Chapter title is taken from the song "Under The Water" by AURORA
General reminder that Theo's pronouns are she/it!
XI.
To the Deep, What Do They Seek?
Two days passed without incident, somehow.
Theo kept a close eye on the nightly summaries of deaths, but after day two in the arena, no deaths came. It was quiet, peaceful, calm. Calm enough that Theo was relieved to know that Char and Khoi were making do together with the supplies they had.
Montresor brought the boy from Eight out each day and tortured him whenever the twins tried to peek outside and check for an opening. No opening ever presented itself—the girl from Seven, the oldest one among the group of children, had allied herself with Montresor and Ajax upon exiting her launch area. When the boys slept, she was awake and watching the door with an axe in hand.
What was most surprising of all was that the boy from Eight just kept surviving his torture sessions. Montresor broke every finger on his hands and shattered his other leg. Pulled out teeth and pummelled his face. Stacked things on top of the boy's stomach and landed blow after blow upon the stacks. Through it all, that poor twelve-year-old sobbed and survived.
It was only after Montresor plucked out his eyes—something Truffle screamed in horror before running back to the bunk beds—that the boy seemed to give up and die. Theo watched as the girl from Seven dragged his corpse to the water and kicked it into the depths, and Theo continued to watch as the body sank and sank and sank.
Down into the abyss, the only grave the poor child would ever know. Down where no one would ever find him, no matter how hard they tried.
That night, Theo dreamed of him tapping on the glass next to its bed. She opened her eyes, exhausted from sobbing and stress, and she saw someone swimming up to the cornucopia dome from below. Billowing sheets of colourful fabric followed them as they swam, up and up and through the hole.
And when Theo got up to investigate, walking through the dahlia garden, the boy from Eight was tapping on the glass of the door.
Long nails tapped away, wide eyes staring at her. Theo stared back, shaken by the sight, and for the briefest of moments considered waking someone to make sure it wasn't hallucinating. But Theo didn't get the chance to decide against it. Fortuna's healing process had been better with a proper bed to sleep in and care from everyone around her, so when she limped to Theo's side, she slipped her hands around Theo's and gripped it tightly.
"Don't open the door," Fortuna whispered. Theo nodded.
When it became obvious that Theo and Fortuna wouldn't open the door, the ghost of the boy backed away from the door and moved on. Through the glass, Theo could see him more clearly as he moved to the door leading to the dome on the right—the door slid open easily, almost like it wasn't even locked, and Theo and Fortuna walked along the garden as the ghost entered the cypress garden beside them.
The boy's ghost looked around, eyes wide and curious, and Theo finally noticed what was off about him—aside from the obvious unbroken, unshattered limbs and his eyes being in his skull, as opposed to on the floor. Instead of the arena uniform everyone else wore, the boy donned a surgical gown that was tied at the back in knots. Theo thought back to the brightly coloured fabric that had been dragged through the water, and then it recalled some of the pet fish it'd seen on display at the pet shop in the middle of District Two.
Theo swallowed a lump in its throat and watched the boy's ghost open the next door.
"I hope no one's in there," Theo found itself muttering.
And to its surprise, Fortuna nodded in agreement. They gripped each other's hands tightly and watched, longer and longer, as the boy's ghost disappeared through the door. Five minutes passed. Ten. Fifteen. And just when Theo was about to relax, a bright flash came from the direction of the ghost and a small burst of flames quickly doused by the water around it emerged. A rumbling thud rocked the dome, enough that Theo was ready to grab Fortuna and run. But the dome didn't crack, and they hurried back to the bunk beds to get a better vantage point.
Bellatrix and the twins were already out of bed and running into the corridors to see what had happened. Theo and Fortuna followed them, all five of them staring out the glass and at the corridors across the water. Someone was frantically swimming away from the exploded elevator, struggling to reach the airtight door at the end of the corridor, and before they could even fully open up the door, they began to convulse and air seeped from their lips.
They all watched one of the tributes from Six drown across the water. They all watched the door slowly seep water into the dome the corridor led to.
