Chapter 3: Shadow

"We could just...not go, you know."

"What else would we do for the next two and a half days?" Lee pulled a shirt over his head. "You should get in the archery practice, you know."

"Why? It's not like I'm going to make it out."

With a sigh, Lee threw an armful of clothes on the bed, where Helvius was still half-buried in the blankets. While they had been showering the night before, someone, most likely an Avox under Cashmere's direction, had stopped in with clothes for Helvius. Thoughtful of her, as he's got several inches on me and much broader shoulders; I'd share if the difference wasn't so much. "I'd like it if you tried to do something other than mope around my room. They're going to force you into the scoring session anyway."

"Are you going to say that to Axela?"

"Axela won't need me to make her go. She's looking forward to the camouflage station. Although she'll probably be late." He sat on the edge of the bed to tie his shoes. "Get up, Hal."

A long groan sounded from under the covers. "This is all a fucking farce."

Lee finished the knot on one shoe and drop his foot to the floor. "I'm sorry you were rigged in," he said quietly. I had hoped it wouldn't come to that. For his sake. And mine.

"It's more than just me." Hal finally emerged, blond hair sticking in all directions as he sat up. "They Reaped Cashmere, Lee."

"It could've been anyone. Someone was always going to volunteer, right?"

"But it was Cashmere. The one person in that entire damn district who gives a shit about me. Who enables my defiant ways." Helvius reached for the pants Lee had thrown at him. "Someone was sending a message. Multiple someones."

Like with the placement of certain tribute stylists. "Could still be a coincidence."

"Sure, if it happened once." Giving Lee a hard look, Helvius said, "Cresta and Odair. Every Victor knows they're together. Snow and his lot know. Not so much the Capitol public. They might have made a nice post-Games love story once upon a time...But she went crazy and therefore wasn't popular, and almost every Capitolite has wanted to fuck Finnick Odair for the past three decades, so that was never allowed to happen. Yeah, they were never going to get sent in this time. But their names were called anyway."

"Helvius…"

"And look at District Five! They had to call Lopez up, because if they didn't he would have volunteered for Jules and there's no way he could be allowed to look that good again." Grabbing his shirt, Helvius shook his head. "Don't worry, Lee, I'm done ranting for now. But I had to say it. Everyone who matters already knows."

So does whoever might be listening now. "Fair enough." Lee leaned over and kissed Helvius's cheek. "Finish getting dressed."

He didn't remember the Training Center gymnasium from his Games much better than the Remake Center, but he knew it was unusually empty today. Several Victors were absent, including Axela, as Lee had predicted. The Threes, Darien, Bonnie from Nine, Chaff, the Twelves, all missing. The head trainer still gave the same speech as she must have given every year; it came out rushed, almost like she was embarrassed.

We know the drill already. Hal's right; this is a farce in a lot of ways.

Not that it would matter in a few days.

Shimmer, Conan, Eve, Leviathan, and Tion from Eight immediately congregated at the spear-throwing station. Orla teamed up with Mika and Ava on edible plants. Sola from Five went to talk to the shelter-making trainer. Alder and Johanna started tearing up dummies with axes. Cerise Patel headed for the climbing wall. Ira Millward, bottle of alcohol in hand, headed towards the throwing knives.

Moving around like ants. There had been ants, just normal tiny ants, in that bathroom in the Eighty-Fourth Games. Here, there, everywhere…

"Hey, Lee!" Helvius was gripping his arm. When Lee looked up at him, he got a half-smile in return. "Hey. Where did you go?"

"Nowhere important." He shook himself. "Since I'm the one who dragged you down here...What should we do first? Survival stations?"

"Later. First, I'm going to teach you how to shoot."

Within the hour, it was already apparent that Lee had no talent with even the lightest bow available. "Helvius, you're getting twitchy. Just grab one and shoot it yourself."

"Fine, I will." Slinging a quiver over his shoulder and selecting a bow, Helvius stepped into line with the available targets and started firing arrows, one after the other. Most of them hit the bullseye. The trainer was delighted.

Then a woman's voice said, "Not bad."

Lee turned from the targets to find that Katniss and Haymitch had arrived and were watching Helvius shoot. The Threes had showed up, too, but they were off at the fire-making station with Sola.

Katniss took her time choosing a bow while the trainer's assistant ran around removing Helvius's arrows from all the targets. Then the Twelve stepped forward and started shooting.

Besides the very first, which was a little to the right, every single one hit its mark. She turned to Helvius with a faint smirk.

He gave her one right back. "I'm sure you get more practice in than me, Everdeen."

Her eyes narrowed. "At least I had a good reason to learn in the first place, Glitz."

Lee saw Haymitch roll his eyes and took that as his cue to take Helvius's arm. "Come on. We've got lots of ground to cover."

After some survival stations, lunch was called. All the tables in the cafeteria got shoved together immediately. Other than Cerise throwing an entire steak at her district partner, it was an almost festive occasion, with everyone seeming to call an overall truce over food.

"Plenty of time to kill each other later," Lee heard Johanna say to Alder on the way back to the gymnasium.

Axela turned up after lunch, so Lee and Helvius spent most of the afternoon with her at the camouflage station. The only truly interesting thing to happen during that time was Ira getting drunk enough to start vomiting all over the sword-sparring ring. Bonnie came down just long enough to escort him back to their floor.

Again, no one tried to stop Helvius from joining the Sixes on their floor for the night.

The next day, after a morning spent tying knots and setting snares with the Threes, Lee found himself next to Haymitch at one of the self-serve food carts in the cafeteria.

The older man got straight to the point without so much as a hello. "You in the market for some allies, kid? Because me and Katniss are."

"I'd consider it. Not sure why you'd want me, though."

"Actually, it's your boyfriend we'd want. But I take it he's going nowhere without you in the Arena."

