A/N: Thank you for the reviews. :)

"Tell me would you kill to save a life?

Tell me would you kill to prove you're right?

[...] Do you really want me dead?

Or alive to torture for my sins?"

- 30 Seconds to Mars 'Hurricane'

He spent at least thirty minutes, watching her from where he lied, lifting weights. She was at the sword station. Apparently, she was willing to try something new. He respected that about her. She didn't just stick with her knives because that's what she was perfect at. She wanted to make sure she had other skills.

It was late, training hours were almost over and the room was getting emptier, as time flew. He waited until everybody had left and it was just him and her.

He rose from the bench slowly, happy that he was not all sweaty. Well, he couldn't have possibly gotten sweaty, as by then he had spent the last hour or two even, shooting glances at Clove every other second. Good thing his trainer was not at the Academy, he would have given him crap.

She was there still. Her petite, athletic body moved, as she was trying out different positions with the sword, swinging it around. He grabbed one of the heavier swords and slowly walked closer to her. He was sure she knew he was there.

Just as he lifted it, she quickly spun around and her sword met his above their heads with a loud noise.

He smiled down at her.

"Hey, little girl."

She smirked, but it didn't reach her eyes, which stayed focused and dark.

"You sneaking up on me, Cato?"

He laughed, dropping his arm, "Couldn't if I tried."

She took it as a compliment and lowered her own sword to the ground, staring at him in a way that almost made him shudder.

"I'm glad I didn't cut your arm off just now." She said with a lighter smirk this time, taking a step back "how would you lift your weights?"

"It still would have been worth coming over here to talk to you." He responded with a smirk of his own and she shook her head with a dry laugh, "you're doing a good job with that sword. Want me to give you some tips?"

She smiled, really smiled, and nodded. That's why he liked her so much. She'd always let him help. In a way she had let him in. She never talked to or trained with anybody else. Never really smiled at anyone else. He didn't know what he had done to deserve her company. He'd always been known as the arrogant and inappropriate jerk with a crowd of fan girls following him around. For some reason, though, Clove had let him in.

He moved to stand behind her, his chest pressed to her back, his arms wrapped themselves around her small body. He put his hands on hers to adjust the way she was holding her sword. It was almost intimate. He knew she didn't feel that way, though. Her breathing was slow and steady, her skin goose bumps free. The closeness seemed to have no effect on her, whatsoever...

He could only hope she didn't feel how fast his heart was beating in his chest.

With the sound of a canon, his body went cold and his heart stopped beating for what seemed like a minute. His hand squeezed the dagger he was holding and it drew some blood in his palm.

Clove.

It couldn't have been her. There was no way. He knew her. It could not have been her.

He slowly got up, feeling warm blood dripping down his fingers. He ignored it and focused on trying to remember how to breathe. His thirst was long forgotten. He looked up at the black sky covered by a million stars and waited. Waited..

"Come on..." he murmured under his breath, unaware that all eyes were on him, "come on."

Finally in the dark sky he noticed a glimpse of light. He felt adrenaline building, as it grew bigger and bigger until he was staring at a familiar face.

Marvel. Just Marvel..

Still looking up, he squeezed his eyes shut and let out a deep breath. His heart started to slow down.

Marvel. A career. First death in this year's games. If they wanted something unexpected to happen to surprise the audience, that certainly did it. It didn't matter to him, though..

She's alive. She's okay. He almost smiled at the very thought.

Cato opened his eyes and they met his allies' confused faces.

"What?" He snapped, quickly recovering from his moment of fear, hoping none of them realized what had thrown him off so bad, "go have a drink before you drop dead." He barked at them with a glare. They hesitated a second and then simply walked away. He glanced to his bleeding hand and squeezed it into a tight fist.

Well.. At least now he had a weapon. But how did this end up here? Who had it to begin with? How did they get it?

Who the hell killed Marvel?

DAY 3

She woke up to a headache and a weird, numb feeling in her left arm. It didn't hurt. It was more like the feeling you get after having been through a huge amount of pain. Her eyes opened slowly, as if her body could not respond faster to what her brain was telling it to do. She propped her body up on her elbows, feeling as if she had been out for days. Her muscles hurt and even that simple movement required a lot of effort. She glanced at her arm and since for some reason she was no longer wearing her jacket, she was able to notice a long, wide scar across its lenght. All healed.