By the time the duo from Ten emerged from their elevator to investigate, the water was knee-height in the dome. As the night passed on and the tributes hurried to shut the door properly again, a whole new danger dawned on the girls.
That night, three tributes were listed among the deceased: The boy from Eight, and the duo from Six.
Seventeen tributes remained.
"We have to get to Char and Khoi."
When Theo spoke the words, it fully meant them. It was day five in the arena already, and more of those creatures wearing tributes' faces were sneaking in through the hole in the floor. Char and Khoi were in the most danger out of everyone right now, and with the number of dead piling up, so too did the number of mutts sneaking into the arena.
As much as Theo struggled with the idea of using violence, it knew that something had to be done about Montresor and his allies sooner rather than later. Montresor was nursing a wound from Theo's yari, certainly, but like Fortuna, he'd had time to heal over the past four days. With the pack abandoning the med bay, too, he had access to the medicine and proper tools to stitch and disinfect the wound.
They had to take care of the shrinking alliance now.
Fortuna was a bit more confident on her feet now, and while she still limped, she was able to keep up with the others when they ran through the garden. She even took her weapon from the backpack and gave it a few test swings, showing off just how skilled she was with a meteor hammer by making sure not to hit herself or the walls, let alone the floor, with the ball attachment.
Frankly, the only one still having reservations was Cyanea. But it was easy to convince her after reminding her that the mutts could overwhelm Khoi and Char at any moment, and that they needed to be moved somewhere safer. Maybe even to the food dome so they could starve out everyone else.
"Are you going to be able to handle fighting?" Fortuna asked, uncertain.
Bellatrix and Cyanea looked at Theo, confused, and Theo sighed softly to itself.
"I don't know," it admitted. "I might choke again. But that doesn't matter. Char and I agreed that we'd continue fighting for the sake of the other, and I'm not about to let him wither away without food or water while dead tributes keep attacking him. If I die fighting the rival pack, then so be it."
The twins seemed almost uncomfortable by the declaration. Theo thought it heard Saffron mutter under her breath that she wished Truffle honoured her word like Theo did, but when it looked at the twins, the duo smiled like nothing was wrong and nodded along with its plan.
Theo held back a second sigh and looked back to the table.
"What do we know about everyone's strengths outside?" it asked. "We know Montresor prefers close combat and Ajax prefers long-ranged. But what else?"
Bellatrix leaned forward and said, "Ajax is a bit of a glass cannon. He went down in one punch, and I didn't even punch him that hard. He was able to throw Cyanea against one of the bunks, but that was it. I think he just has small bursts of strength when he has to fight close-quarters."
"Is his aim even that good?" Saffron asked. She jabbed a thumb at the door, frowning all the while. "I know he aimed at you and Tuna, but when Monty shoved him, he managed to hit the floor. That's a big fuck up from just a shove at that distance."
"He scored low in the private sessions. Low enough that his score was below average when the Gamemakers took points," Theo recalled. "Did anyone watch him at the archery station?"
Cyanea raised a hand. She sucked in a short breath and rubbed at her eyes, tired. "If he hit a vital spot," she said, "it'd be by accident. He's the lowest priority, I think."
"The real issue would be Monty, then," Truffle chimed in. They were digging through one of the bags, almost distracted, but when they found what they wanted, they set the vial down on the table with a triumphant smile. "He's super strong, but if we hit him with some of the morphling from the med bay, he might slip up."
Bellatrix stared at the vial with wide eyes.
"Have you guys just been carrying around morphling the whole time?"
"It's from the med bay," Truffle said.
"Thought it'd be useful," Saffron chimed in.
"For Tuna, mostly," Truffle added.
"She didn't want it," Saffron agreed.
"Can't just throw it away," they concluded together.
Bellatrix grimaced and leaned back in her chair.
"I guess we could do that," she finally said. She looked at Theo, mostly for confirmation, and Theo in turn glanced at the twins.
