Honora Cashmere Flloyd, District 4, 18

It had been twenty minutes since I had killed Lorelei. I shoved her corpse out of the window, as we had done to Magnus' and Luke's. Just as I returned from a very brief sojourn I could see the distant twinkle of a Capitolian hovercraft in a distance. I moved towards the window, pressing my uninjured hand against the cold glass as I sentimentally watched as it flew away into the horizon, into nothing.

Lorelei's cold corpse would be in that. She'd be taken to the morgue, where she'd be manipulated to look as pretty and uninjured as she was in life. Then she'd be shipped off back to District Two where her funeral would take place. Then over time she'd rot into nothing. Unlike me, she'd just be a Hunger Games victim, with no glory to immortalise her. When put into that perspective I did feel bad for her. Lorelei was the hardest kill of all. I didn't know Tear and Luke; they were just names and faces, I just had to swing the weapon and they were gone. I knew Ross, but he was annoying. I did bad things to Lorelei, and she wasn't Miss Perfect, but knowing she was human sucked and made killing her all the more harder. But I repeatedly did what I had to do to survive. I didn't care if it upset her, or if it upset anyone.

At the end of the day, nobody ever cared when I was upset. I'd learned to not care a while ago.

I sucked in a breath and turned. The room was a chaotic mess. It used to be pure with colour, but blood was everywhere. Some was fresh, some had dried as it was a day old. And this blood came from everybody: me, Jericho, Lorelei and Magnus had all shed blood in the brutal battles that had taken place in this very room. Glass was smashed, furniture broken and astray supplies strewn around. I stooped down by the firewood where I had cooked carrot soup only yesterday, looking at the bloody stump where my finger was and grimacing. I'd had a bad experience with burns, but I needed to cauterise where the amputation had taken place.

I scavenged through the abundance of supplies, keeping my guard up just in case Jericho or Pullox dared return to pick at me like vultures. I used Jericho's old sword as a mirror, looking at my face in the mirror. My face hurt like shit. So did my hand. And the inside of my mouth was still haunted by the immense agony that had made me pleading and weak.

And my face was certainly a testament to the pain. I saw my inner warrior, tall and strong, but I was also bruised and swollen. My nose was broken, my face nearly purple and my eyes were both black. I used water to wash off the coating of dry blood, and then proceeded to use a Capitolian ointment which would take the majority of the swelling away. I opened my mouth, grimacing at that gory tight. My tonsils and tongue were still in tact, thankfully. And any cuts Lorelei had given me were immediately sealed by the heat. But everything was blistered and swollen and immensely painful. I forced water down it, whimpering slightly at the pain. I don't think we had anything for burns and even if we did I couldn't put it in my mouth, the chemicals were probably poisonous or would make me sick.

Ignoring the immense pain that still burst around the inside of my mouth, I bandaged my four broken fingers together. Then it came to the hard part. I felt somewhat dizzy and the stump at my knuckles was still bleeding. As I lit the fire, I distracted myself by patching up the shallow knife wounds I had recently acquired - wounds I had barely remembered due to them being so much less painful and brutal than my other injuries.

When it came to it, I didn't even care. Lorelei had made me scared of burning, metallic instruments, but I was the one who won. I impaled her throat with a chair leg and sat atop her corpse just to rub my victory in her face even more. I had a rough few days due to my stupid alliance, but I was back. Gritting my teeth to hold in a scream, I heated up a small knife and pressed it into the bloody stump where my small finger once was. The pain was awful and I immediately shook and let go of the weapon as the skin burned and eventually managed to seal itself, but as I lay back, I knew it would be okay.

I wanted to just lie down and forget everything. I was so tired and emotionally drained. Forcing myself to stand up and knowing that survival was of the utmost importance, I collected a bunch of supplies for myself - enough to last me the rest of the Games, easily - and then strapped them to my back. It was a heavy load, even by my standards, but I was going to be okay. If I could kill two of my allies, I could kill anybody.