I guess so. They hadn't discussed it yet. "More or less."

Haymitch met his gaze. "Think about it." Then he headed over to the others.

I'd go for it, Lee thought later, watching Katniss shoot clay disks out of the air almost faster than the trainer could launch them. Helvius, though…

That night, in bed with his head on Helvius's shoulder, he said, "Are we sticking together in the Arena?"

The response sounded indignant. "Of course we are! I'm not losing one more minute with you if I can help it." Then, more subdued, practically a whisper, "You could survive."

Lee turned his head to look at Helvius's face, but he couldn't see his expression in the dim glow of the nightlight they'd left on. "What are you talking about?"

"You could make it. You're still young, relatively strong, haven't made anyone too angry...Me, that fucker Lopez, Everdeen...We're all troublemakers in some way, the ones getting removed on purpose."

Lee felt like he couldn't breathe. "Like I could outlast these Careers! I can't even pick out the weakest one. And...Hal, I'm not popular enough to get lot of extra help. I swear most of the Capitolites don't even know my name."

"Exactly. You're...unobtrusive. Not problematic. You're tougher than you know. And you can outlast the Careers if enough of them get taken out first. I can protect you. I will, as long as I can."

"…I only won because you took pity on me."

We've only talked about this once. Years ago, after Avi Ruster died.

"That wasn't pity."

The pressure in his chest lessened a bit. "Because you turned me into a weapon in your one-man war against Gloss Beaumont and his favorites , then."

" Ha. Closer, but not quite. I wasn't just trying to piss of Gloss and the other Ones. I...I was trying to...to make up for past sins, to make some sort of difference, I suppose. That's why I kept doing it. Sponsoring ones that weren't supposed to win. It worked, too. Three times."

Past sins...He's talking about the boy from Six he killed... He's so close. So close to being a…

Helvius interrupted his thought. "Didn't expect to fall in love with the first one I saved, though."

He never uses that word. Eyes stinging, Lee moved so their faces were a few inches apart. "I don't want to lose any more time with you, either." Because I'm not one of the people who is supposed to survive this. I'm expendable. We both are.

Helvius pulled him closer and kissed him, and Lee let the conversation drop and his darker thoughts slip away. This is a moment I especially don't want to lose.

The first person called for the individual scoring sessions was always the District One male, so Helvius left the cafeteria before anyone else after lunch the next day. He gave Lee's shoulder a squeeze and sauntered out as everyone scattered around the room. All of the Victors had shown up for the meal if nothing else. Shimmer, the Twos, Leviathan, and Tion formed the largest group.

So there's the pack.

Lee s at down next to Haymitch, who was getting started on a bottle of liquor, at a corner table. "I've been thinking about your offer."

"And?" Haymitch took a sip of his drink, giving Lee a sidelong look.

"We're in." Helvius will follow my lead. I think. " I just have one condition."

"What's that?"

He took a deep breath. Careful. "If I get taken out...early, then I need you to keep Helvius in your alliance."

A scoff. "Would he go for that?"

"Leave that to me." Lee swallowed. "Haymitch, you need to...to keep him in the alliance."

A moment later, Haymitch's eyes widened. "Oh. I see ." He gulped down what was left in his glass. Then, almost carelessly, he said, "Would he be worth the trouble?"

"He could be. He could be very...useful. He just needs convincing at the right time."

"Useful." The look Haymitch gave him seemed wary. "If, for some reason, I can't live up to my end of the bargain, should I be worried?"

"No. But I'd appreciate it if you did."

After a brief pause, Haymitch poured himself another drink and said, "It's a deal, then."

"Thank you." Lee got up and went to wait with Orla.

They didn't speak much as the minutes ticked by. Nobody did.

When his name was called, Lee walked into the gymnasium with no idea what he was going to do. I could try some camouflage like I know Axela is going to, but I don't have the talent...He wasn't bad at sketching, and that was it.

Sketching, drawing…

Some of the talk over lunch had been about how pointless the scoring sessions were, given that the Gamemakers already knew the skills and strength of this year's tributes. Johanna had suggested everyone give a striptease. Bonnie and Ava had joked about napping. Helvius had muttered something about the scores being rigged for sure.

Might as well give them something to think about, to take their minds off of more important things.

So he went to the camouflage station, gathered some supplies, and went back to paint something right in front of the Gamemakers' balcony.

"Axela or Linus would have done it much better," he told Helvius when he got back to the sixth floor and found the oddly- subdued One waiting for him on a sofa. "But I gave it my best."

"What did you paint?"

The one thing I remember clearly from my Arena. "The girl I killed, from District Two. Bleeding out on the floor." She had big gray eyes, long dark hair in two braids. She looked so scared. "What did you do?"

Helvius wouldn't look at him. "Don't be angry."

"Hal, what did you do?"

"...I shot arrows at the Gamemakers." His next words came out almost to fast to understand. "One for each of them. There's a force field, so it's not like they were in any danger, I'm the one who had to keep dodging…" He gave Lee a defiant look. "They were going to screw me over, anyway. You know that."

I do, but I need you to stay alive long enough in there. He suddenly felt too tired to be upset and pulled Helvius into a hug. "We'll see how it goes."

He wasn't sure how to feel when Helvius earned a new record score: a zero.

Trying to discourage sponsors? I guess they don't need to make him a Career pack target; he is one already thanks to Shimmer...

The rest of the scores were all over the place. There were a lot of nines and tens for the stronger tributes. Lee got a one, Axela a six. Conan Claymore and Kori Aoki both scored elevens. The oldest tributes mostly got very low scores, with the exception of Beetee Latier's seven. Darien Lopez and Katniss Everdeen received twelves.

So now we know for sure who Snow wants dead the most.

If it hadn't been obvious enough before.