"Did you bring a syringe?" it asked them. Truffle's mouth dropped open into a perfect O, almost like they'd forgotten entirely, but Saffron was quick to rummage through another bag and produce three syringes. Apparently the thought process had been to bring syringes in case someone knew how to find a vein and in the event Fortuna refused to drink it. They didn't bring many syringes, though—priority went to the bandages and sewing kit in Char's backpack. "Then I guess we have a plan for Montresor. The question is how to make it take it."
Bellatrix raised a hand this time, grinning, and said, "Hey, what if one of us got close enough to wrestle with him? I can bench press two of me, and I know you're strong enough to hold him down for a few seconds. All a second person needs is the time to jab him."
"I'll do it," Fortuna chimed in. "I was talking to Cyanea about the tanks near the cornucopia, and I think I know how to finish him off after the injection. As long as you guys can hold him down while I get his attention with the jab, all I need you to do after is book it as fast as you can."
Everyone looked at Cyanea. Cyanea was sipping her water, and when she was done, she idly told them, "Box jellies. He'll die of cardiac arrest in minutes if enough land on him."
Jesus. Montresor was definitely taken care of there. And if Theo followed Fortuna's line of thinking, all Fortuna needed to do was swing the meteor hammer while a safe distance from the tank. She was perfect for this kind of execution.
Theo leaned back in its chair and nodded once. "So we know Ajax is low priority and has bad aim. We know Montresor can be handled with the morphling and someone to hold him down for Fortuna. Has anyone been watching the girl from Seven?"
Everyone was silent. Really, there was little to no confirmation that anyone had seen the girl from Seven do anything. Theo knew she was armed with an axe, typical of a tribute from Seven, and she was able to drag the boy from Eight's body to the water. But nothing else stuck out. Until they saw her in action, they were tackling her blind. Theo sighed to itself and rose from its chair. It tried to recall her score from the announcements, but even her name had escaped Theo's attention. Theo had been so focused on the threat of the rival career pack, over the dwindling numbers of Montresor's alliance in and out of the arena, that it'd never considered someone willingly joining his alliance.
This was too much of an unknown. Theo gritted its teeth and walked out of the dormitory, into the garden and towards the door.
More of the mutts were poking their heads up through the pool in the cornucopia dome than last night. Theo hadn't seen any be taken out, but with more eyes on them, it was becoming obvious what the mutts were and how they fit in with the arena design. The long, colourful tails with even longer fins kicked back and forth in the water, and when Theo saw one look in the direction of their dome, sharp rows of teeth smiled back at it.
It was obvious now, with hindsight, that the ghosts of the bloodbath Theo had seen were the mutts coming to taunt her. She'd stared at them all night as they'd tried to get her attention beyond a dissociating, glazed-over expression, and it just hadn't clocked that the Gamemakers would make a mutt so human.
What they were doing, though, was extremely inhuman.
According to Cyanea, from the view of the dormitory several mutts had crowded the drowned corpse of the tribute from Six. Blood clouded the water, making it difficult to see, but Cyanea had spotted a few mutts swimming off with chunks of meat between their serrated teeth and fingers and arms clutched in clawed hands. There was no doubt in Theo's mind that the mutts were just as hungry as the tributes were, and just as smart as well. The likelihood of the mutt of the boy from Eight triggering the explosion was higher than the tribute from Six arming a bomb and running.
This was how the corpse cleanup would function, Theo thought as she watched the heads bob in and out of the water with every arrow Ajax let fly. Mutts would come in and drag bodies back with them, and when they ran out of corpses to scavenge, they'd turn to the living tributes next.
Theo walked back into the dorm and picked up its yari with a sigh. "If the mutts are taking the corpses, then we are definitely on a time limit with Char and Khoi," it said to the group. Everyone else was already shouldering their backpacks and collecting their belongings. Even Cyanea was getting ready, not eager to stay behind on her own in the dome. "I'd rather we only have one threat to worry about at a time, and we can't kill all the mutts on our own. So we need to get rid of the rival career pack. Ideally today."
