A/N: So a long time ago, I promised that I would finish this story. And an even longer time ago, I told myself I wouldn't break any promises. After I saw the new movie in theaters, I thought back to this story and after reading some old chapters I came across my author note (which I have deleted). I was really sad that I posted that and didn't follow-up on my word.

I want to start this chapter with an apology for it being... A year or so late...

In case you forgot (because even I did) here's a quick (...or at least as quick as possible without leaving out important info) recap:

- There are 16 people left in the games, meaning 8 have been left for dead.

- Fatalities: Barley, Sarah, Jeret, Devon, Reed, Ryan, Rose, and Zane

- Injuries:

- Daisy's thigh is severely cut by Ryan in the bloodbath as she is trying to kill Shay. She fails and leaves the cornucopia with a cut open leg that is now infected.

- Apollo's cheek is cut open (not severely) by Aurelia on the first day. Fueling Apollo's want for her dead.

- Aurelia was recently infected by a disease from a capital fish mutation and has limited days to live. From experience with his father having the disease, Safin said it causes a long and painful death.

- The alliances in the games are as follows:

- Lexi, Riley, Julian, Apollo, and Amelia (careers)

- Shay and Ren

- Nirvana and Luke

- Safin, Nan, and Aurelia

- Toth and Daisy have decided to stick it out by themselves

- Arabella and Light are also alone, but are in the process of trying to find each other. Light has found a desolated area on the other side of a cliff and has recently found Arabella's ring at the bottom, making him wonder if she has been near his camp site.

- A second bloodbath is planned to arrive soon at the center of the arena. The only people who knew were Ren and Safin from overlooking a gamemaker's clipboard in the training center. Ren has told his ally Shay about the bloodbath and Daisy (who is following Ren and Shay around) has overheard Ren talking about it.

- Toth has created a raft to "stay away from the Hunger Game's madness"

- Aurelia has angered the careers (who she was once with) by dumping their supplies in the ocean, sending the careers on a mad search for her.

- Safin has vowed to take care of Aurelia because her cousin saved his sister's life right before the game.

- In the second day of the games, Zane (Nirvana and Luke's other ally) was given nightlock pills by his mentor. He tries to put in Luke's fish so he can have Nirvana all to himself, but he accidentally eats the wrong fish and ultimately dies.

- Lexi and Riley believe that they can take on the three other careers and have come up with a plot to kill Apollo and Julian that consists of Riley and Lexi taking one of each on separate hunts for tributes, then killing them.

I hope you still enjoy it!

Day IV

~Slowly Slipping Away~

Nirvana jolts up in a scream and to her surprise finds Luke quick at her side. He brushes the hair off of her sweaty forehead behind the crevasse behind her ear. "All I could hear was your murmuring about Zane last night." Luke says as he engulfs Nirvana in hug. The hug is warm and inviting, it reminds her of home but she can't remember why. After her brother Anthony moved out, she never touched him. There were times when she wanted to tell him to come home with her and her sister, but the thought of his betrayal stung like alcohol on a burn.

After a while in the embrace, Luke rests his head on the top of Nirvana's. Nirvana's black eyes widen and glisten a little as her eyes water. She takes a deep, steady breath and holds back a tear, as she doesn't want her possible sponsors to see her acting weak.

The thoughts of Destrey dance around her mind. It made her chill to the bone how his hugs were just the same as Luke's. She recalls his towering height that would make him envelop her in hugs so much her body would disappear in his warm arms. How when she had a rough day with her mom, Destrey would listen to her problems and make her feel strong enough to walk into their broken home. And when she passed her brother in the town square as he headed to the merchant shops and she headed the black market, Destrey noticed the hurt the welled up in her heart, then wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head. But most of all, when she stood in the Justice Building telling her family and friends goodbye, and was in too much shock to let her emotions out, he somehow made it better. He hugged her and suddenly she felt overwhelmed with the thought of losing everything and she started crying into Destrey's coal dusted shirt. Her body shriveled more into Luke's arm thinking about how she had lost not only her best friend, but the man she loved. And in Luke's arms, it was then she realized that Luke was going to bring her home. And that she would get home. For him.

Her thoughts were interrupted by loud chatter in the distance. Luke leaped up, grabbed Nirvana's arm, and then searched the area for where the sound was coming from. It was hard to see through the morning fog in the forest, but soon an outline of five tributes make themselves visible. The careers. Nirvana's scream must have given up their location. Luke realizes his upcoming opponents and knows that 2 against 5 won't work out. He says in a quiet yet panicked manner to his partner, "Run."

The careers are catching up to them faster than Luke could have imagined. They disregard all of their supplies (except a water bottle hooked to his belt loop), and make a run for it. The chase was full of adrenaline as both alliances rely on the faint images of each other through the fog. The ground is completely invisible and the two constantly keep tripping over stumps and fallen branches.

