Tomo Metellus, 18

District 6, He/Him

June 5th, 97 ADD

7:29 PM


"I need you to slow down," Mr. Myrellis-Verilla said.

"Okay," Tomo said, nervously straightening his sweater.

The two of them were in the dining room so Tomo could meet with his Mentor, at Tomo's request. Tomo almost hadn't expected him to agree- he'd been particularly busy since they arrived at the Capitol, and seemed tired- but he had, which was good, because Tomo desperately needed advice.

"So two groups want to ally with you, but you don't know which to pick," Mr. Myrellis-Verilla said, rubbing his temple.

"Yes. Mercury invited me to the Careers, and Jem invited me to his alliance."

"Both sides are a risk," Mr. Myrellis-Verilla warned. "The Careers can be used to your advantage, but that's… tricky… how much do you trust the other group?"

"I trust them," he replied. "They're nice. We played Go Fish. And they told me I'd be better off with them than the Careers."

"They might have a point," Mr. Myrellis-Verilla said. "From what I've heard about the Careers… do you think they'll last long?"

"I don't know," Tomo said. "But Mercury said he and I could split off and just be allies with each other."

"If you can do that without pissing off everyone else, then if you pick Mercury, that's what I'd do," Mr. Myrellis-Verilla told him.

"Invincible might not like it," Tomo said.

"Why Invincible?"

"Because they and Mercury kissed yesterday," Tomo said, feeling his cheeks heat up again. "In front of everyone."

Mr. Myrellis-Verilla wrinkled his nose. "Yeah, I heard… and Dimitri said his tribute is joining them too… is that really your scene, Tomo?"

Tomo shook his head vehemently. "I… I've never seen two boys kiss before. Or, not boys, I suppose, but-"

"Sorry, what?" Mr. Myrellis-Verilla interrupted, his tone sharpening.

Tomo shrank back, taken off guard by Mr. Myrellis-Verilla's sudden intensity. "I didn't mean to be rude, I know Invincible is nonbinary now-"

"No, not that. The two boys kissing thing."

"I- I didn't think that was allowed?"

Mr. Myrellis-Verilla stared at him. "Allowed by who?"

"I don't know," Tomo said, tugging at his sweater collar. He was starting to sweat under the scrutiny. "I'm sorry-"

"Tomo, you know I'm married to a man, right?"

"...What?"

"Oh my god."

"You can do that?"

(He could do that?)

"Yes, you can," Mr. Myrellis-Verilla said, although he was shaking his head, which felt like a mixed signal to Tomo. "I- I can't believe I have to say this- boys can like boys. It's called being gay."

"So you're… gay?"

"Yes, I am."

"Oh…" Tomo buried his head in his hands.

Mr. Myrellis-Verilla muttered something that sounded like "Married to a woman… fucking hell…" He studied Tomo for a moment, making his cheeks burn. "I have a question."

"Okay," Tomo said, relieved to discuss something else.

"Tomo… are you gay, do you think?"

His relief immediately turned to despair. "I had a girlfriend once!"

(Surely that meant he couldn't be gay, right? Gay people didn't court members of the opposite gender, so that meant he was heterosexual…? Right?)

"Uh-huh." Mr. Myrellis-Verilla seemed skeptical.

"I- I- I mean, I don't think… that I'm…" he trailed off.

"There's nothing wrong with being gay, Tomo," Mr. Myrellis-Verilla, taking a gentler tone. "This just wasn't the conversation I thought you wanted to have."

"What if Fleur's right?" he asked. "About me liking Mercury?"

"Well, in that case, I would tell you to get past those feelings as soon as possible," he answered. "Romance never works out in the Games. Ever. I saw it destroy the Careers my year. If you remember Mallory, from a few years ago- it didn't end well for her, either. It never does."

"Oh."

Mr. Myrellis-Verilla smiled, although it seemed strained. "I'm sorry, Tomo. I didn't mean to give you a crisis about your sexuality. Maybe that's something you can come back to when you get home, yeah?"

Tomo nodded slowly. "My father wouldn't like it if I was dating someone in the arena."

"Right," Mr. Myrellis-Verilla agreed. He squinted. "Is there a reason, by the way, that Mercury's Mentor was asking me about your father earlier?"

Tomo's eyes widened. "What did you say?"