My body still throbbed in pain, but as I stormed away, vowing to sleep on the first bed I could find, I found myself more empowered than ever. I had become weak; I'd learned to care for allies who would eventually turn on me and stab me in the back. Everything I had done was for the good of the stupid fucking alliance instead of for the goodness of myself. But that was about to change. It was time to shut down again and become so ruthless even the most evil would tremble in my wake. It was time to show everybody who I truly was, how strong I could truly be

Honora Cashmere Flloyd was back in business, folks.

And this time it was personal.

Darius Cortez, District 8, 16

I think when Mirane told Willow that she had to pull her own weight, Willow thought she'd be tasked with something cool, like gun responsibilities or something more exciting than digging vegetables out of the garden that lay outside the courtyard. At least she was fortunate enough to only have the one job; Mirane was security, but also had the job of getting as much water out of the well as possible so it couldn't be dried up by other tributes. I was currently organising our supplies, making sure I could ration it and ensure we all had food in the next few days. As well as that, I'd use my camera vision to flicker around the different areas of the palace, making sure nobody was approaching us.

When I did a sweep through and concluded that we were safe for now, I turned my vision to one of the cameras that hadn't been broken in this morning's gun fight. I was sat on a bench by Willow, checking through our supplies. Mirane was silently lifting buckets of water, always paranoid and on high alert. Willow was grumbling as she dug up another carrot.

"This one looks dirty and rotten," Willow said, holding it up in front of her and wrinkling her nose. She was displeased.

"Don't worry about it, it's enough," I smiled. She threw it in a pile of vegetables by my side and I rationed it - it would go into tomorrow's soup, which would be big enough to last us at least three days. I began to organise water bottles.

"So, soup tomorrow?" Willow smiled. I nodded.

Willow wasn't a bad kid. We'd both given each other overviews of our time in the arena. As expected in the Hunger Games, none of us had really had fun. Willow only survived the Bloodbath by playing dead. Then she got herself into an alliance with two tributes. One got sick and was killed while they looked for the cure. The other, Tear (who I remembered as Giovanni's District partner), gave her life to save Willow. I also learned of other haunting things in the arena, such as invisible demons that taunted you and seemed to have complete control.

Similarly, I told Willow about my time at the Bloodbath. Willow was more hardened than I expected; she wasn't phased that I killed somebody. She didn't show any sympathy that we had lost allies. She did seem a little sad when I told her about Hadley and his unfortunate ending, but it was little beyond an 'aww'. I didn't know what to think of her. Unlike Mirane, I trusted her. I think she even liked me. But she put on a front. And she was also kind of cunning and resourceful, too.

"My mum used to make the best soup," Willow told me with a smile. She frowned, turning back to her work and trying to unearth a potato. "That's all she was ever good for."

"Don't say that," I regretted the harshness in my tone. "Your parents will be watching. You might not ever see them again," I sighed, thinking about the people I had left behind. I wish they knew I thought of them... every second. In between fighting for survival and bonding with Mirane, they mighn't have felt important, but they were the most important people in the world. It hurt to think of them. "You do love your mother."

"Yeah," I couldn't see Willow's expression from the camera angle. She put the potato in the current pile. "I regret being mean. I'm not a nice person," she turned to me and gave me a very specific look. "You know, you shouldn't just be taking kids into the alliance just because they're cute and seem harmless enough. You and your girlfriend need to be more careful than that.

Her words seemed kind of chilling, and there was a dark undertone to them.

"I know you won't hurt us."

She dug back into the soil, looking for anything that lay underneath. "Why's that?"

"Because you warned us," I smiled. "If you were so determined to kill us, you'd not have told us." Willow uprooted another carrot, not making a comment. I felt kind of obliged to continue the conversation. "And for your information, Mirane is not my girlfriend."

"No?" Willow sniggered. "What is she then?"