"Straight ahead!" Luke hears one of the careers yell. He turns her head to see who it is, but the fog is still too strong. Luke turns his head to the side to see his district partner right beside him. Nirvana's cheeks and nose are bright red from running in the cold, but she keeps a good pace knowing that the careers are hot on their tails. Luke keeps a good eye on her, knowing that if she falls he will have to be quick on his feet to help her back up before the careers come. But the fall Nirvana takes is much too sudden for Luke to even comprehend. One moment she is running, the next her whole body disappears.

Luke slides to a stop to look for her in the fog, until he too plummets 20 feet underground. Underneath the earth, Luke's eyes take a while to adjust to the lightly lit tunnels. He sees Nirvana laying on a bin of coal unconscious. He goes to her and checks to see if she's still got a pulse or any injuries. He finds is a few bruises from falling on the coal and a steady beat pulsing against his fingers.

Above ground, the careers mistake their sudden loss of a shadow for running in an opposite direction. They continue their search heading left for a few minutes until the decide that they're too buried in the fog to find.

As Nirvana lies there, Luke takes in his surroundings a long tunnel that leads to who knows where. The path is highlighted by lanterns hanging on the walls. Its air is thick and hard to breath and coal is scattered in the area or attached to the walls around them. It's a coal mine and he's got the perfect person to help him around through it.

XxXxXxXx

"Nice plan, dipshit. Worked out real well for us." Lexi sneers in Riley's face then paces away from him then side to side. The search for Aurelia had ruined the one thing she looked forward to in the games- killing Julian. She wanted his blood on her hands the minute their escort, Hayli, called his name. He was a cocky bastard and all she could see him as a face in the sky.

Riley smirks, leans against the douglas fir behind him, and crosses his arms. "Calm down. No ones going to come after the careers in the games."

"If Aurelia can, then we might as well paint targets on our backs for the other tributes. Get it through you head, we're surrounded by idiots and weaklings!", Lexi raises her voice and gets up in Riley's face.

"Keep your voice down, they're going to hear us.", Riley scorns.

"They wouldn't hear us if they were dead already!" With this, Riley grabs Lexi's neck and she reaches for her knife so she can stab him for his attempt at strangling her. Instead, he pulls her onto his mouth and kisses her roughly. He presses her tightly against him while holding her neck. Lexi rolls with it and kisses him just as violently. She shivers and presses herself against his body. Riley stops kissing her and just as Lexi is about to go in for another round, he gives her a slight push away from him.

Lexi calms herself a little, but gets as close as she was before to Riley. "So what do you suppose we do now?"

"Just wait when it's the right time to strike. We'll just hit them both when they're least expecting it." Riley's words flow smoothly out of his mouth. He steps off the tree, bumps past her, and walks back to the group of careers.

XxXxXxXx

It's four days in and the ache in her heart is building up. Light is still nowhere to be found and neither is her mom's wedding ring. Arabella has been scrambling all over the arena for the both of them. For a while, all she knew was in the arena was the scorching hot desert. But in her search for her love and the only piece left of her mother that she had, she later found the fields of flowers. It was not long before she noticed her breaths getting shorter with each step in the poisonous plants. When she reached the large cliff with a raging river below she knew she had to turn back. All she could see from there were tall snow-capped mountains to her right and the desert dunes to her left. Knowing she had no protection from the cold, she left for the dunes again.

The days passed and she had no encounter with any tributes. Every night she prayed that Light was still out there somewhere safe and that he was looking for her too. That drive kept her going. She walked to the other side of the arena, past the desert, to the forested area. There, she was able to hunt with the scythe she had in her backpack. It wasn't a weapon she would usually pick out, but district two had trained her well enough to use it.

Halfway through her lunch, a wild turkey, the sound of a branch snapping rang in her ears. She turned her head and grabbed the scythe. The fog still hadn't cleared, in fact, it had gotten a little worse since morning. Everywhere she looked was a blind spot. A loud growl from behind her erupted from the silence and Bella's heart slowed to a stop. She reluctantly turned around to see a giant jaguar-hog mutant. Like a big cat, it had a pink nose with whiskers and long claws for ripping apart flesh. But it had tusks and a big potted belly like a warthog. It's eyes were a disturbingly yellow coloring which were the most frightening part of its appearance. Bella didn't know how fast it could run after her, but she took her chances. She knew well that her scythe wouldn't hold up against an animal this thick. She sprinted as far away as she possibly could, faster than in the bloodbath at the cornucopia.

The hybrid was incredibly fast for something its shape and size. Arabella could feel it nipping at her heels and its breath on her back. Suddenly, the front side of her body is smashed to the ground and she is underneath a great deal of weight. Her scythe, which has fallen out of her hand from the impact of hitting the ground, is close enough that she can almost reach it. But as her right arm reaches for the weapon, the back of her shoulder starts getting ripped to shreds with the animal's deadly claws. Bella screams and tears roll down her cheeks.