"I didn't tell him anything. Figured I'd ask you first."

Tomo sighed with relief. "Good. It's definitely a different Teurian, anyway."

"So you know about this?"

"I, um… Mercury wants me to help him do some research about who murdered his father," Tomo explained. "And he seems to think it's a Peacekeeper named Teurian."

Mr. Myrellis-Verilla raised an eyebrow. "Your father is a Head Peacekeeper named Teurian."

"I know, but it has to be someone else," Tomo said. "We haven't even lived in Two for years!"

"You- what? Isn't Mercury from Two?"

"Yes, but Teurian is a common enough name, right? There could be a dozen Peacekeepers named Teurian," Tomo pleaded.

Mr. Myrellis-Verilla's eyebrows pressed together. "I think your father's the only Teurian I know."

"But- but Teurian wouldn't do that," Tomo insisted. "He's a Peacekeeper. He knows the laws better than anyone! He's the one who taught me all of them! He- he'd never kill someone!"

"Tomo…"

"He wouldn't!" Tomo said. "He wouldn't do that!"

"Okay, okay," Mr. Myrellis-Verilla said, holding his hands up. "Maybe he didn't. My concern here is that if Mercury finds out, he won't see it that way."

"What do you mean?"

"He might not believe you."

Tomo buried his face in his hands again. "So what do I do?"

"Don't tell him."

"That- that's lying."

"If he thinks your father killed his, what do you think he'll do, Tomo?" Mr. Myrellis-Verilla asked. "If you want to ally with him, don't tell him. You can't give him a reason to hurt you."

"But why would he attack me? I didn't do anything," Tomo said.

"Sometimes when people get angry, they take things out on people they shouldn't," Mr. Myrellis-Verilla said with an odd tone. "But you need to seriously consider if allying with Mercury is a good idea. If you're not willing to lie to him, the others might be better."

Tomo nodded. "I'll think about it."

"Alright. We can talk about this more later, okay? I have a meeting," Mr. Myrellis-Verilla said. He stood. "I'll see you later, Tomo."

Tomo waved halfheartedly, already lost in his own thoughts once more. "See you later."

(Everyone expected so much from him. He liked how welcoming Jem and his friends were, but there was something about Mercury, too… and Mercury just made more sense to him. The dynamics of the big group confused Tomo. Mercury was just Mercury, and he liked him. And it wasn't as though Tomo had anything to hide from him, because his Teurian wasn't the same Teurian. He couldn't be.)

(Yes, maybe that was right. Tomo would help Mercury, and they could ally. He appreciated Mr. Myrellis-Verilla's warnings, but Mercury was his friend, and Tomo had done nothing wrong.)

(So, Mercury it was.)


Tiernan Merle, 18

District 12, He/Him

7:51 PM


In his room, Tiernan paced.

(He preferred shutting himself in his room at night; it made him feel safer. The world didn't feel so big and terrifying when it was just him in his room, and he could have his mind to himself.)

Training had flown by faster than he'd thought it would. Tiernan thought the days before the Games would be tauntingly slow, like a death march of sorts. Instead, what were likely his last few days alive were flying by him, almost too quick to process, and Tiernan was afraid that if he blinked he'd find himself standing on a pedestal with a clock counting down.

At least he had Bryony. Bryony was the nicest person he'd ever met, and he was sure that he'd found a good friend in her. She was reliable, and gentle, and didn't mind Tiernan's awkward tries at conversation. Patrek was nice, too, and even though he was quieter, Tiernan never felt that his silence was a standoffish one.

And then there was Mendi.

Mendi Navar terrified him. Ever since her meltdown on the train, Tiernan had tried to keep his distance, but it never seemed to work. They shared the twelfth floor. They shared a Mentor. They shared an alliance, somehow. He couldn't escape her, or the memory of that look in her eyes on the train.

(Tiernan should have listened to his parents, because they were right all along. Twelve was too dangerous. District Twelve, outside the safety of the Merle home, was full of people like the Navars, out of control and dangerous. He had no doubt Mendi wouldn't hesitate to rip him apart if he said the wrong thing or showed her any kind of hostility.

Which was troublesome, because the more time he spent with her, the more inclined he was towards hostility. Those rumors he'd heard back home… Tiernan had no trouble imagining Mendi losing her temper. Had she snapped and attacked her own mother? It made sense to Tiernan. Maybe it was an accident, maybe not. But Mendi was so small that the Peacekeepers surely would've blamed her father instead. It was all too likely.)