I tried to answer, but couldn't. Maybe Mirane was my girlfriend. That was a weird thought. Could you even date in the Hunger Games, when every day was potentially your last? I almost laughed thinking about it. My ideal relationship wasn't one where we shot at enemies for a first date, and when goodbye meant death. But we had to be something beyond just allies, considering the kissing and the feelings and stuff. Suddenly I was questioning the notion of relationships in the Hunger Games. Was Mirane a friend, an acquaintance? Was Hadley even my friend? Did I even really know Brandy? Or were they just allies, tools for survival?

"It's really complicated," I sighed, unzipping another bag and removing the food supplies, sorting them slowly. I took another moment to scan around the area, looking for anyone. Nobody in the well. Nobody in surrounding corridors. Considering we had a big fight less than twenty-four hours ago you'd think there'd be some kind of disturbance. It put me at unease.

"Have you two... you know..." I turned my camera vision back to the courtyard, aware of the spills of blood across the floor. We definitely hurt the Three and Six boys. And judging by their eagerness to kill, I knew they'd be back for second helpings. "Done it?"

Suddenly my train of thought derailed. I dropped a tin of canned tomatoes, choking on my own words and I scooped down to clutch it.

"D-Done it?"

"You know," Willow looked mischievous and childish. "Kissed."

I almost laughed with relief, glad that I didn't have to have that conversation with a thirteen year old. As I stood up and put the tin on top of another tin, I smiled and realised that Willow really was a child. At age thirteen I knew what sex was, so that fact Willow didn't despite being so hardened kind of made me realise just how young she was. She looked young and she acted young. It made it quite disgusting, really...

Willow could face the prospect of a brutal death. Brandy, who was only a year older than her, was brutally stabbed multiple times by god knows who. And then there was the fact that I was young. I was sixteen. I hadn't even left school. At this point in my life I was only starting to think about the future I would probably never have. Nobody deserved the fate of the Hunger Games, but to do it to kids so young made it all the more sinister.

I shook another bottle, noting it was empty and had no water. "Yeah, we kissed."

"Aren't you scared of cooties?"

I grinned again, finding Willow very endearing in her own weird way. "I think I have other things to be scared of."

I felt a hand grip my shoulder, and only just realised that it was Mirane. She looked at Willow, making sure she was working hard enough; Mirane seemed to have an effect on Willow because suddenly Willow seemed more interested in the dirt than me. Mirane then turned to me and gave me a very stern look that made me feel bad. I didn't even have reason to feel bad.

"Not ruining a camaraderie am I?" She said.

"We were working hard," Willow chirped, shovelling some soil aside.

"Good," Mirane looked a little interested. It had been a hot day, and Mirane did have the most manual job. Considering I was severely injured and needed painkillers to not be in agony and Willow was only young, it made sense, but I realised Mirane did deserve a bit of respect - she was willing to take the most weight and be the fighter of our battles. "It's a week into the Games. Think things are bad now?" She looked at us both. "The heat is going to turn up. The Two girl's face just filled the sky and you two didn't even notice," well I couldn't, considering no cameras were pointed that direction. It was weird how I hadn't heard the anthem. The cannon fired not long ago, though, so I knew somebody was unfortunate.

"If a Career has died, there's something dangerous out there."

"Or someone," Mirane nodded. "Exactly. Anyway, Darius. I'll be in the kitchen. I want a word."

Mirane returned to the well and lifted a bucket of water. I watched her from the camera, she picked up the bucket and strode towards the kitchen. I watched her for another few seconds as she waited around the kitchen for me, looking somewhat neutral. I didn't know what she wanted, but I had a feeling that there was some kind of bad news. Maybe she was just going to scold me for talking to Willow.

"Maybe she wants smoochies," Willow smirked. I laughed a little. Yeah, I wish.