"Here,"

Clove almost jumped, as his voice interrupted the silence and only added to her confusion. She turned her head and faced Thresh, holding out a silver thermo bottle.

"It's purified." He added, as she studied him carefully, extremely puzzled. She didn't hesistate too much longer to grab it from him, though and quickly took a few large sips that made her cough. Water had never tasted this good to her before. She decided to fully sit up and as she did that, she realized she was covered with a blanket. She frowned.

"What.." she rasped in a weak voice, then cleared her throat before trying again, "what is all this?" She asked, referring to all the stuff they had all of a sudden.

"While you were out, they sent us supplies." He replied from his spot by a tree and pointed to a rather big, black backpack in front of him, "I think you put on a good show for them last night."

Clove watched him for a minute, but he was not looking at her. She rubbed the back of her sore neck and licked her dry lips. She had to ask. As much as she wish she didn't.

"What ...happened?"

He rested his elbows on his knees and looked up at her with an odd expression on his face.

"District 1 happened," He growled "you don't remember anything?"

Her eyebrows furrowed, as she tried to focus as best as she could on finding that memory in her pounding head.

"I remember running," she started slowly "from Marvel."

Thresh looked away again. Clove didn't understand why he seemed so.. off. It's not like she actually knew the guy, but he was acting differently, that much she could tell. And he didn't look like he was about to tell her what had happened, either.

Again, she attempted to put all the puzzles together, as the memories from last night were slowly coming back to her.

They found the stream.. Glimmer and Marvel were there.. Glimmer and Marvel, being Career psychopaths equipped with swords and knives attempted to get them... they ran... Glimmer cut her arm open... Marvel caught up with her... he was about to kill her...

She almost gasped. Cato. Cato was there. Cato was there and he saved her life. Marvel died. Cato was there. Where was he now? Why was he not here anymore? Why was Thresh acting so odd?

Clove opened her mouth to call for him. Call his name. He was probably somewhere near, he wouldn't have left her, he wouldn't...

She closed her mouth before a single word came out. Because her eyes found something, that she hadn't noticed before. Something that was put up against the tree where Thresh sat.

A sword. A sword with dark, red marks on its shiny blade.

The shocking truth hit her harder than Glimmer's dagger.

"It was you." She whispered loud enough for Thresh to hear. He glanced at her reluctantly "Wasn't it?"

She didn't have to tell him what she was talking about. He knew. He just sat there, returning her piercing stare for a minute or two. He said nothing. He looked away.

She understood now. She knew why Cato was not here. He wasn't here because he had never come to save her life. He had not miraculously appeared to help her. Because it wasn't Cato. It was Thresh. Thresh had come back for her. Thresh had saved her life. District 11 had saved her life.

District 11 killed a Career.

She remembered exactly what had happened now. She understood why she was still alive. But there was one thing she was not able to figure out. Just one thing...

"Why?"

He wouldn't look at her at all now. Instead, he glanced at the sword on his right side and anger curved his features. She could tell his anger was not directed towards her, though.

"You know why." He said in his deep, quiet voice. He was clearly suggesting that he had only saved her because of the rule change. Because if she had died, his chances of winning would have gone down.

The thing was, though, she was not sure if that was really why. That's what she would have done. She would have saved his life for that reason only. But he was nothing like her...

Thresh was obviously done reliving last night, because he got up and went in the backpack, looking for something. She watched him silently, rubbing her once badly injured arm, feeling the rough skin underneath her fingers. He took out a pack of crackers and a bag of dried fruit and walked over to her.

"Here." He said, handing both to her "those are yours."

She took them from him hesitantly, as speechless as she had never been before. They saved them for her?

Without another word, Thresh went back to sit down in his spot by the tree. She couldn't help but wonder what had gotten into him. She had not heard him talk much before the Games started, he had always just kind of stuck with himself during the training, only throwing glances at his little partner. What was her name... Rue.

But now, even though he was talking, something was different. He almost seemed in pain. Did he get hurt? It didn't look like it.

She glanced at the bloody sword and Marvel's dead eyes flashed in front of hers. She shook her head with a silent gasp. That must have been why he was acting so odd. She'd always thought of Thresh as strong and capable of fighting. Killing. She and Cato had, after all, considered having him join them. He'd turned them down. But one thing they had not thought of was that maybe he was not interested in direct attack. They sort of figured he was because of how strong he looked. They figured he was going to want to kill, as he definitely had way bigger chances of winning than most of other tributes. But now that Clove was looking at his troubled face, she began to understand that Thresh felt this way because he had murdered someone. And it was the first kill in the Games. He killed someone to save her life, but that seemed to make a small difference for him. He looked like he was not able to get over it.