"Say no more," Bellatrix laughed softly. "If we can get the cornucopia while we're at it, we have a better defence against the mutts."
Maybe. It all relied on how well the mutts could use weapons. If one of them could fire an arrow better than Ajax could—which was already a low bar to clear, if Theo was being honest—then they were sitting ducks on top of the cornucopia. That didn't even get into the danger of the escape hatches on the ceiling. If they wanted to reach them, they needed to flood the domes first. Letting in more water meant letting in the mutts, and Theo had a sinking feeling the mutts were much faster than they were at swimming.
Out of all of them, Bellatrix and Cyanea were the only ones unarmed right now. No doubt, Bellatrix's sledgehammer was at the bottom of whatever body of water this arena was suspended in; Char had good intentions of looting it from Magellan's corpse, but there was no way he'd been able to swim with it and the other heavy items in his backpack. Theo rubbed its chin as the group walked through the garden, and eventually a better idea of what to do for the plan came to mind.
Fortuna was emptying the entire bottle of morphling into the syringes, and she uncapped all three and held them together in her fist. This was either enough to overdose Montresor, or it was enough to severely slow him down. All Fortuna needed was a precious few seconds.
"Bellatrix," Theo called out. Bellatrix looked up from her backpack as she moved things around some more. A lot of the firmer foods were at the front of the backpack, a good shield for Bellatrix if Ajax tried to shoot at her. "I want you to handle Montresor. If you can disarm him, I think you could use his mace effectively."
Bellatrix was about to shoulder her bag, but paused when Theo gave the order. She seemed to consider it, and then she smirked and gripped her backpack like a makeshift shield. "Alright, I'm down," she replied.
"Fortuna can handle the jellyfish tank, so make sure you can get him near one," Theo added. "I'll handle the girl from Seven, but Saffron…"
She looked at Saffron, and the redhead perked up.
"When her back is to you, throw as many knives into it as possible."
Saffron saluted and chirped, "Aye aye!"
"Am I handling Ajax?" Truffle asked. Theo looked at Truffle, then at Cyanea, and Theo hummed softly.
"Disarm him. Literally. Ajax isn't much of a threat if he can't use his hands." Guilt blossomed in Theo's chest at the statement. This was borderline torture, leaving him unable to defend himself against the mutts, but what other choice did they have? Despite Theo's attempts to welcome him back into the pack and to mend bridges over the training sessions, and even after finding out he couldn't take Theo down on his own, Ajax just continued to pull away and resent the group. He was set on the ideal he'd created before the reapings, determined to bring dead weight so he had an easier time winning, and now that the reality of it all challenged him, he was shutting down and lashing out. Theo had said it succinctly enough to Desdemona after the bathroom incident—he had to face consequences before he seriously hurt someone. "Leave him after that. Get Cyanea to the vacation dome and help her move Khoi and Char back to the dormitory. The rest of us… We'll get more supplies. At this point, all we can do is wait for the rest of the tribute to starve."
By the end of this, if Ajax was taken out by the mutts, it would leave fourteen tributes. With a solid seven of them being in the dormitory, they only needed half of the remaining tributes to die.
"Wait," Cyanea said, and everyone paused to look at her. She blinked and looked at the twins, and she asked, "Which dome did you guys get the oxygen tanks from?"
Saffron froze up, only able to mutter that it was the one they were launched into, but Truffle seemed to be able to remember Char's map. They let out an uncertain hum, cogs moving in their brain, and then they let out a soft, "Oh!" and slapped their fist against their palm.
"I never thought to ask," Truffle said instead of answering. "Did you guys find an arena map anywhere in here? There was one where Theo and Char launched."
Oh shit, that was right! Theo gasped and dropped her things, running back into the dormitory dome, and the others followed her. Char had the map he drew, but making a new one was easy. They'd only moved three domes to the right, which meant if they marked the med bay and recalled where they all launched in comparison to it, they could afford to break away to find the oxygen tanks. Cyanea was obviously thinking the same thing Theo was—that the domes might flood eventually.