"Doubt it," I said, standing up and leaving the organised supplies behind. "Just look after these for a second, don't keep your eyes off them." With that I made my way towards the kitchen, pushing the saloon doors and entering. I adjusted the camera vision, noting that Mirane was not sitting on one of the kitchen cameras, looking towards me with a neutral expression.

"You two are comfy," she said, emptily.

I wanted to tease her, but considering Willow's age maybe that wasn't suitable. "She's a nice girl."

"Can you be sure about that?" Mirane took out a vial of poison. That was Willow's. I felt a little shock, because Mirane must have stolen it from Willow. I let Willow have possession of her own weapons. "Why do you think sponsors would give her poison?"

"I don't know..." I paused. "She doesn't have much muscle. Maybe they thought she'd kill with alternate methods."

"Lets hope so," Mirane said, unscrewing the cap and opening it. She removed the cap and suddenly a note fell from it, landing on the ground. Well, that was new. Mirane crouched down and picked the note up. It was small, probably only enough for a few words at most. Mirane seemed to take longer to read it though. Her eyes scanned it repeatedly before she stood up again. "Well, this poison definitely ain't for us."

"Why?" I sat on the kitchen table, listening intently.

"Because according to this note it's not a poison," Mirane curled the note up, frowning. "It's more of an antidote. There's something the Six and Three boys are taking, and this counteracts that."

Day Eight, Morning

Pullox Shimmers, District 1, 18

I expected to be the chess master of the Games, twisting the pieces intricately to fit my own desired goal. Looked like I had severely overestimated my opponents; they played the game of chess perfectly without any intervention on my behalf. All I had to do was capture the queen to call checkmate. Now I was the King of the arena. As the Careers crumbled into ruins I rose from the ashes, strong, victorious and proud.

I knew that something was going to go drastically wrong the moment Lorelei went all 'I want to torture Honora' mode. And that only benefited me. So, knowing that there would be an explosion, I purposely didn't tie Honora's legs together. I knew she'd be resourceful. Then once the time bomb almost ticked to zero I grabbed the gun along with enough supplies to sustain me in the following week and got the hell out of there. Just as I predicted, death did ensue. Within the next thirty minute there was a single cannon, and I knew something had happened.

Initially I thought Honora didn't break out like I expected and Lorelei and Jericho just gave her a painful end. But when Lorelei's face lit up the sky I almost laughed at how much of an embarrassing fail she suffered. That baby, or the mush of blood it became, certainly did make her stupid. I was hoping more would die. I hoped Honora would go down fighting or she would strike Jericho down, destroying the Careers into the dust and letting me pick the bones off the corpse - but alas, that was not to be. I loaded the pistol and smirked. It would be no worry, though. I was more than prepared.

I had managed to sleep in a large king sized bed last night. It was rather comfortable, though for once I had to sleep and be prepared to jump up and fight at any time. This morning had been spent looking for something. I didn't even know what I was looking for, but the wondrous thing about this arena was that it had something new to offer with every twist and turn. I knew that there'd be something I could utilise, and once I'd found that something I could definitely think up a wonderful plan. I had already screwed over the strongest in the arena - I was excited to see what else I could do.

As I walked through a golden corridor which had mirrors for walls, I paused and glanced around. I could see myself all around the room, grinning back at me. There were beautiful statues. Everything was laced with a precious metal or gem. It was an amazing room, and while it wasn't the room I was looking for, I knew that there had to be something close by.

I watched myself smirking in the mirror and scolded myself for thinking about Floy again. If I didn't love the little mare I'd resent her. I promised that I wouldn't let myself think of her once, just in case I felt emotional and weak. I'd have plenty of time to think about and spoil her when I got home. But since I spared the Eleven girl I couldn't help but think about her. I certainly missed her. I think I even missed my parents, even if they were dumb and annoying.