Clove looked down at the food he just gave her and then glanced at her now healed arm. Then at the blanket that was now resting on her legs. She looked around, searching for her jacket and found it behind her, nicely folded. Someone had put it underneath her head like a pillow while she was unconcious.

She swallowed a lump in her throat. All this was messing with her head so bad she realized she didn't know who she was anymore. She no longer knew what she wanted or how she felt about anything. The Games. Her allies. Whether she did or did not care for winning. Whether she was capable of doing things she knew she would have done if nothing had changed. She didn't know how she felt about Cato, who was somewhere out there probably with the same problem.

What was all this gonna do? She started thinking of the purpose for this rule change. What were the Game Makers trying to achieve? Isn't this going to only anger the districts? Were they actually willing to risk a rebellion for a better show?

She heard footsteps and stirred, throwing Thresh a glance. He still said nothing. He didn't move. She realized she didn't care that much whether a danger was coming or not. So she stayed put, her head still pounding, her muscles worn out and sore.

It soon turned out that it was Katniss and the kid from 4 whose footsteps she'd heard. They stopped at the sight of her, sitting up and awake. Katniss stared at her for a few seconds, then lied her eyes on Thresh. He looked like he didn't even recognize they'd come back. She looked down for a few seconds sadly before glancing at Clove again.

"We caught a rabbit." She told her, holding the dead animal up. Thresh looked up, still with that odd expression on his face. He got up, though, and started gathering some wood to make a fire. Katniss got the backpack and began to go through it. The kid just sat down. They were all acting as if nothing happened. As if they hadn't encountered district 1. As if Thresh hadn't saved her life. Clove did not understand them. She could not understand why they were acting as if this was a freaking camping trip. As if they were not in the Games anymore. Like they didn't know that only one person would get out of here. That everyone, except for one, was going to die.

She felt nauseous and her stomach painfully decided to let her know she'd not eaten for over 48 hours. Which had never happened to her before, being that she grew up in the Academy. She smelled the fire and looked at the fruit and crackers in her hands and felt about ready to throw up. She put them down on the ground, grabbed the water bottle and slowly tried to get on her feet. That made them all stop doing what they were occupied with and look up at her pathetic attempt to keep her balance.

"I need a walk," she told them shortly and slowly took a few steps away from her allies, feeling her body start to remember how to use its muscles.

They said nothing. They let her go.

Cato woke up with a startle. He shot up in a sitting position, breathing heavily. He had a dream that he was watching her die. And he couldn't help her. He couldn't reach her. He couldn't move. All he could do was watch her screaming his name.

He ran a hand through his hair and took a deep breath to calm down. He'd never had such a terrible nightmare before. It took him a while to remind himself where he was and what was happening.

Five people had died last night, including Marvel and the crippled boy from 10. Each time the canon went off, he'd wake up with his heart in his throat. And each time he'd look up at the sky and wait for a face to show up to bring his breathing back to normal rhythm. He couldn't believe how much he cared for her. He didn't know he was capable of caring so much about anyone. Of caring at all. When it came to Clove, he always had, ever since they'd met, but he didn't really realize just how much he actually cared about her until now. Until he found himself here without her. Until she ended up somewhere out there without him. He knew how strong and clever she was, but he couldn't help but worry. If her team hadn't been given any supplies, just like his team, there was a way bigger risk her life could be in danger. It all also depended on who she was in alliance with.

Cato felt someone's eyes on him and he was not mistaken cause as soon as he looked up, he noticed nobody else but Ginger, sitting with her back against a tree, gaping at him. Again. He frowned. What was her deal? He knew he was something girls tended to like looking at, but she did it in a creepy way. And it wasn't the first time, either.

"You have a staring problem?"

Surprisingly, she did not break eye contact. She just continued to watch him carefully, like she couldn't figure him out.

"You talk." She said quietly after a moment of hesitation. Cato rose his eyebrows, half annoyed, but his face still broke into a smirk.

"Yeah, I talk." He said, putting emphasis on every word, like she wouldn't have understood if he'd said that any faster "which is something you don't do."

"In your sleep," she clarified, unimpressed with his offensive tone "you talk in your sleep."