The arena map in the dormitory was hidden underneath one of the bunk beds. With the twins being the smallest, they each had to slide under the bed and trace the map onto some paper from the medical instructions they'd brought with them, and it was almost an agonising wait as Theo watched a couple of the mutts enter the arena through the hole. They didn't go near the career pack—no, if anything, they beelined for rooms with corpses—but the careers were watching them with wide, feral eyes as they walked gleefully to each dome to test the doors.
By the time Saffron was done finishing the map, Theo was ready to start rubbing the yarn again to calm its nerves. But the map was put down on the table and marked with which one they were in, and then Theo set to work marking down which domes she knew were which. When all was said and done, the only domes they didn't know the contents of were the one to their immediate right, and the one to the left of the swimming pool dome. Between them both, though, was the dome the twins had launched from—the one with all the diving gear, just two domes to the left of the dormitory.
Theo couldn't believe they'd almost circled the whole arena, moving from dome to dome this way. It was genuinely impressive, especially when Theo recalled just how far each dome was—how far each door leading to each garden was.
"I'm taking Khoi to get oxygen tanks," Cyanea decided. Yeah, she was definitely thinking the same thing as Theo about the water.
Theo didn't argue, but instead looked to the twins.
"I want you two to help her when you're done helping deal with the pack. Something tells me the mutts will do anything to flood the arena, and if we can prevent drowning, that'll help a lot."
Saffron nodded, albeit nervously, while Truffle shrugged and nodded as well.
Bellatrix sniffed and raised a hand again, and she was looking to Theo for approval as she spoke. "Actually," she started. "I had an idea for what to do with the remaining tributes after this. But it's risky, and I'd need you guys to trust me."
Theo opened its mouth, ready to stop Bellatrix, but then reconsidered. No, if Bellatrix had a plan that had a huge payoff, then maybe Theo could let her suggest it. All that mattered was that they all pulled it off perfectly, to the letter, and trusted Bellatrix to handle it.
"Go on," Theo finally said.
Bellatrix seemed to relax a little more. "When I take Montresor's mace, I'm going to sink the cornucopia. I want to try and take out some of the mutts and cut off the other tributes from the rest of the domes."
"That's a lengthy process," Cyanea chimed in. "You'd have to hit the floor with the mace around the cornucopia while the rest of us run around. And then you'd have to wait for me and Khoi to get back."
Bellatrix opened her mouth, only to shut it and purse her lips. She gave Cyanea a smile, and replied, "It could fall into the water prematurely, actually. From how the twins described the floor collapsing from the sledgehammer, I'd wager it won't be strong enough to support the cornucopia once half of the weight is leaning on it."
"So there's a chance you could fall through with it," Theo mumbled. It looked at Bellatrix, expression firm. "Absolutely not."
"You're leaving Ajax to the mutts, and we don't know if the knives will be enough to kill Seven," Bellatrix argued. "It's suicide, but I want us to have a backup plan in case we can't wipe out the rival careers."
"No," Theo repeated, firmer this time. "I simply won't give you the mace to do it."
"Then I am defenceless," Bellatrix said, sounding hollow, "and I'm at the mercy of my cousin and the mutts, regardless."
Cyanea sighed and shook her head. Even the twins were starting to get uncomfortable, and Theo couldn't look away from Bellatrix's face. She was so resolute in this plan—so determined to sacrifice herself when the alliance would be fine with the previously established plan—and Theo had to wonder what more there was to all of this.
So it asked Bellatrix, "What's wrong?"
Bellatrix coughed into her hand and looked away, clearly chewing the inside of her cheek. Theo reached for her hand and held it, but Bellatrix pulled away from its grip almost coldly.