I admired myself in the mirror. I was certainly a little more beat up that when I initially wanted, and my clothes were still covered in bloodstains and wine stains, which was certainly an annoyance. But I was alive. And all my limbs were intact, too. That was all I needed. I admired myself in front of one of the large, crystal like mirrors, putting on airs and graces before I made my way down the corridor slowly. I gripped a dagger in one hand and lifted my gun in front of me, just in case I bumped into another tribute. I wouldn't want to bump into Honora of all people...

Maybe I could go back to Jericho. Chances were he was pretty injured, maybe on the verge of death. And he had no idea just how much I had betrayed him and his stupid, dead harlot for a friend. He did once distrust me, much more than Lorelei or Honora. But I was probably the last thing on his mind. I smirked as I considered playing with him. I could strike up an alliance or use him as a chesspiece...

I walked into an even larger albeit plain corridor. Underneath an archway there was another room. I was surrounded by sculptured and paintings of what appeared to be Kings. Interesting.

As I walked, I decided against purposely seeking Jericho out. If I bumped into him I'm sure something interesting could happen, but I didn't need him, he would only be a fun albeit useless plot arc. Within the constraints of an alliance, even if I pulled all the string, I wasn't completely free to do whatever I wanted. There were always terms and conditions, especially if you wanted your allies to trust you. Now there was freedom. That was much more fun and scary.

I glanced into the room over the archway, smirking as my eyes were set on something very interesting.

Yes... I decided that freedom was good. And freedom to rule was even better.

Kyliena Barnes, District 4 Citizen/Rebel

The rebels were tightly sat near a television set, watching Caecilius Norton smile at the television screen:

"I'm sure you all want to be watching the Hunger Games right now, to watch the aftermath of the Careers breakdown and Lorelei's death," he said. Everybody grumbled. We were all rebels here; nobody wanted to see kids die. And being from District Four we knew that the Careers were also victims to the Hunger Games - possibly victims moreso than anybody, considering the indoctrination they faced. I had lost my boyfriend in them two years ago, Coral had lost somebody she cared about in the Hunger Games, and then there was Amphitrite - her sister was poisoned by Iopian Endovnier three years ago. Caecilius continued: "But we interrupt you for the teeniest tiniest moment to give you important breaking news from within the Capitol."

"Well, the Districts hardly do anything interesting," Amphitrite was polishing her trident. With us there was another girl - River. She was the leader of a Capitolian rebel group - the Liberal Alliance - around a year ago, but once they were caught out she had to go into hiding. There were still undercover rebels littered around the Capitol, but they were in immense danger and more were getting caught and were dying everyday. "Except make their food and die for them."

"Shh," River watched the screen intently.

"Don't tell me what to do, you Capitolian bitch," Amphitrite glared up at River. "If it weren't for us, you and your daughter would be dead."

"Shush," I snapped, glaring at Amphitrite. "River knows more than any of us, and Krinda," that was my daughter. "Loves Charity." That was River's teenage daughter.

Amphitrite gave in as Caecilius made announcements. All announcements were worth taking with a pinch of salt, as they always had a pro-Capitolian thing, but there was always something that could be discerned from them: "Rayann Grace Carter has recently visited a Capitolian hospital after an assassination attempt," we all glanced at each other, shocked. Rayann had been silent in the past year, but she commanded a lot of respect from rebels - her previous anti-Capitol sentiments were legendary amongst us: "Rebel scum were known to have attacked a famous Capitol figure head, trying to kill her. Thankfully, she survived the attack and is now in hospital."

"Would rebels really try to kill Rayann?" Coral asked River, meek as ever.

"No..." River glanced at the screen in shock as Caecilius talked about a singing kitten, dull news meant to bore the Capitolites out of political affairs. "Never. Rayann might not admit it for fear of her life, but she's one of us."

"That means that the Capitol wanted their Victor Princess dead," Amphitrite said to herself.

"And in other news, Jynx Blackthorne has come out today to let us all know that she's been diagnosed with severe lung cancer," Caecilius' news was met with applause from a few rebels at the back. I glared at them all, annoyed. "This is extremely sad news. All of us here have wished Jynx Blackthorne a most wonderful recovery, and with Capitolian medical advancements we predict that she could potentially survive this ordeal."