He lost the smirk instantly. They stared at each other for a long while until Cato couldn't take it anymore. He had to ask.

"Well what did I say then, Ginger?"

She looked away. Well, at least now he knew why she had been so hooked on staring at him every time he woke up. Now that he needed answers, she chose to finally look away? He opened his mouth to throw some nasty, sarcastic comment at her but nothing came out. He had nothing.

"I think you know."

Her response did not calm him down at all. He did know. Of course he did. Her name. It had to be her name that he'd said.

Fear had become a familiar feeling for him, shockingly. But he wasn't scared of others or dying or pain. He was scared for someone. And he was scared of how differently he felt and of how much he knew he'd changed. Most of all, he was afraid of that nightmare, he had just woken up from, turning into reality.

Redhead didn't lie. He was sure she didn't. That nightmare was so damn realistic and frightening, he was surprised he had only talked in his sleep. Instead yelling the hell out of his lungs.

"What's your name again?" He decided to ask, putting on a careless face. She glanced at him with slightly narrowed eyes.

"Lily." She told him. Cato nodded, realizing he had never actually heard it before. He had obviously not been paying much attention to tributes he was so sure he was going to kill sooner or later. It was the key to surviving. Emotional detachment. Knowing someone's name is the first step to a disaster.

That excluded her name, though. He was never going to regret he'd asked for it.

"Well, Lily." He growled, sending her a dangerous look "whatever I said while sleeping better stay between us."

He expected her to get scared. He knew she was sure he wasn't gonna kill her now, but she was smart; she had to realize there would come the time when she would no longer be under his protection. And if she wanted him to let her die quickly, she should not go and anger him.

He expected her to get scared. Instead, the little Ginger head sent him a funny look.

"You do know this is a television show, right?" She asked with raised eyebrows "everything we do and say is on cameras. And everyone is watching."

And then she got up and walked away to wake the others, leaving him feeling dumbfounded and humiliated.

There was only one other person that he had ever let get under his skin like that without any sort of punishment. He had to admit that the redhead, despite being from 5 and having a complete different personality and mindset, was intriguing him at least half as much as Clove.

That only made him miss her more.

He swore under his breath and got on his feet, meeting Ginger's eyes for a split second. And there was no fear, no confusion, no shock in them. If anything, the look on her face made him feel understood and more normal. He shook his head with an angry growl.

Damn you, Lily.

And you too, Clover. Wherever you are.

Clove walked and walked, feeling more and more tired with every step she took. But that wasn't even half as scary to her as the fact that she had never felt more confused in her life. Things had always been fairly easy and clear for her to understand. She had no family or friends to care for. Oh well. Tough luck. She was off the hook on this one. That's what she'd always told herself.

They had her train every day to go in the Games to kill. Also clear. Not very hard to understand.

How, though? How could killing people for entertainment be so easy to understand? How could it seem so perfectly normal? How could she be so brain washed? How could she ever think that this is okay?

Damn it. What was happening to her? She knew she had lost a lot of blood and hadn't eaten in days, but was that enough to put all those crazy thoughts and.. feelings in her head? Was she losing her mind? Or maybe she was finally recovering? From what though? From being the person they had raised her to be? The killer of a vicious nature?

She wasn't watching where she was going, completely lost in her thoughts. All of the sudden she was rapidly falling forward, as she tripped over something big and lost balance. She stopped her face from hitting the ground by putting her arms first; her freshly healed shoulder let her know just how new the scar was. She bit her lip to stop a moan of pain and slowly propped her body up on her hands and knees and looked behind her to what had caused her fall.

All the air left her lungs and her heart started beating so fast she thought it'd escape her chest any second. Her eyes watered just as she heard a loud, terrified scream. Her knees started shaking and she digged her fingers in the soft ground.

It took her a while to realize that her mouth was open and that the scream she was hearing was her own.

"Clove!"

Her mouth snapped shut and she looked over her other shoulder, as Thresh and the rest of her allies stormed out of the woods. Their eyes found what she was kneeling beside and widened in shock and confusion. The boy from 4 looked away immediately and Katniss hugged him to her side.

Clove tried to stop the shaking, as she turned her pale face away from them, but there was nothing she could do. She felt so extremely cold out of the blue. So cold on the inside..

"Clove..."

She didn't have to look. That deep, soothing and strong voice could only belong to Thresh. She sensed him coming closer.