"Look, I'm not about to delude myself," Bellatrix muttered. "I'm not suited for this kind of arena, not when it comes to things beyond smashing it to pieces. Any other kind, I'd keep fighting. But I can't even swim. And if the mutts are using our faces when we die, I'd rather just go out dragging my asshole cousin with me for putting me in this situation." She glanced at Theo, sucking in a short breath, and Bellatrix worked her jaw for a moment. "I'm not confident about fighting any of you guys, when the alliance falls through. And I know the twins will side with you and Char once we turn against each other. I'm stronger than you all, certainly, but I am just that—raw strength, no technique. And don't think I didn't hear about you choking, either, Theo."
Theo startled and looked away, heat flooding to its face. Ah, the twins or Fortuna must've said something.
"If I were a mutt," Bellatrix added, "it'd be so much easier for you to kill me. So forgive me if I want to rest my bets of winning on your and Char's shoulders."
Fortuna huffed a small laugh. "Leave some confidence for the rest of us," she mumbled.
"Sorry, this is a matter of District pride," Bellatrix teased. "End of the day, I gotta cheer for my team. Move to Two and we'll talk about a vote of confidence."
Everyone but Theo let out awkward, hushed laughs at the exchange. Everyone but Theo could see Bellatrix's argument.
Theo, though, struggled to fully understand why Bellatrix wanted to go out like this. Yes, Bellatrix had spelled it out—a lack of confidence once everyone turned against each other, which was reasonable enough when you took into account who would side with who. Cyanea and Khoi would undoubtedly help Bellatrix, but then they'd turn against her when all was said and done. And they had the advantage compared to Bellatrix in this kind of arena. At every turn, it was the depths that the arena would lead to. Sure, it was stacked against Bellatrix with this arena and the people around her.
But was she so lacking in confidence over her situation that she felt taking the cornucopia and Ajax down with her was the answer?
Theo looked at Bellatrix with a pleading gaze, a gaze that Bellatrix did her best to avoid as much as possible. But eventually she had to look at Theo, and all it could see was pure, unwavering trust in her eyes as she stared back at it with a half-smile.
"C'mon," Bellatrix pleaded. "Let me have a badass moment. It'll be fun."
Fun, she said. Theo felt a pit grow in its stomach. Fun, she said.
"I'm going to try to pull you out of the water," Theo warned her.
Bellatrix laughed a little and nodded. "Alright, fine," she sighed, still grinning. "But the moment a mutt grabs me, I'm breaking your fingers so you let me go."
Alright. Bellatrix might have been joking, but that sounded fair to Theo. Theo nodded, and no one else seemed to have anything else to say.
With the plan worked out, everyone's positions clear and the mutts slowly returning with their new meals to the abyss, the group moved to the door and quietly opened it the moment the rival pack looked away to gather their bearings.
Everything felt like it happened in a rush. Theo lined up with the spear, aiming for the jellyfish tank closest to the cornucopia, and it took a moment to wait for one of the trio to leave the safety of the metal structure before hurling the yari. It was Ajax who ventured out first, bow in hand, and he barely saw the yari aimed in his direction before her let out a loud, "Fuck!" and jumped back into the cornucopia.
The yari flew through one side of the tank and out the other, clattering to a stop near the entrance to the garden leading to the diving gear dome. Now Cyanea had something to use as a weapon when she and Khoi moved for the dome for supplies, Theo thought, and it motioned for everyone else to run as the jellyfish tank exploded outwards and glowing box jellies were pushed along the floor in heaps. The girl from Seven was quick to jump around and over the jellies, avoiding their tentacles as she brandished her axe and ran towards the group. Fortuna and Bellatrix moved to one side of the cornucopia, Fortuna calling for Ajax all the while, and Truffle and Cyanea moved straight for the cornucopia as Theo crashed into the girl from Seven and tumbled to the floor with her.
Credit where it was due, the girl from Seven was strong. She still had a grip on her axe as she and Theo tumbled along the floor, wrestling each other, and despite Theo's attempts at disarming her, she never let up. She swung the axe up as Theo delivered punch after punch to her stomach, and when she swung it down it lodged itself into the glass and let loose a massive web of cracks beneath them.