"She's scum," Regnus, the only male rebel in our group, said.

"She's a person..." I said quietly, prompting a few glares. "I know she's in bed with the President, possibly literally, but I don't know. I just think it's sad. We all agreed here that Careers were also victims. The Capitol made that girl poison her own sister... We don't know how she's feeling inside." Nobody replied, possibly out of annoyance. Then the news segment ended and the Hunger Games logo filled the screen with the national anthem, to show us what was happening with the eleven live tributes. I felt sorry for every single one of them. They'd had it rough, and I had a feeling it'd only get worse.

River's earpod bleeped and she intercepted it, doing a security scan first: it was her way of ensuring she wasn't being tracked or spied on.

"Look, I'm at a payphone," the voice said. It was worried and gentle.

"Olga?" River stood up. All of us glanced at each other. Olga Pierce was famous for being the daughter of the scumbag deputy head Gamemaker, Ruth Pierce. Her father was also a rebel before he was executed. Olga was currently undercover, having undergone genetic manipulation to look completely different. None of us had ever heard her voice before; she was a legend amongst us. We heard of her, but never saw her.

"Yeah, it's me," she paused. "I may be being watched. I'm keeping it brief."

"Of course..." River sat down.

"Rebellion has settled down since the Hunger Games began," Olga said. "They've also been blaming food shortages due to District Thirteen. The Capitol plan to invade District Thirteen but I've managed to set up communications with District Thirteen," Olga's voice was very rushed. "I told them that it was possible to persuade the citizenry to support District Thirteen instead of the Capitol, but that they had to stop bombing the Districts..." I sighed with relief; there was a big fear that had struck this place ever since District Twelve had been hit by a storm of explosives. "District Thirteen may have a chance and are going to bomb the Capitol."

"District Thirteen is big, but not big enough," River said.

"District Thirteen is being supplied with ammo and food from Romantia," Romantia... That was another country. A country I knew so little of. But it had to be better than here. "In a recent diplomatic mission Romantia's ambassador saw the Hunger Games and was disgusted. The country wants to help District Thirteen to eradicate the Capitol and the Games once and for all."

"But there's a catch," I said, expecting one.

"We need to make Panem weak, put it to a standstill," Olga said, hearing me down the line. "Try to communicate with all the rebels - those in the Capitol and any rebels in the Districts," there were only a few Districts that even had an ounce of rebellion: District Ten, led by the estranged mother of last year's Ten girl, Three and Eight were all much quieter than we were. "You need to give it your all. You need to throw the Capitol to a near standstill; this will be particularly easy whilst everyone is so distracted with the Games. Once you do that, District Thirteen aided with financial and military help can swoop in and claim the Capitol. And then it'll all be over."

River smirked and glanced at me. For the first time, I felt hope.

"I know just what to do," I nodded.

I was listening to Islands in the Stream when I wrote Pullox's POV and I'm still amused because yeah... no.

Anyway, I'm in Rome! Which honestly is such a beautiful city, I've fallen in love. Last chapter was so well received after all the stagnation of the prior chapters and that makes me so happy - to all of you, even the busy ones, thank you so much :) I'll also make more of an effort to reply to reviews when I can.

P.S - I've noticed a trend going on. I would write soooo much character development and it would be chapters worth thousands of words. Now things in the arena are exploding from all directions, chapters are a lot shorter, but there's seldom a second of filler (even though some of the POV's in this chapter seem fillery, they're not) - what do you guys think of this development? I love writing filler, and actually find it useful for the small bits of character development it brings, but I've done lots this fic. More filler or less?

P.P.S - So many people are reviewing, I'm so sorry I haven't replied but I'm (pleasantly) busy. If you really want to talk pop me a PM; I'll answer when I can :)

~Toxic