as humid as it was yesterday. I pull myself to my feet, grateful for the concealment of the undergrowth where I slept through the night. It appears to have been a necessary precaution against the Careers, as I spot sets of tracks in the soft ground near the edge of the trees nearby. Human tracks, three or four pairs of feet at most. The Careers. Cashmere, Gloss, Enobaria and Brutus. I've been lucky.

Brushing myself down, I check to make sure that I still have my few supplies that I've gathered during the last twenty-four hours. After escaping the cornucopia with nothing yesterday morning, I'm quite pleased with the small group of supplies that I've gathered from sponsor support alone. I imagine the the Capitol people have been much more generous on a whole this year, mostly due to the fact that they've had years to get to know all of this year's tributes. Even I, a quiet, distinctly average victor have far more support than most tributes would early in the Games. A knife, which I use to cut down the vines as I travel through the thick jungle, half to keep moving and half just to give me something to do. A two litre water bottle, which has meant the world to me in this humid and unforgiving environment. I wouldn't be surprised if one of the deaths so far has been due to dehydration. A small stash of food, saved from yesterday's evening meal.

As I continue my trek through the jungle, I realise that despite being in the Games, I have no real purpose to what I'm doing. Yes, I have to stay alive, but I'm not strong enough to hunt the others. Not yet, while there are surely alliances. Attacking the Careers - or any other partnerships of victors - would surely be suicide. So all I have to do is keep moving, lie low and avoid detection.

The morning passes slowly as I climb higher into the hills away from the cornucopia. Even though the arena is circular, I think a vantage point higher up the slope could become advantageous at some point. And if not, it's something to aim for, to keep the boredom away.

For the last two decades, ever since I won the 57th Annual Hunger Games, I feel as though my life has led no real purpose. It's strange, but having become a victor, I never wanted for anything, and had no cause to work for anything. My talent, playing the piano, could only occupy me so much, as could District 5's three other victors, Jared,. Dax and Luke. When I asked for work around the district, nobody ever took up my offers, giving jobs out to others who needed the money, leaving me alone in Victor's Village. Generally I live alone, isolated from the district by my time in the Games, and slowly isolated form the other victors. Jared passed away over a decade ago, Dax's health is failing him and Luke's been stuck at the bottom of a bottle of wine for the last ten years. Slowly I've become disconnected from them all, severing my last contact with the outside world.

The only times I associated myself with life outside Victor's Village were the Hunger Games every July, where I have mentored every year since my victory, partly due to being the only female victor, and after the rule change, Dax and I mentored every year due to our having a more stable mental condition than Luke. For a fortnight or so, I would do what I could for my tribute and make uneasy conversation with my fellow mentor, who I had neglected to communicate with for the past eleven months. And every year, we'd take the train home alone.

It was strange when the Quell came around, having been solitary for so long. I knew once it had been announced that I would have to work closely with my fellow victors once more, but to be honest I was glad of the distraction. It gave me something to do, gave my life a purpose. I made an uneasy truce with Luke and Dax trained us up for the arena once more. I'm almost certain that without three months of training, I'd be in a wooden box on the way to District 5 by now. Thinking about it, the seven I scored this year due to my preparation for the Games at home might be half the reason why I've had so many sponsors. They know that I'm still in fighting shape.

Still, having dedicated the last few months to making myself a real competitor for these Games, it seems strange to think that I'm here in the arena, wandering aimlessly because once again, I have no real purpose other than to stay alive. I know I should try and be vigilant and get on the hunt for tributes, but I had always planned it this way. Wait for the numbers to decrease and for the alliances to disband, and pick people off one by one.

Eventually I wear myself out from walking uphill for so long, and I take a seat on the ground in a clearing quite high up the slope. I take several swigs from my water bottle, trying to replenish my water levels. I've been sweating constantly all morning. The day is heating up, even though we're probably only just reaching mid-day. I can't be a hundred percent sure, though, as there's no way of telling the time once we're in the arena. Our outfits this year might have proved practical in many ways, but they neglected to add a clock.

I finish the last of the water before realising that it was all that I had. Annoyed at myself for overindulging, I throw the metal bottle down next me in frustration, staring out over the arena. Looking down the slope, I see several tiny figures dotted on the beach and in the shallows by the cornucopia. From the look of them, not one of them is turning to violence. How many are there? Six? Seven? I can't tell. Whoever they are, there are too many tributes for it to be the Careers. For a minute, I panic as to the actual location of the Careers, but I quickly reassure myself that I'm so far from the cornucopia (which, excluding sponsors, is the only water source in the arena) that I'm completely and utterly alone.

I'm about to start on my leftover food from last night - I haven't eaten a thing today - when a sliver parachute floats down in front of me. I smile before even looking at what it contains, because for once, I appreciate the fact that I'm not completely alone. Luke may be dead - he was the first casualty of the Quell - but Dax is still there in the Capitol, watching over my every move. For once, I'm grateful for the helping that he has been giving me as I struggle to get out of here alive.

Here in the arena of the 75th Annual Hunger Games, sponsors and a quick-minded mentor are synonymous with life itself.


A/N: If you enjoyed this chapter, please review! Constructive criticism is welcomed :)

If at all possible, I have a favour to ask of you guys:

I'm sure that some of you are aware that I've started a little side-project called '75 Games; Meet the Victors!' which is a recreation of the programme handed out to the Capitol audience on interview night, the day before the Third Quarter Quell. Within the story, there's going to be all sorts of things from profiles of the tributes and their mentors to interviews with Plutarch Heavensbee, and various other 'bonus' sections. One such bonus section will be a chapter called 'Ask the Victors' in which all (ok, probably not all, it'll be more like some) of the victors are asked a specific question. In the first 'Ask the Victors' chapter, the question will be, What is Your Favourite Hunger Games Moment of All Time?

And, of course, I need answers, so I'm turning to you guys. Basically, what I need to know is your favourite moment from Chapters 1 to 75 of this story. Then I can use your answers as the answers given to some pesky Capitol reporter who's been buzzing around them for something to go in the programme. Sorry if I do sound like the aforementioned Capitol press, but I'd like to know what parts of the story you've all enjoyed the most, anyway.

I look forward to hearing (or, more accurately, reading) your answers :)

GM97 :)