(Tiernan didn't understand how Bryony couldn't see it. Mendi Navar wasn't some innocent little kid who just needed a mother. She had killed her last one, surely, and if Bryony tried the same, Mendi would only do it again. He was trying to look out for her, and Patrek agreeing with him definitely proved something, right? Patrek saw his side, so surely he wasn't being paranoid about this, right?)

(Maybe he should just go off by himself. If Bryony wanted to spend the Hunger Games with an out-of-control kid, he should let her instead of trying to be a hero. If he wanted to live, all three of them would have to die eventually, as awful as that was. But it was the truth.

But could he survive alone? He hadn't known how lonely he was until he'd been forced to the Capitol, and he wasn't sure he could bear returning to it.)

(Stay with Bryony, Mendi, and Patrek, and risk Mendi's wrath, or leave them behind, and risk the unknown?)

Before he could spiral any further, there was a knock at the door.

"It's open," Tiernan called.

As he'd expected, Sienna was the one on the other side of the door. For some reason, though, she was still in her work clothes- a blouse, a long flowy blue skirt, and her hair pulled out of her face.

"Just wanted to let you know that I'm leaving for a bit," she said. "But I'll be back later tonight."

"Where are you going?"

"Just a quick meeting. Mentor things," she said, giving him a wry grin. "Is there anything you need before I go?"

"I… um." Tiernan wrung his hands. "I don't know. Just been thinking a lot."

"What about?"

Tiernan bit his lip. "Could you close the door?"

She nodded, stepping inside and shutting the door behind her. "What's going on?"

"I- I'm worried about Mendi," Tiernan confessed.

She nodded. "So am I."

"No, I mean- I'm worried about having her in my alliance," Tiernan said.

Her eyebrows pressed together. "Why?"

"You know about her family," Tiernan said, gesturing at the wall. "I, um, I don't know, I think she could be dangerous."

She nodded again, more slowly this time. "I see. Are you afraid she'll attack you?"

"Yes."

"Then I wouldn't ally with her," she told him.

"But the rest of my allies are good. The Elevens are good," he said. "Bryony and Patrek… Patrek understands, but Bryony doesn't see what I see."

She tilted her head. "What do you see?"

"She- she's already almost out of control. If she gets put in an arena where violence is rewarded, what then?" he asked. "She'll go crazy, for real this time!"

Sienna sighed. "I can't blame you for that," she replied. "Mendi is… I'll say fragile. She may not have reservations about using violence in the arena like some tributes do, but that may very well be to her advantage."

"But she'll be out of control," Tiernan insisted.

"Maybe," Sienna admitted. "But I can only help her so much. Mendi won't recover from her traumas in a few days. I'll try, of course, but remember how much she's already been through."

"What if she did it?" Tiernan blurted out.

Sienna's eyes widened. "What?"

"Maybe she killed her parents. She- you've seen her- she's crazy-"

"You really think so?" Sienna gave him a long look that he couldn't quite read.

"I- I don't know."

She exhaled. "I'd be surprised if she did, honestly."

"But we don't know."

"We don't know for sure," she agreed. "But I don't think so."

(She was just like Bryony. Too optimistic for her own good.)

"I do have to run," she said, and maybe it was just his imagination, but she suddenly looked tired.

"But what do I do if she- you know…"

She shook her head slightly. "Your best bet is to get far, far away before that happens."

"So I should leave my allies?"

"We can discuss it more tomorrow, okay? Everything's always clearer in the morning," she answered.

He nodded, dejected and anxious as ever. "Okay."

She gave him a small smile, and then left.


Aescelin Ibbara-Ixtal, 18

District 7, He/Him

9:22 PM


Allying with Valentina was easily the smartest choice Aescelin could have made, and the last two days had proven it.

"I still can't believe they fell in the pool!" Valentina said gleefully, digging into her ice cream sundae- they were having their "victory dessert." Her idea.

Aescelin ate a cherry, plucking the pit from his mouth and flicking it to the side. "Like I said, they're all idiots," he grinned.

"We need something for tomorrow," she said. "If we could throw people off before their sessions…"

"We could trash the Training Center so it's unusable after us," Aescelin pointed out.

