Author's Note

I do not own the Hunger Games.

Luminita Summerfield, 17

As they set up camp for the night, now a good distance from the canyon, Emeria was still crying, quiet, but steady and haunting.

Not even Calpurnia had found any disparaging comments for her. Evidently not even she was that cruel.

Sorcha, being Sorcha, had tried to approach her and offer some smiles and comfort, but that wasn't exactly what someone mourning the death of their partner would need.

"Leave me alone!" Emeria had screamed, flailing her arms at her.

Even Sorcha had known to back off at that one.

Luminita tried to approach Celeste instead. It still felt odd, that rather than follow Sorcha, who had tried to establish herself as leader, and was certainly more dominant, here they were following this half-silent fourteen year old.

"Celeste?" she asked softly.

Celeste looked up at her with those strange pale eyes.

"Did you… know? That that would happen to Silverie?"

Celeste shook her head.

That was… something, Luminita supposed. It meant she hadn't done this with the intention of sacrificing Silverie for reasons she didn't know.

"Do you know where this firebird of yours is?"

Celeste pointed away into the fog.

"Will anyone else get hurt finding them?"

Celeste shrugged.

"It doesn't work like that," Zephyr said from behind her. "She tells fortunes, not the future."

"Isn't that the same thing?"

"No," Celeste replied, twisting her hands together. "Sometimes I might know what a person's end will come with, sometimes I know when. But not the who, or the why, or the what."

"Then what about me?" Luminita demanded.

Celeste seemed to consider this for a moment, while Zephyr looked distinctly worried.

"Bullets," she said at last.

"Bullets? You mean someone in here has a gun?"

Celeste shrugged. "Don't know."

"But you-"

Had done exactly what she'd said she would. Told her the 'what with' and had nothing of anything else.

"Great. Thanks." Luminita frowned. "What about Zephyr?"

Zephyr slapped his hands over his ears. "Don't want to know; I don't want to know!"

Celeste smiled. "Zephyr doesn't want to know."

Vivaldi Perlman

The fear that whatever had been in that mausoleum might suddenly lurch from the darkness towards them still burned inside him, but the monster had never come, and as night set in, they found a new spot to settle and camp.

"We need to keep watch for whatever it was we heard earlier," Phoenix said.

"Thought you said we lost it?" Vivaldi replied.

"I think we did, but what do you prefer? Living, or being devoured by mutts?"

"Good point."

They set up camp around the gravestones, though withheld from building blanket tents as they had done before in case they did need to leave in a hurry.

As night set in the sky turned silver and the usual District anthems played. The first two faces weren't ones she recognised, both girls with striped hair, and Vilvaldi wondered if they'd been friends or related to have such similar styles until their names were announced.

"Victorianna Wonder, age sixteen. Placed thirty first. Angelica Pierce, age eighteen. Placed thirtieth."

But the third face that appeared made Phoenix's breath catch and Vivaldi's heart dropped to his stomach. He'd wanted to get her back to her siblings alive.

The boy didn't look much like Phoenix, he was bigger, with dyed blue hair and wicked eyes.

"Apollo Gilmore, age seventeen. Placed twenty ninth."

Relief flooded through Vivaldi, but Phoenix still looked pained, her eyes wide.

"Did you know him?" he asked as the feed changed to the image of his pod interior. Phoenix pointedly covered her face with her hands.

"I knew of him," she replied.

Above them, yet another face appeared. So many today. Maybe the hijackers were making up for yesterday.

"Silverie Erilea Amarendaje, age fourteen. Placed twenty eighth."

With their image, the last of the dead flickered away for the night, accompanied by the echoing anthem.

Phoenix burst into tears.

Vivaldi hesitated, unsure. He'd never had to deal with a crying girl before. He wasn't into girls. Or crying. What was he meant to do?

"Was he a friend?" Vivaldi asked at last.

Phoenix shook her head. "I didn't really know him. He was enemies with my siblings."

"And you're… crying for him?"

"It's stupid to actually be enemies."

"Oh."

"And he was good at The Game! What happened?"

Vivaldi sighed heavily. "I guess the odds weren't in his favour.

"But if the odds weren't in his favour, how could they ever be in ours?" She flung her arms out. "Or– Or my siblings', or - your Thorin's? If Apollo couldn't do it…"

"We don't know what happened. Maybe… Maybe it was just a mutt!"

That was almost certainly the wrong thing to say, because they both stopped and looked around themselves.

"Alright. Alright, maybe it wasn't," Vivaldi whispered desperately.

"But-"

Vivaldi wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "At least- It's not your siblings. Focus on that."

Phoenix nodded, but she also buried her face in her hands and her soft sobs continued. Vivaldi wasn't really sure what to do, so he settled in by the gravestones to watch for anyone that night come near.

Phoenix fell quiet eventually, but he wasn't sure if she was sleeping or just exhausted. Vivaldi sat and watched for hours, but he still hesitated to wake her up. Maybe if she slept she'd cry less.

Footsteps crunched somewhere out there in the darkness. Vivaldi froze, reaching for Phoenix. She startled and stiffened against him. "What is it?"

"People," he replied, and a beam of light swept across the ground far too close to them.

"We have to go," Phoenix whispered.

Vivaldi nodded, rising into a crouch. "Which way?"

"That way." She pointed. "Towards the mausoleum we passed. Come on."

They didn't even make it halfway there before the torchlight found them and the shouts began. Projectiles came hurtling their way.

"You can't hide!" yelled a girl.

"Why don't you stand and fight, Capital filth? I thought that's what you do!"

"Yeah, come on!"

They kept running, but their persuers must be stronger and fitter than them because they were soon catching up and before Vivaldi could think they were surrounded.

