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Meet back at the apple tree by one, Pocahontas repeated in her head. It was 12:56. Bouncing lightly on her toes, she waited nervously for Mulan to arrive. She had collected clovers, dandelions, and six chicory plants. Hopefully, it would be enough for a few days. Pocahontas smiled as she gazed at the chicory plants. When she was little, she and her father would venture out into the woods and collect them to eat. She smiled at the thought, pulling absently at her hair when...

Snap! Pocahontas immediately scurried up the tree.

"I know you, I walked with you once upwan-" Belle clapped a hand over Aurora's mouth. She had been walking in between dumb and dumber for the past two days, alternating between stopping Aurora from singing and stopping Snow White from trying to talk with the woodland animals. Belle felt like a huge dope for becoming allies with Blondie and Wimpy (although Belle was rather proud of her nicknames).

"No singing!" she reprimanded, teeth clenched. "Unless you want everyone to know where we are!"

Just remember the plan, she reminded herself for the fourth time that morning, with these two as your allies, no one will consider you a threat until it's too late.

"Okay, here's the plan," Belle said, stopping near the foot of the mountain. "Everyone split up and collect clovers and dandelions. You got it? Clovers and dandelions." Belle emphasized her last sentence, saying the words clearly and slowly as if she were talking to three-year-olds.

"What about the green plant with three leaves?" Aurora asked.

Belle stared at her blankly, doing a mental face palm.

She took back what she had thought earlier. Calling them three-year-olds would be an insult to three-year-olds. They were more like infants.

"You know what? Be my guest!" she told Aurora. "Now move out!" With that, she turned on her heels and headed off into the woods.

Snow White wasn't exactly sure what a dandelion was, but, determined to be helpful, she continued to search, whistling as she worked. A few minutes later, she decided that she needed a break. She stopped, not far from the tree that Pocahontas was perched in, watching her.

Snow White, Snow White… Mulan racked her brain, trying to recall all she could about the girl as she crouched rather uncomfortably behind a bush near the apple tree. She had arrived just as she and Pocahontas had heard a twig snapping. The two were forced to hide, Pocahontas climbing the tree (rather expertly) and Mulan diving behind a bush (rather inexpertly).

Wait! Wasn't Snow White the one who had eaten a poisonous apple?

And speaking of poisonous apples…

Belle was beginning to regret what she'd said to Aurora earlier. What if the girl actually tried to touch the poison ivy? Then, she, Belle, would be responsible.

No! Stop it! she mentally scolded herself. How was she supposed to win the Games if she couldn't even let someone touch poison ivy? All Belle wanted to do was return home to her father and Adam. Heck, even her boring, provincial life would be good enough for her. But was she willing to become a killer to do so?

Belle had studied basic survival skills in preparation for the Hunger Games. She knew a ton of information about how to filter water, which plants were edible, which animals had the most meat, how to tie knots, and other useful tricks. Unfortunately, no book could teach Belle how to abandon her moral values and become a killer.

But all thoughts of the Games left Belle's mind as she watched an apple roll toward Snow White. She had spotted her ally rather easily and had been making her way over to her. But at the moment, she was rooted to the spot. Almost in slow motion, she watched as the figure of a girl behind a nearby bush nodded as Snow picked up the apple. Why would the girl want Snow to eat the apple?

Unless…

"No!" Belle cried, crashing through the vegetation, axe in hand. "Snow, don't!"

Belle watched in horror as Snow turned toward her, confusion in her eyes. Then…

Boom! The cannon went off as Snow's limp body went crashing ungracefully to the ground, a bite mark clearly outlined on the apple she still had clutched in her hand. Belle nearly tripped over Snow's body in her haste to get to her, and she stared down at the lifeless eyes of the girl below her. Lifeless eyes that she was unable to connect to the ones that always shined when she was alive.

Belle whirled around to face Mulan, who had emerged from her hiding place. She was the one responsible for her ally's death.