"Yeah, but we don't want to get on the wrong side of-"

Someone knocked on the door. He gave Valentina an imploring look.

"Fine," she told him, "be lazy."

Aescelin scoffed. "I'm not-"

But she had already marched off. She returned a few seconds later, trailed by a shorter girl with tangled dark brown hair.

Aescelin wrinkled his nose. "Who are you?"

"Chase Holloway," she answered. "I'm here to investigate a disturbance."

He and Valentina exchanged a glance. "There's no disturbance here," Valentina told her. "We've been eating ice cream and minding our own business. Right, Aescelin?"

"Right," he echoed, smirking a bit.

"Oh, not here," Chase said. "Last night, on the sixth floor. Surely you heard the connotion?"

"Commotion?" Valentina asked, clearly trying not to laugh.

"Whatever. The yelling," Chase said. "Me and Fleur are investigating who could have done such an evil, cruel thing. Glitter bombs are no joke."

"A glitter bomb?" Aescelin asked innocently. "How odd."

"I thought Fleur enjoyed glitter," Valentina pointed out. "Is this level of questioning really deserved?"

"Well, that depends on why someone sent it," Chase replied. "If it really was a present, then I'm sure it's no problem. But if someone was trying to scare her…"

Aescelin blinked. "I'm confident it is the former. I don't see how it could be anything else."

"And I have to agree with my district partner here," Valentina said.

Chase studied them for a long moment. "Alrighty. If you're both sure, then I'll go see what the eighth floor thinks."

"You're really questioning everyone?" Valentina asked.

Chase nodded. "It's a serious matter, don't you think?"

"No, not really," Valentina answered. "It's glitter. She should get over it."

"Would you?"

"Would I what?"

"Get over it?"

"Yeah, sure," Valentina said, waving her off. "Now, if you'll excuse us, our ice cream is melting."

Aescelin nodded sympathetically. "One of those time-sensitive endeavors, you know," he added. "Eating ice cream."

"Alrighty," Chase said. Aescelin had expected her to be disappointed, but she seemed satisfied with her investigation. What an idiot. "Well, I'll go, then. If you think of anything, I'll be right upstairs."

"Sure," Aescelin said. "You can see yourself out?"

"'Course," Chase said. She gave them a smile and a little salute, and then she turned and left.

Aescelin and Valentina waited until she was gone, then burst out laughing.

"She bought it!" Valentina shrieked. "God, what is wrong with people?"

"I'm telling you!" Aescelin laughed. "No! Competition! We distract them with stupid pieces of paper and glitter, and suddenly they're absolutely useless!"

They returned to their ice cream, doing impressions of Chase's "investigation" until they'd laughed so hard their stomachs ached. Or perhaps that was the ice cream.

"We don't have to do the dishes, right?" Valentina asked.

Aescelin snorted. "Definitely not. That's for the Avoxes."

"True. I'm gonna go change into- what the hell?"

"What?"

"Look down."

He looked at the floor. His feet had been shrouded in mist.

"Where is it coming from?" he asked.

"How would I know?"

"I don't know!" He scanned the floor- it seemed to be entering from the hall. "This way."

"Where are you-"

He stood and strode toward the hall. Immediately, he knew he was correct- the mist was thicker here, and came up to his shins. He waded deeper until it came up to his knees, turning the corner and arriving at the front door.

"Aescelin?" Valentina called.

"Here," he answered her, turning back to the door. But the door wasn't there anymore- instead, there was a mirror hanging in its place.

(Aescelin would never admit it, but his first instinct was not to be curious or suspicious. It was fear. Shrouded in mist, the lights suddenly flickering, and the apartment not the way he remembered it, shadows of dread crept up around him.)

(He'd always insisted to himself that he was not superstitious. Somewhere, deep down, he knew not to believe his eyes, but the other part of him- the one that had always insisted his spirits were real- was louder.)

He approached the mirror slowly. For a long moment, all he could see was himself, encased in fog and darkness.

But then, slowly, on the other side of the mirror, a figure appeared.

They were tall, taller than Aescelin, and wore a long, green, embroidered cape. Where their face should have been was instead a pale, narrow skull with large teeth, eventually transitioning into bark, where tree branches twisted out from their head like a crown. Leaves flowed from their head, almost like hair.

And they were staring at him.