Theo managed to grab her by the face and throw her off of it, and it spear-tackled her into the cornucopia when she stood back up. Fists landed on Theo's back and head, trying to wind Theo, but Theo didn't let up. It could hear screaming—from Ajax when Truffle undoubtedly swung at his arm, and from Montresor as he tried to get past Bellatrix to get to Fortuna. But it kept its focus on the girl from Seven as it hooked its arms around her thighs and swung backwards, suplexing her into the floor.
When the girl from Seven landed on the cracked glass, both of them fell into the water and felt shards dig into their wetsuits. Theo looked through the bubbles as best as it could—a shard of glass sliced at its eye, red mist clouding its vision—and finally saw the girl from Seven attempting to swim back up to the arena.
Theo kicked its legs as hard as it could, echoes of the mutts' singing ringing through the abyss, and Theo surfaced with a gasp. Saffron was screaming, the girl from Seven already climbing up to give chase, and Theo caught sight of silvery metal flying through the air and landing near the girl. One of the knives buried itself into the girl's hand, causing her to cry out in pain, and Theo jumped on top of her as another knife buried itself into her shoulder.
They both sank back into the water again, and this time the mutts were circling excitedly. It was hard to see past the colourful tailfins and Theo could barely hear itself think over the echoing tune that surrounded them. All Theo knew was that the girl from Seven had grabbed one of the knives and tried to stab Theo with it, to shake it off of her, and the blade sliced through Theo's wetsuit and against its collar bones painfully.
Theo didn't think. It didn't think. It closed its eyes and grabbed the knife in the girl's shoulder and twisted it, and with a scream of pain all of the air rushed out of her lungs. Theo kicked off of her, forcing itself to swim to the surface as the mutts circled the girl, and all Theo could see through the blood in its eye and the bubbles the girl kicked up with a terrified expression as the mutts of her fellow Seven tributes lunged for her.
Theo surfaced in time to catch her breath. She coughed and sputtered, half-blinded by the blood, and felt hands on her. Saffron's red hair peeked through the obscurity, and all Theo could hear was, "Come on! Help me pull you up! The glass is going to give out again!"
They both slid onto the more solid glass just in time for the cracked floor to fall apart, and Saffron hurriedly checked Theo for injuries and debris.
"Just my eye," Theo gasped as hands checked every wear and tear of the wetsuit. "Got my collar. Eye is worse."
"It's stopped bleeding," Saffron told her as she pried Theo's eye open. "I don't see any glass. Can you see out of it?"
What a silly question. But then again, Saffron was probably worried that Theo had been blinded. Theo nodded, and she told Saffron, "Lot of red."
"Hang in there," Saffron whimpered. "Truffle and Cyanea made it to the diving room. We'll get Char to patch you right up!"
Saffron helped Theo to its feet and they both hurried along the edge of the cornucopia, towards the vacation dome. Theo could see Khoi and Char watching anxiously from the garden, and when Theo briefly wondered why they hadn't come out yet, a thought crossed her mind. Shit, Montresor would've locked them in there to starve them. Even if they wanted to come out, they couldn't.
Theo looked over at the cornucopia, and spotted Ajax on the floor and sobbing as he cradled his severed arm. He was a complete non-threat now, even with one functional arm left, and he glared at the duo as they shuffled past. He didn't bother to get up, to stop them, and Theo swallowed a lump in her throat as she fought every instinct to pick him up and help him. This was his consequence, she reminded herself. This was his long overdue consequence.
Past Ajax, at the mouth of the cornucopia, Theo spotted Bellatrix and Montresor. They wrestled on the ground for a moment, Montresor's hands around Bellatrix's throat, and for a brief moment Theo panicked. Where was Fortuna? It was hard to tell. But just when Theo was ready to break away from Saffron and tackle Montresor, to save Bellatrix, Theo saw Fortuna emerge from the mouth of the cornucopia and stab Montresor in the neck with the syringes.
She injected all of the morphling into his body, snapping the needles off of the syringes when she pulled away, and Bellatrix coughed as she kicked Montresor off of her. He turned, already in a daze, and yelled every profanity at Fortuna that he could think of as she backed away towards the nearby jellyfish tanks and swung her meteor hammer, building momentum.