"What is this?" She choked out, but she sounded nothing like the Clove she used to be all her life. That voice was not hers. The scared, little girl was not her.

"Clove." Thresh whispered again, almost softly and maybe it was the fatigue she was experiencing, but in that moment she wanted nothing more than for him to just hold her, "Clove... come on."

She glanced at him, still in shock. Still horrified. The events of last night came back to her, crushing the bits and pieces of strength she had left inside of her.

"Move away from there." Thresh tried again, now standing fairly close to her with his arm out, offering her his hand "come on."

She choked back her tears of pain and all those identified feelings she had never even known existed before. Still shivering, she slowly reached out and he grabbed her small hand in his and pulled her up on her feet. She held onto his hand longer than she had to and once she realized that she quickly let go and took a few steps back.

"What the fuck is going on?" She gasped, shaking her head. Thresh looked at her almost sympathetically and she hated it. She felt so weak and useless. Like a whole, new person. It was almost as if her near death experience had completely changed who she used to be. She hated it and took some sort of comfort in it at the same time. As hurt and exhausted as she was, she also felt more alive than ever. Even if all the feelings that she was experiencing in that moment were terrifying her.

"Let's go back to our camp." Thresh suggested carefully, shooting a glance at what had scared her so much, "please."

Clove swallowed hard and looked at Katniss, who was still hugging the kid in this big sister-like, protective way. His face was buried in her side, as he refused to look. Fire girl returned her stare, her eyes shocked and puzzled. All of the sudden Clove felt disgusted. With everything around her. With everything that was going on.

"Do they think it's funny?" She asked, rhetorically, clenching her fists weakly, "to have us play all buddy with each other?"

Katniss glanced down at the boy she had her arm wrapped around, who risked to turn his face and was now watching her standing there with a look of anger and complete and utter disgust on her white, tired face.

"They're mocking us, can't you see?" She continued, her voice louder now, as she turned her eyes on Thresh.

He stood there. Silent. Speechless. She felt her eyes soften while looking at him.

That only succeeded in making her angrier.

"They're mocking me for being unable to kill which was the only thing I was actually prepared for. Which was something that they had trained me for ever since I remember. Now I'm allies with people I had felt so eager to kill 2 days ago." She almost laughed at her own words. But Thresh's face froze the almost smile on her face before it had a chance to curve her lips "and they're mocking you." She carried on, looking into his eyes "for having to be partners with someone you wanted nothing to do with, someone you wanted nothing more than to steer clear from. For making you protect me. Now you have to protect the killer."

At this point, Thresh looked away. He knew very well what she was talking about and so did the rest. He'd killed for her. He'd killed to protect her.

"They'd teamed you up with a professional murderer, isn't that just hilarious?" She spat out with a humorless laugh, still keeping her eyes on the guy who now was occupied with staring at the ground. Something broke inside her. After two days in the arena with them and after she'd nearly died.. she just didn't care anymore whether it was the right thing to say or not. She didn't care if the Game Makers were now pulling their hair out in rage, planning on how to kill her off.

"You're all acting like it's okay to help each other when deep inside each one of you wishes the other was dead. Are we fucking camping or fighting to survive? Do they think it's funny? This is not funny!" She yelled now, motioning between her and them "this is not funny." She added, pointing to what she had just been lying beside. To what had made that terrified scream escape her lips.

"Clove..." Katniss whispered "it wouldn't have been funny either way."

The realization of how right that statement was almost sent her over the edge. A few days ago she was laughing along with Cato and the other Careers about how weak and pathetic some of the tributes looked. How easy it will be to kill them. How funny they thought it'd be to wound them.

And now... what did she believe in now? Who was she?

Who are you, Clove?

"I don't want to be here anymore." She whispered, still feeling disgusted. But not with what was happening, anymore. She felt disgusted with herself.

"No one does." Thresh said giving her a look of understanding. Clove nodded slowly, again trying to choke back tears she felt were coming. "Let's go back now. Okay?" He asked her and all she could do was nod again. There was nothing left to be said. There was nothing left to be done.

And so she let them lead her back where they came from. Back to their camp. Back to where she woke up as someone completely new and away from the sickening sight that had made her feel so uneasy. Away from the scent of blood.

Away from Marvel's dead body.

A/N: Over 5 thousand words again...Hope you like this chapter. Things are gonna get a little out of hand next time. I'll appreciate your feedback, thanks for reading!