"Hello, Aescelin," the creature said, its voice low and raspy.

"Are… are you…" he stammered. "The Spirit?"

The Spirit inclined their head, stretching a long, pointed finger towards him. He shrank back. "You have become distracted, my child. Playing tricks on innocent souls…"

"To further your cause!" he pleaded. He was vaguely aware of Valentina shouting at him, but ignored her. He could not turn his back on the Spirit.

"HOW?" the Spirit roared. "WITH GLITTER?"

"It is a means to an end, Holy Spirit-"

"YOU ARE JUST AS FOOLISH AS THE REST!" the Spirit continued. "UNWORTHY OF LEADERSHIP!"

"No- no, please, I'll prove myself-"

"ENOUGH PRANKS!" the Spirit demanded. "LEAVE THE GIRLS ALONE. FOCUS YOUR EFFORTS ON THE REST!"

"Yes, Spirit, I will-"

"Aescelin!" Valentina shrieked. "Stop! This isn't real!"

The Spirit tilted their head. "I am very real, mortal girl," they said. They pointed at Aescelin again. "Do not let me down again, Aescelin Ibbara-Itxal."

"I won't!" Ascelin promised.

And with that, the Spirit's image faded. The smoke began to thin. The lights flickered back on. Valentina was yelling at him again, but Aescelin couldn't hear her over his own thoughts.

(The Spirit of the Forest wasn't something he'd invented, but discovered. They had been real all along.)

(And that changed everything.)


Sienna Asher, 26

Victor of the 85th Hunger Games

8:08 PM


She was the last one to arrive.

The six of them had the tenth floor of the Training Center to themselves for a few hours. Aurelia and Dimitri were arguing about something. Mallory was looking over Gigi's shoulder as she worked on her laptop. Esper paced by the window.

Sienna made her way to Esper first- by the looks of it, the argument wasn't ending anytime soon, and Gigi wasn't done working. "How are you?"

Esper exhaled. "I'm fucking exhausted."

She nudged him with her elbow. "I can tell."

"Hey," he said, indignant.

"How's Townes?"

"I haven't talked to him since this morning," Esper admitted. "But Rhylee's been staying over at our place now, so that should help… I don't know. I'm calling him after this."

"Good plan," she replied.

"Of course, it's not fucking helping that my tributes are… they've never been like this before."

"I've been having a similar issue," Sienna said. "I think mine are afraid of each other."

Esper groaned. "Have they made you go get them a banner, confetti, three fog machines, a set of stilts, power tools, a giant two-way mirror, an animal skull, and the weirdest fucking costume you've ever seen? And covered the entire apartment in pink glitter? And thought you were married to a woman?"

Sienna stared at him. "...What?"

"I just had to tell Tomo that gay people exist! He didn't know that! How does someone not know that?"

She patted his shoulder. "Sounds like it's been a long day. At least they're keeping you busy?"

"I don't need to be busy, I need to be home," he grumbled.

"Okay," Gigi announced. "If there's any listening devices in here, they're screwed. We've got an hour-long loop of silence going, but after that…"

"What are we here to talk about, again?" Aurelia asked. "I'm not going to get the arena out of Bellona. I've tried."

"Not that." Gigi glanced at Sienna. "Do you want to say it, or should I?"

Sienna gestured to the young woman. "You can explain it better than I can."

"Okay. So, according to Aurelia, our Head Gamemaker has said she likes to keep records. At the time, she was referring to something about secret interrogations or whatever, but that was what made me hopeful. Maybe Bellona Hargrove keeps records of more than just interviews, right? Maybe she has records of everything," Gigi said.

"Right," Aurelia said.

"Nothing digital that gets deleted is really, actually gone," Gigi explained, still typing away. "So I started digging, and you won't believe how far I had to dig to find this, but eventually I found the confidential archive full of deleted Games footage. Including Sienna's Games."

"Oh, fuck," Esper muttered.

"Some years have way more in here- more unedited footage that had to get saved- than others," Gigi continued. "Sienna's, of course… Esper has some… a bit of Mallory's… and one other… you know how it is. Anything anti-Capitol doesn't get aired."

Mallory tilted her head. "What's the other one?"

"I'll get there, don't worry. But yeah, Sienna, they edited the shit out of your Games. The real finale didn't air until a full day after it actually happened, and that's almost unheard of. I got copies of all the real footage, though, and they'll never even notice I was there," Gia said proudly.