When Montresor was a mere foot away and began to lunge, Fortuna swung the meteor hammer at both him and the tank. Theo watched as, with horrific precision, the meteor hammer landed on Montresor's head and almost turned his brain into wine from the force. And the ball kept moving, dragging his skull with it and splattering it against the jellyfish tank before it breached through the glass. Water rained down on Montresor's body as it fell limp to the floor, and both Bellatrix and Fortuna scrambled to get out of the way of the box jellies as they tumbled out into the open.
Theo watched with slowly dawning horror as one jelly landed on Fortuna's ankle, its tentacles snaring the small gap between her wetsuit and her shoe, while another landed on Bellatrix's back.
Bellatrix didn't appear to be stung, but Fortuna let out a short grunt of pain as she kicked the jelly off of her leg and tried to continue running. Bellatrix didn't even touch hers, letting it hang off of her wetsuit, and she scooped up Montresor's mace as she ran away from his body. Saffron and Theo continued to run, to try and reach the dome Khoi and Char were trapped in, and they made it to the door at the same time as Truffle and Cyanea left the diving gear dome.
Sounds of the floor groaning with each crack Bellatrix made pushed everyone to move faster. They had to get back to the dormitory and regroup. They had to run back to the dormitory before the floor broke and the other duo from Two fell into the depths.
But a hiccup wasn't accounted for in the plan: The other tributes outside of the career packs.
Theo flicked the lock and both Khoi and Char scrambled out with equal amounts of urgency. Char picked up Theo and practically sprinted away from Saffron and Khoi, beelining for the dormitory, and they managed to pass Bellatrix as they ran. Bellatrix paused to look at them, to bid them farewell with a confident nod, and Theo watched as she slammed the mace a final time into the floor. The cornucopia groaned and leaned, and then the muted sound of glass shattering echoed through the room.
Theo watched Bellatrix and Ajax both plummet into the water together, but Saffron was dragged with them. Khoi cried out in horror, their eyes glued to the scene as several mutts scattered to avoid being crushed under the cornucopia, and Truffle and Cyanea both let out shocked shouts as they saw Saffron be dragged under by the current. All Theo could see as Char threw open the door and stepped into the safety of the garden was more tributes running out of the other domes. She saw a boy in colours from Eleven run towards Cyanea and Truffle, trying to grab at their oxygen tanks, and Theo screamed for Cyanea as both she and the boy tumbled into the water in the scuffle. Truffle ran over to Khoi, desperate to stop them from diving in after the duo, and the both backed into the diving gear dome.
But not before a tribute from Ten tried to follow them, and Truffle Spartan-kicked the tribute into the water before slamming the door shut and spinning the wheel in place.
Char set down Theo as a mutt tried to reach through the door for them, but before he could even kick it away, the mutt turned its attention away from the duo and towards another dome. The other half of the Ten duo peered out of their dome in shock, calling for their partner, and Theo screamed at them to shut the door. But the tribute couldn't hear it over the commotion, and two pairs of mutt hands snatched them by the ankles and dragged them into the depths, screaming and crying and clawing at the door.
When Char shut the door and spun the wheel, going so far as to pull the lock lever, they both collapsed to the floor and gasped for air. Char was all over Theo in an instant, hands holding its face and checking for injuries, and Theo kept repeating the same thing over and over—it was okay, it could still see, the eye was worse than the cut.
"Fuck," Char said, mostly under his breath. And then, louder, "Fuck!"
He pressed kisses to Theo's face, and Theo could tell he was holding back from hugging her. So Theo just held his hands tightly and continued to breathe, doing its best to not think about what just happened—about how royally the plan she came up with fucked up.
So instead of thinking, Theo cried and let Char treat her eye. And Theo did her best to not think about the people who died because of her, nor think of the possibility that Bellatrix had done this—had taken so many people with her—for Theo and Char's benefit.
It was easier not to think.