"You," Belle growled.

Belle wasn't completely sure why she cared so much about Snow's death, but she had, rather embarrassingly, grown to like how purely innocent and blissful Snow seemed. She could be annoying, no doubt, but the gracefulness that she moved with and her light little laugh that always compelled the birds to chirp along with her almost made up for it. Yes, in a few, very short days, Belle had grown to like this girl.

She charged at the girl who had so ironically taken Snow's life, axe raised, but then, a blur of a person slid down the terrible apple tree and planted herself firmly in between Belle and her new enemy. Belle continued to rush forward, and, without hesitation, took a swing with the axe, landing it with a sickening crunch in the girl's left shoulder. Screaming in agony, the girl started to fall, but not before punching Belle in the nose, hard. Belle stumbled backward, clutching her nose with her free hand, but after a moment, she rushed forward again to tackle the girl, and the two ended up on the ground, Belle's axe placed on top of the girl's neck.

Pocahontas recognized the mad, deranged look in Belle's eyes, the one that people often got when they were exposed to too many terrible things at the same time. Even with the axe at her neck, Pocahontas couldn't help but feel the tiniest bit sorry for the girl, whom she had heard a lot of gossip about in the training time leading up to the Games. She'd fallen in love with a hideous beast, been shunned by her village for it, and then been forced into the Hunger Games to kill people. Pocahontas silently marveled that the girl hadn't gone crazy earlier.

Pocahontas realized that it was probably a bad sign—no, a very bad sign—that she was sympathizing with the person trying to kill her. She decided to blame her state of delirium on the quantity of blood that she was currently losing.

Belle felt the tip of a blade poke her in the back.

"Let her go, and no one gets hurt." Mulan said menacingly.

"You didn't give Snow that choice," Belle retorted, growling the words as if she had turned into a beast herself.

"You don't want to die, too, though, do you?"

Did she? She could avenge Snow's death by taking an ally for an ally and killing this Pocalonty girl, but she would die, too. Plus, that would make her a killer, and Belle wasn't entirely sure she could handle that just yet. She was being given the opportunity to live, so maybe she should take it.

Revenge or life? Life or revenge?

Belle finally decided on the best option she could think of—

"Belle!" A voice interrupted her thoughts before she could act upon her decision.

Belle inwardly groaned as she angled her head so that Aurora was in her sight—all that she could manage in her current predicament.

"I found some dandelions!" she exclaimed, oblivious to the sight in front of her. By this point, Belle felt like she had become allies with one of the solid boulders scattered throughout the arena, because Aurora certainly had the mental capacity of one.

"That's great Aurora, but if you could just…" Belle gritted her teeth and made a not-so-subtle gesture at Aurora's hand, which was clutching a knife, while inclining her head towards Mulan. She watched hopefully as Aurora's eyes (finally) widened in understanding.

"Oh no!" Aurora gasped as she caught up to what was going on. Before Belle could say anything, she had turned and was hurrying away in the direction she had come from, leaving Belle seething with anger and seriously regretting her choice of allies.

Mulan took this opportunity to knock the axe out of Belle's hands and press her own sword's blade to her neck.

"Now will you leave?" she spat, trying to sound as intimidating as possible. She was well aware that she could kill Belle with a swing of her sword, but she had given her a choice earlier, and it didn't seem right to take advantage of her when her "ally" had distracted her. One would have thought that Mulan would have no problem killing, seeing as her death count during the war was in the thousands, but there was a huge difference between fighting enemies and murdering innocents.

Eyes wide with fear, Belle finally nodded and scurried away. As soon as she was out of sight, Mulan dropped down next to Pocahontas, who was still conscious.

"Okay, listen Pocahontas, I'm not going to ask why the hell you didn't think I could take on that French girl by myself and stepped in with nothing but your bare hands, but I'm going to let it slide. I need you to tell me, on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being barely anything and 10 being 'I'm going to die' kind of pain, rate your pain."