"You have it?" Sienna asked.

"All of it." Gigi motioned her over to the couch, turning her laptop screen so Sienna could see it as she sat next to her. "What do you want to see?"

"I- I don't…

"We don't have to watch this if you don't want to," Aurelia said quietly.

Sienna glanced up at her former Mentor.

(In appearance, Aurelia hadn't changed much from when Sienna had met her twelve years ago. Her clothes were just as stylish and her makeup as meticulous as ever. She didn't have a hair out of place.

But fourteen-year-old Sienna wouldn't have recognized this woman, if only because her words were soft, and her expression concerned.)

"I do," Sienna replied. "I have to see him."

"Dimitri and I both saw what really happened," Aurelia told her. "We remember, too. It's not just you."

"Diana didn't."

Aurelia hesitated. "With Diana… I think the truth is harder for her than the story they told about you and Cal."

"It wasn't a story," Sienna said to Aurelia. "It was a lie."

"But we know better," Esper said, sitting down on her other side. "I didn't need footage to prove that you weren't like that. Anyone who gets to know you knows that."

Sienna spoke slowly. "When you hear a different story for a dozen years," she said, "how can you be sure what's true anymore?"

(She had clung to her memories, but they weren't fresh anymore. Details faded. What if the Cal she'd built up in her mind wasn't the real Cal at all?)

(What if he, and everything she'd tried to accomplish in his name since, was nothing but the delusion of a child who could no longer cope with reality?)

(What if she really had manipulated him? What if she was doing it again now, with Esper and Aurelia and everyone else, and deluding herself along the way? What if she really was the perfect liar the Capitol had made her out to be, with her most convincing lie being the one she told herself?)

(Did he ever believe she was worth saving? Or was that just a lie she told him?)

"You don't need to prove that you're good," Esper said. He reached for her hand, lacing his fingers through hers reassuringly.

"Maybe not," Sienna said. "But I need to know that he was."

"What do you want to see?" Gigi asked.

"The very end," Sienna answered. Esper squeezed her hand, and she squeezed back.

Gigi nodded and pulled up the clip.

"Skip this part," she said as Levi's face appeared. "All the way to the end, when it was just- just the two of us."

Gigi sped past Levi and Sadie's deaths until it was only her and Cal.

(God, she used to be so small.)

(She was crumpled on the ground, curled around the jagged tear in her stomach. Blood was everywhere- her hands, her torso, her hair. She could barely keep her eyes open as she squinted up at Caligula Van Zandt, crouching over her with plenty of wounds of his own. The camera angle switched just as he reached around to pull Sadie's knife out of his back, the blade engraved with her name as if anyone else would've dared attack Cal that way. He was talking to Sienna, and her fourteen-year-old self was mumbling in response.)

("Don't think about it. Just do it."

"I can't… I did horrible things and I can't do any more… please…"

"Better things than me."

"No, no, we're equal! Let yourself win. This was your dream."

"Was. And if you won't…"

"Let yourself win!"

"I won't let that happen.")

(He pressed Sadie's dagger into her hand, then wrapped his hand on top of hers. She was too weak to resist him. He'd always been stronger than her, and it didn't help that she was dying.)

"Stop," Sienna interrupted. She didn't know when she'd started crying. Gigi paused the footage on the image of Cal's hand over hers, directing the blade at his own heart. "That's all I need to see."

(They'd only ever shown her hand on the knife.)

Esper winced, and Sienna looked down to see she was squeezing his hand too hard. "Sorry," she murmured, releasing it.

"You're fine," he replied. "Are you… okay…?"

"That's a stupid question," Aurelia answered. "Of course she isn't."

Esper threw her a scathing look, ready to go at it, but Mallory interrupted. "Guys. Stop."

"I was just saying," Aurelia shot back.

But Sienna stopped listening.

(If Cal was real, then so were Esper and Dimitri and Aurelia and Mallory and Gigi, and the other Victors, too, that she had befriended but not included in her dreams. She had her head on straight. Cal's change of heart really happened.)

(He'd really believed she was worth saving, and he wasn't.)

(And for a moment, she was a fourteen-year-old girl in a hospital bed again, heartbroken because Cal wasn't the one who lived.)