And then his heart stopped.

"Thorin?"

"Vivaldi," he whispered, his eyes wide.

"Enki, you want that one?" asked one of the girls.

Vivaldi looked between them. "What? Thorin, what's going on?"

Thorin looked pained, digging his boot into the ground. "It wasn't meant to be like this."

"Well, if he won't, I will," declared a girl, and then she was singing her axe and everything went to hell.

Artemis Gilmore, 17

She was cold.

She should have set up a shelter, but she hadn't because there wasn't any point.

Apollo was gone.

Apollo was dead.

And suddenly…

There was nothing left in her life that mattered any more.

Apollo had been her twin, they'd been together from the day they were born. Sure, they'd fought, sure, they'd argued, but he'd always stood by her and she stood by him.

She loved him.

She would never see his face again, never see his smile. Never hear the sound of his voice.

Something cracked somewhere out there in the darkness. She froze and raised her head, straining her ears to listen in the fog.

There was another crack, and then a cry.

Other players.

Other players in a fight.

And she must still be close to that other alliance, the one that had killed Apollo.

The dark anger burned inside her again.

She stood, grasping her trident, and began to pick her way through the fog towards the noises. In the darkness and without the rudimentary torches she and Apollo had made, seeing anything ahead of herself was almost impossible.

But someone was out there.

Possibly someone from that fucking alliance.

She'd take someone from them just like they'd taken Apollo from her.

She stumbled into the darkness, moving towards the noises as they got louder. The crack of a whip and the din of metal on metal echoed through the air. Soon enough Artemis could distantly see the blue glow of armour nodes, though she was still far enough that they looked like an indistinct blob.

As she grew nearer, the sounds of the fight only grew louder and the light more distinct, until shadows appeared from the fog, locked in a fight. One was laughing and another jeering, their voices echoing in the fog.

"Thorin!" shouted a boy, his voice shrill and desperate. "What are you doing? It's me!"

"As if he'd listen to you, Capital scum!" called a girl.

Were they not Capital kids?

"Then he doesn't deserve him!" proclaimed another girl. This one was younger, her red hair a vivid beacon in the fog. She jumped forward and screamed as a thin whip cracked down across her, leaving an angry red line. Her armour nodes were all out.

And…

Somewhere at the back of Artemis's mind…

She might never have spoken to the girl, but distantly she recalled her name announcement during the scoring, recalled who she saw her with on the streets of the Capital.

"Thorin!" cried the first boy again.

The boy with the whip raised it again and seemed to hesitate, his arm trembling.

Artemis rushed forward and seizing it, wrenching it from his hand in his moment of surprise. She brought her trident forward and drove in into his back, taking his armour down to six. He drew a knife and spun towards her.

Artemis ducked away from her and reached for the younger girl and her still crying ally, slamming her trident into the chest of the taller girl that came nearest.

"Run!"

It wasn't that easy of course, because it was never that easy, but they bolted while Artemis struck out again at the not-Capital attackers, attempting to hold them back while the smaller girl and her companion ran. But it was a four on one fight - worse odds than Apollo had had - and so she soon followed, sprinting after them into the fog. Torch beams lit up the shadows.

"The buildings!" called the smaller girl from ahead of her. She probably wasn't even speaking to her, almost certainly addressing her ally.

"We can't get the doors open!" he shouted back.

"They've got roofs!" she snapped.

"There!" Artemis yelled, pointing as one appeared from the darkness, its white walls vivid in the shadow.

The three of them veered towards it, struggling to stay ahead of the torch beams. Could their persuers see where they'd gone? Artemis wasn't sure, but the younger girl was right, this could be their best shot.

They ran for the building, darting behind it. The other girl turned to her ally. "Give me a leg up."

He hesitated. "I'm not sure I can…"

"Vivaldi!"

"How do I…"

Artemis sighed, hooked her fingers together and crouched down to give the girl a foothold. She grinned. "Thanks."

The kid was heavier than she looked - she must be more muscular than she looked under the bodysuit - but Artemis boosted her up to the roof of the mauseleum before turning to the boy.

"Your turn."

"What about you once we're up there?"

The voices of the other four were getting nearer now, ringing through the fog. Artemis steadied herself. She and Apollo had intended to be villains - but was there that much of a difference between the hero and the villain?

"I'll lead them off. Come on."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, now go!"

Fuck, what was she getting herself into? She didn't even know this boy!

He was of a weight with the girl, though struggled more to grab the roof and flailed so much pulling himself up that the other girl grabbed his arm and hauled him up behind her.

Artemis stepped back.

The Sterlings wouldn't lose their sister the way she'd lost Apollo.

And now…

She jumped back into the torchlight before taking off across the arena. Yells and shouts went up from behind her as they gave chase. Her heartbeat echoed in her ears.

She wouldn't go down like Apollo.

She'd make her death mean something.

Enki Saguaro, 17

His heart was breaking.

Vivaldi, the one person who had opened themselves to him, the one person that had loved him, would never forgive him.

He'd tried to kill him.

Ahead, the three shadows seemed to have become one, only the pink haired girl.

Where was Vivaldi?

There'd been no canons, which meant he couldn't have died, so where..?

Had the three of them split?

Had the three of them ever been in an alliance?

He hadn't paid much attention to any of the other players' alliances, but he was pretty sure Vivaldi hadn't had one. They must have formed it when they got in here.

"Where'd they go?" shouted Maiya.

They cast their beams across the arena around them, but the girl seemed to have vanished. Or hidden behind a gravestone.

Octavia made a noise of frustration. "We're not losing all three of them! Find them!"