"I realize the stupidity of it now—" Pocahontas began, her voice cracking.

"It doesn't matter," Mulan relented. "As Elsa would say, 'the past is in the past'. I just need to know how bad it is.

"6, I guess…" Pocahontas shrugged with much effort.

"Are you sure?"

"Fine, maybe 6.5. Or 7."

"Keep going."

"Have you experienced 10-level pain?" Pocahontas interrupted.

"Once… not the hand incident—"

"What is it?"

"I'd rather not—look. I know this is just a flesh wound, but since I sobbed like a five-year old in front of you, I couldn't care less what you do in front of me. Now give me your bag—" Pocahontas obediently handed it over. "—okay. Now. Since you got hit in the left shoulder, are you right or left-handed?"

"Right."

"Good," Mulan said, taking charge. "I want you to get on my back, because I don't care who else plans on coming to the mountain, but we need to get somewhere safe. We can hide well enough that they don't find us."

"Mulan? My legs are fine; I can walk," Pocahontas stated, trying to stay strong.

"Yes, but it overexerts the body and might increase the blood loss…" she trailed off as she saw Pocahontas relax, meaning that she really did not want to hike all the way up that mountain. The corner of Mulan's mouth twitched. It was a good effort.

Mulan wasn't sure if she was capable of carrying two backpacks as well as a Pocahontas up the mountain, but the words "I'll make a man out of you" played in her mind as she set her mouth in a determined line and started up, swearing that she could hear Shang's voice singing the song that had kept her going so long ago.

"Alright, citizens of Panem! This year's Hunger Games has been very eventful so far, with drama, suspense, and even sacrifice all taking place in the first three days. What do you say we watch the highlights of what happened?" The announcer's voice was fairly cheerful for someone who was introducing a program about an annual murder fest.

The crowd cheered enthusiastically, as it did every year.

"Great! Now sit back, relax, and enjoy the show!"

The dramatic, patriotic music began to play. The lights dimmed until the theatre was dark. Then, the highlights began.

It started off with clips of the blood bath, including Cinderella's and Jasmine's deaths, and then turned to Elsa's ice castle and her rambunctious musical performance. Some people in the crowd sang along, making hand motions and clapping to the beat. They seemed to forget that they were watching a program about murder, and that at anytime, another tribute could die.

After the song was over, the highlights turned to the scene that made every single citizen of District 10 cringe.

"Okay," Belle said to her allies on screen. "Anyone know any edible plants?"

"Wait, no, I know this," Aurora mused, in deep concentration. "I saw this in a book once." The screen fast-forwarded.

"So, um, it's been fifteen minutes now," Belle said casually. None of the girls had moved positions. "Are you done yet?"

"I got it!" Aurora exclaimed excitedly. "It's cute girl-marijuana!"

Evidently irritated, Belle sighed, "I remember asking you if you knew any edible plants, not if you knew what went on in 1990's raves-"

Aurora shook her head adamantly."I remember thinking about cute girls, so chick, and then marijuana, so weed! Chickweed!"

"That… is great," Belle said with a groan, making little effort to sound pleasant. "Do you remember what it looks like?"

"Um, no." Aurora's face fell.

"That's even better," Belle sighed as she buried her head in her hands from exasperation.

Back in District 10, the king, like Belle, was also groaning into his hands.

The screen fast-forwarded again, this time to the scene of Ariel's death. It skipped ahead to the incident of Mulan's hand, and Shang spent one agonizing minute watching Mulan sob uncontrollably. The Capitol cut out Mulan's near death experience at the tree, as well as Pocahontas's emotional account of Milap's death, annoying most people in District 11, and then fast-forwarded once again to Snow White's ironic death and Pocahontas' brave but stupid attempt to save Mulan from the deranged Belle. It then went back to the live feed of the Hunger Games.