She only shook herself from her thoughts when Mallory crouched in front of her, taking Sienna's hands in hers. "Hey," she said. "Where'd you go?"

Sienna glanced to the side, where Esper, Aurelia, and Dimitri were already deep in another argument. She wiped at her cheeks. "It's just… I'm glad he was real. I missed him."

"Real?" Mallory asked.

She nodded. "I… I was afraid, because when they edited me… they edited him, too, so he wasn't like I remembered… so I thought, you know…"

Mallory squeezed her hands gently. "But he was like you remembered, right?"

She bit her lip, trying not to cry. "Yeah."

"I'm so sorry they tried to take him from you," Mallory told her. "I- I can't imagine what that was like, or how I would've felt if they did that to Astrid. That's awful."

Sienna squeezed back. "I'm glad you can't imagine, because that means they didn't do it to you."

Mallory stood and pulled Sienna into a hug that she desperately needed. Sienna shook in the younger woman's arms for a few minutes, and Mallory didn't pull away until she stopped.

"Thanks," she mumbled.

"Of course," Mallory said, rubbing her back. "How many hours did we spend on the phone after I won?"

"A few," Sienna admitted with a small smile.

"A shitload," Mallory corrected. "I'm here for you too, okay?"

Sienna nodded.

Mallory turned back to the others. "Are you guys done?"

Dimitri threw his hands in the air. "I dunno what's going on anymore."

"I believe it's become another argument about Careers," Gigi supplied, not looking up from her laptop.

"Yeah, no, we're not doing that again," Mallory said. Esper and Aurelia glared at each other one more time, but, to Sienna's relief, dropped whatever they were talking about.

"So what now?" Dimitri asked.

"Gigi, you said there was one other Games with a lot of archived footage," Mallory remembered.

"Oh, yeah," Gigi said, yanking her laptop back and typing away again.

Dimitri watched her for a moment. "Do you spend all day on that thing?"

"These days, yeah," she answered.

"Don't you have a tribute to Mentor or somethin'?"

"Kellin's been taking care of most of that," Gigi answered, still multitasking. "Which is helpful, because there's been a lot to do here. Oh, there it is."

She spun the laptop around for the rest of the group again, beaming. "The Seventy-Fifth Games."

"The Quell?" Mallory asked. "Why?"

"Because it was absolutely insane. Let me find- here."

A clip began to play. At first, it was too dark to see much, but the angle changed, and the screen cleared up. A woman with bared, pointed teeth and a tall bald man chased a younger woman through a rainforest. She outran them, hatchet in hand, but she was clearly starting to panic.

The angle changed: a short man with glasses unspooled wire, sweat glistening at his temples. The angle changed: a girl with a bow and arrow stumbled through the rainforest, disoriented, her dark braid falling apart.

(This one, Sienna recognized. It was too dark to make out the number on her chest, but Sienna remembered Effie telling her about her on the train to the Capitol, all those years ago. She was Twelve's last Victor. Katniss Everdeen.)

The angle changed: an older, grizzled-looking man, a deep wound in his chest, laid on the jungle floor. A blond-haired man- taller, stronger, holding a trident- kneeled next to him, trying to stop the blood, but it was too much. The older one muttered something to Finnick Odair, and with tears in his eyes, Finnick nodded. Then, with a quick jab of his trident, Finnick put the man out of his misery.

The angle changed: the young woman with the hatchet had shaken one of her pursuers, but not the other, the broad-shouldered man. The angle changed: back to Katniss, who stumbled towards a tall, dead tree that had been covered in golden wire. The man with glasses was fighting the sharp-toothed woman and losing. He threw Katniss the end of the spool, and she took it and began to climb the tree. It was hard to tell what she was doing, but as she worked, the man with glasses was killed, the woman viciously ripping his throat out with her teeth. The angle changed: Finnick made his way to the clearing only to be attacked by the other woman, her teeth now covered in blood.

The angle changed: a bolt of lightning came down from the sky, aimed right at the tree. Katniss turned her bow towards the sky, and the footage turned to static, then to black.

The six Victors stared at the black screen for a long moment, silent.

Dimitri was the one who said it. "What the fuck was that?"

"What were they doing?" Esper asked. "What was that wire?"

"I don't know," Gigi answered, "but whatever it is, the Capitol tried to hide it. The only parts of this that aired were close-up shots of the deaths."