Not a second after, she hears the whimpering of the animal and feels it crash to the ground beside her. She looks up, trembling from fear and pain, to see her lover from district 12. Despite the pain she's in, she manages to smile and her tears turn to tears of happiness. Light squats down and presses his jacket to her wound to stop some of the bleeding. "Hey, district 2", Light says.

XxXxXxXx

Ren and Shay had been gone for a few hours out hunting, leaving Daisy the entire center of the arena to herself. She liked Ren and Shay's spot despite not liking them. But the more she thought about it, the more she realized that she did like their company. But there was no way she could become allies with the two of them. They were both too dangerous and the thought of how close they were scared her. She would always be the odd man out. If they needed to leave someone behind, she would be the one. She was always everyone was out to hurt in her mind.

Daisy looked down to her thigh where the skin around her torn open flesh was turning a slight purple color. Maybe an infection of some sort. Maybe a bruise. She was used to the dark purple coloring that would appear after her parents hit her. This sight, although not new, was fascinating to Daisy. Her cuts were never this badly infected. She would usually bleed then get patched right up with a scar as a memory of the pain. The purple stain radiating around her cut reminded her of the dress she wore on the day of her reaping. It was probably her favorite dress. Even if it did remind her of the pain of being picked for the Hunger Games.

It could not be that bad, she thought. She hadn't bled to death from hitting a major artery so the cut must not have been that deep. Just a scratch as her parents would explain to the people in Nine worrying about the red-headed broken girl.

Ah, yes her parents. Her hatred for them burned brighter every time she thought of them. For someone who quite liked the thought of beating her blue, her parents didn't seem to like the thought of losing her. Maybe they liked having her to run the errands. She bought her father alcohol by the dozens from the black market even if she knew his drunken anger would make her pay later in the evening. Her mother was much better with her drug fixing though. She had a certain fondness for morphine which Daisy could not object to. She had snuck away some of her mother's stash twice before. It really did soothe the pain and put her mind at ease.

She took a moment to smile at thought of a morphine drip in her arm right about now. Maybe if her mentor had any idea what she had been through and the pain she was in, she would have the decency to send her some. Instead, the poison of the memories she has with her parents will suppress her emotions for now.

"Why did they even keep me? Hell, why did I even stay? For the fear of being caught? For the loneliness I would have to endure by myself? Nothing is worse than the hot smack from the back of my father's hand. Nothing.", These thoughts danced around Daisy's head for a long time, repeating themselves like a stuck record. Her parents were like any other tribute in these games. They did not care if Daisy lived or died. They just wanted a way out of this hell. Through drugs or killing a few tributes, it was all the same. Her parents were nothing but a poison.

But she needed them. She had a place to live and with the money she was given for their remedies, she would keep a little extra for food. They were quite like Ren and Shay, and maybe that's why she stayed with the two tributes for so long. They were sort of a way for her to feel safe even in the worry that they could strike any moment. But the more she was more of her parents she saw in the two, the more crazy she went.

XxXxXxXx

"Wh- Where's Safin?", Nan choked on the words while she shakily budged a sleeping Aurelia,"Aurelia! Please wake up!". Nan tried to yell, but the fear of Safin's absence hushed her voice. Had he been killed in the night? Had he heard a noise and gone to check it with no return?

Aurelia was still not waking after the shoves Nan had given her to awaken her last standing ally. And after coming to realization of what could be true, Nan stops shoving and stares at Aurelia's motionless body. "She's dead", Nan thinks with tears welling up in her eyes.

Alas, her district four friend's rising and falling chest reassures her that Aurelia is not leaving the games without a fight. And with a final shake of Aurelia's shoulders, the sicken ally's eyes slowly pry open. "What's wrong?", Aurelia's voice is slower than usual. Nan lets the issue slide considering her body is so tired from her immune system fighting off her illness.

"Safin is missing."

"He probably just went for a walk. Probably jus' needed some water.", Aurelia says drowsily.

"He was supposed to be on watch for half the night. It looks like noon. Wouldn't he have waken us to switch?"

Aurelia pushes herself upright with her arms. "His pack is gone." Aurelia stares at the empty spot where she last saw Safin's stuff. You can feel the hurt in her voice when she finally says, "he left us."

Nan looks down at her hands and plays with her thumbs as the thought sinks in. A sort of anger rushes through her veins. It is obvious that a player as strong and smart as Safin knows that spending the game with a deathly ill girl and a younger tribute is a death sentence and that him leaving just makes the game easier for him to play out. But a mix of confusion and sadness sweeps through her mind as well, because even if it was just a day and a half, she knew Safin. He was a good heart, and if he had planned to get rid of them in the first place they would already be gone. He kept her underwater when the girl from twelve and the other two boys showed up by the river. He had promised with Aurelia to help her when they first got into alliance by her little rock den. It was weird to think he would just abandon them like that. And although the thought of him being gone saddened her, she took a look at her red-eyed district partner and knew that things would have to keep moving on.

XxXxXxXx

"It's been an hour, Ren."

"My hobbies include climbing trees, not burning them", Ren says with a goofy smile to his district partner. Three hours spent hunting and an hour just trying to get a fire going. Due to the frequent changes in the weather in the center of the arena, the two decided the start a small fire to cook their catches for the day and purify some water they've picked up by a stream. And before the careers or any other bloodthirsty tribute can come looking for them, they can head back to the center where they know it should be safe.

Shay grabs the drill they're using to start their fire and moves her hands fast around it trying to get enough friction for a fire. Nothing, again. "You do it!" She whines, "You're the smart one who made a fire in training."

"With steel wool and a battery", he laughs. "Not quite the same idea, Shay". The pair from seven had been a Capitol favorite. As much as the Capitol enjoyed the brutal killing and fear that usually shows in the arena, everyone wants to have a little happiness in their life. Ren and Shay were geniuses when it came to making people smile.

Of course, in the Hunger Games, no one is always happy.

"Shhh", Shay whispers while staring off into the oblivion behind Ren. Ren tilts his head to the side and slowly turns around. A piece of red hair is barely visible to his eyes. He instantly knows it's the girl from nine. He remembers her raising her spear at Shay in the bloodbath. She's trouble. Ren reaches for the axe resting next to his feet and firmly grasps it. It is a lot of work to pretend you are not scared he realizes. "I don't know how to approach her without her attacking us. She might be armed. I mean she's just watching us from a distance it looks like.", Shay says.

"Yeah, you can't really throw an axe with this much distance between us.", he agrees. "But we get any closer and she'll either flee or fight. Maybe we should just pack up and go to our tree in the circle. We still have some carrots left in the backpack I got in the cornucopia with the gloves."

The two agree and cautiously pack up their things and start to leave. It may have been better anyways, the fog was still lingering around the forest and the added darkness all around them made it not only extra eerie, but extra dangerous if other tributes like Daisy were to pop up. Shay's pigtails swung around as she turned this way and that to check her surroundings for the girl. Shay took Ren's hand that was not occupied by the axe. There was only so much fear that the two could bundle up inside themselves. The girl from nine struck everyone as a frightening character. Especially after her incident with the noose in her room and then the terrifying way she acted in the interviews.

The fog was getting thicker and thicker. Ren can imagine the gamemakers snickering at trying to make the task of getting back to the tree harder than it needed to be. They would hear branches snapping in all directions around them and even though it's probably just another gamemaker trick, Shay's small hand trembled inside Ren's larger one. Shay, with a certain shakiness in her voice, reassures Ren, "If we can't see her, who's to say she can even see us. Maybe we lost her, Ren."

Shay spoke too soon though, Daisy stumbles into view and for a split second the three are all frozen in place. It is clear that all of them were lost in the foggy mist and running into each other was never intended.

"Fight or Flee", Ren remembers. Daisy too shocked to think straight lunges toward Ren to knock the axe out of his hand. The two fall to the ground and Ren quickly flips Daisy onto her back. Almost instinctively, Ren's hands grasp Daisy's small throat and start to strangle her. Shay frantically searches through the fog for the axe in the meantime. The district nine girl, who used to this kind of beating, lifts her legs to her chest and kick Ren squarely in the chest. Knocking him off her and leaving him gasping for air.

Shay who has now found the axe stands in front of a still Daisy on the ground. She lifts the axe above her head and catches a look of apathy in Daisy's eyes. In the same second, she swings right in the center of her chest, then falls to the ground next to Ren in tears. Ren holds his broken down district partner and stares in disbelief at the buried axe in the girl from nine.

All too quickly, the pair from seven no longer see an axe as a tool to help them cut down the trees in their district, but a weapon built to kill.

A/N: That's it for now. I will be beginning to work on next chapter as soon as this is posted. I kind of missed writing about these characters.

Hopefully some of you are still alive and out there. And once again, I can't stress how bad I feel about leaving this story in the dust.

I don't think I will be giving up sponsor points this chapter because I doubt anyone will come back, but how about $200 for anyone who reviews just to see who's out there.

I would also like to apologize in advance for any spelling grammar mistakes, I'm not the most careful proofreader and I'm having trouble getting through to Microsoft Word on my computer so I don't have my handy-dandy spell check. Nor have I been in contact with my old beta reader... Oops. Hopefully Fanfiction's spell check will work fine!

Love, Fifi