"Can we ask Finnick?" Mallory pointed out. "He might know."

"That's if he's even willing to say," Aurelia replied. "He's never liked talking about his Games. And Bellona has told me that her mother and Finnick have had private meetings more than once."

"He may not be able to, at least not here," Sienna mused. "But we should still try."

"Should we?" Aurelia asked. "Because honestly, I think we have bigger problems right now."

"We can always come back to it," Mallory said.

Sienna leaned forward, scrolling the clip back and pausing it on the image of Katniss Everdeen, bow pointed at the sky. "Did she fire that arrow?"

"Didn't look like it," Dimitri said.

"I think the five of them were working together," Sienna murmured, still studying the image. "But for what they were trying to do…"

(Wheels started turning.)

(What if those Victors, twenty-two years ago, had been trying to do something similar to what she was trying now?)

"Is this really our most important conversation right now?" Aurelia asked. "We're running out of time."

Sienna let the clip play again. Lightning struck the tree, the cameras died, and it ended.

"It's true," Gigi admitted. "The silence loop won't last forever."

"Why is she pointing the arrow at the sky?" she muttered. "Or… is it the lightning?"

Esper tilted his head. "But that would… oh."

"That would what?" Mallory asked.

"Well, something definitely exploded," Esper said. "But she never fired it."

"So the explosion was supposed to be up in the sky?" Sienna asked. "Up by the… the force field."

Dimitri sucked in a breath. "They were trying to blow up the forcefield?"

"But that's insane," Aurelia insisted.

"Maybe they wanted to escape," Sienna said.

"Maybe," Esper echoed. "I… wow. Definitely worth coming back to, but for now…"

"For now, we're going over the plan again," Aurelia insisted. "I might have a chance to talk to Bellona tomorrow, after the Private Sessions."

Esper snorted. "Yeah, be sure to tell us how your best friend's doing."

"She's not my best friend. I'm her confidant. There's a difference."

"Sure…"

As they started arguing again, Gigi leaned over. "So, what are you gonna do with the footage?"

"What?"

"Like, are you gonna keep it? We can put it on a flash drive or something. Or- will you show it to Diana?"

Sienna exhaled. "I'm still not sure that's a good idea."

"You don't think it'll change her mind?"

"I'm not sure it'll do anything," she replied. "She… she doesn't know the Cal I knew. What would the footage do, other than… I don't know, prove she never knew her brother at all?"

Gigi shrugged. "Maybe she'd be interested in helping us out."

"Or she'd report us."

"Fair, fair," Gigi replied. "Your call."

(To Diana Van Zandt, Sienna was the villain in her brother's story. She hated it, yes… but she'd been the villain in everyone's story. Eventually her family had been able to shake the edited Sienna, and she'd found Esper and the others a few years later, but maybe that was all she needed, anyway. Maybe she didn't need to ruin Diana's life a second time- first by getting her brother killed, and then by showing her that her brother was a traitor to the Capitol she still claimed to love. She could be Diana's villain if she had to be.)

(Even with the footage, she still blamed herself for Cal's death. How could she blame Diana for agreeing with her?)

"Guys!" Mallory interrupted. "The plan! We're running out of time!"

"Yeah," Gigi answered. "Movie time's over. We have other shit to do."

"Right," Dimitri agreed. "Our risky-ass plan, that we can only attempt once, that's probably gonna get someone killed."

"Right!" Mallory said cheerfully. "Esper, any updates on the early train?"

"It's definitely coming," he answered, although he didn't seem pleased. "Apparently Townes is convinced he can find time in his day to send it…"

As they launched into the logistics of their plan, years in the making, Sienna tried not to think about the recovered footage, but it was a struggle. The image of his hand wrapping around hers was impossible to shake.

(In a way, it was fitting, though, wasn't it? Sienna hadn't been able to shake Caligula Van Zandt's ghost for the last dozen years, and doubted she ever would. His dreams became hers. His true memory was hers to bear.)

(She would just have to do what she wished someone had done for him.)


training done! hooray! that sure was training. someone definitely did real training at some point, right? i think so. probably.

um yeah i will see you with private sessions next week! no tribute povs in that one because i love myself. then we'll be back at it with our last round of tribute povs... only six chapters until the games people... haha...!

okay that's enough that bye!