Penelope's Web

by Zevoros

In silence, the first tick of the clock rings out. Dawn rises, but the Hunger Games steadily grind onward. The tributes stand in preparation for the journey ahead, and Seneca Crane stretches out his hand. The gears slip forward and Gadget knows that the first hour is here.

11. The Death of Innocence

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~~(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)~~

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Author's Notes:

Triage: It's not a metal eye, it's a tortoise, and that's that. To those of you wondering what I'm yammering about…ask Zevoros. Yes, please pester Zevoros about the tortoise.

Zevoros: Special thanks to Evie Rose and Team Shadow! Additional thanks to CragmiteBlaster and Cal_the_Wandcrafter.

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Penelope's Web

Chapter 11

The Death of Innocence

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Boom!

Gadget woke with a start, a gasp on her lips. The sound of a cannon firing echoed throughout the forest clearing.

Were the Careers hunting? Or did the cannon belong to someone who died of natural causes?

As natural as things can be here, Gadget thought.

She sat up and grunted as a fleck of pain shot through her torso, then faded away. She glanced around the dark clearing, squeezing away the sleep from her eyes with her free hand.

It was a forest clearing, thick trees loomed overhead as menacing shadows, their branches like numerous arms ready to strike down without warning. Boulders and rocks between the trees formed a natural barrier that made it harder to see those in the center.

And also made it harder to escape from.

The only source of light that she could see was the dim strands of sun from sunrise. Or was it sunset? Gadget didn't know.

Dawn or dusk?

All at once, Gadget's senses returned to her and she looked around frantically. It was a cannon sound she woke to.

Corduroy…Peeta…

"Corduroy!?" Gadget called. She tried to stand up but the amount of effort it took her was immense. But she refused to let it stop her.

She looked around frantically for them, but the clearing was empty and dark. There was no one.

Did they…leave me? Gadget wondered worriedly to herself.

She had told Corduroy just what she did, before she fell unconscious. That Lace's death was her fault. Did he leave her because of it?

"Corduroy!?" Gadget called again. "Peeta!?"

She clutched at her arm in anxiety and felt something under the jacket that had been loosely strewn over her front. Cautiously, she let the jacket slip off of her thin form to reveal her bandaged arm.

Someone bandaged her.

Gadget looked down at herself, taking stock for the first time since she awoke, even as her heart thumped with worry.

Her chest plate and remaining shoulder pad were gone, and her jacket, the one she had been forced to wear heading into the arena, was draped over a rock, along with her shirt.

But wrapped around her torso, Gadget saw and felt more bandages wrapped around where Monkshood had stabbed her.

The cool wind whipped around her softly and she shivered.

"Am I…a-alone?" Gadget said quietly. She spun in place to look around, but she didn't see Corduroy or Peeta anywhere in sight.

Wasn't it what you wanted? a voice in her head that sounded a lot like Zeno asked.

"Gadget?" came an urgent whisper shout.

A moment later, Corduroy and Peeta were awkwardly stumbling out of some nearby foliage.

After the immense feeling of relief - because no, Gadget didn't really want to be completely alone despite her own anxieties about getting people killed - she frantically reached for the boys and pulled them both into a hug at once.

This honestly surprised everyone.

When she finally let go, she looked down at the bandage wrapped around her chest. The boys blushed as one, but said nothing or did nothing while she examined herself, then she looked over at the nearby source of heat and was perplexed at the campfire that was built.

She pointed towards it, and glanced at the boys. Peeta spoke up.

"Upside-down fire," he said, "I made an outer ring of stones, and put the largest logs at the bottom first, with no spaces in between, then a second ring of stones around the outside, with smaller logs, and on and on until the top, where I put the fire-starter materials, and place a capstone of sorts to minimize the light and smoke visibility, but it burns longer, hotter and doesn't need tending for most of the day. I used to do this all the time with the ovens in my dad's bakery."

"It is very ingenious," Corduroy said with a guarded look at Peeta.

Gadget took only a moment before she understood what Corduroy didn't say.

If only she and Peeta had found Lace sooner, and Peeta used this technique of building an upside-down fire, Lace might not have been so easily found, and she might still be alive now.

Peeta must have told Corduroy what happened.

And he didn't blame Gadget for it? Why? It was completely her fault and…

Maybe he was pretending. For her sake. Maybe he didn't want to be alone like she was.

"How…how long w-was I ou-out for?" Gadget asked nervously. She hoped it hadn't been too long. She didn't want to be a blight on them anymore than she already was.

"About a day," Peeta said.

"No one died," Corduroy said. "Until that one," he added, pointing at the sky.

And that cannon could have belonged to anyone. One of the Careers…or Binary. Gadget privately hoped it was a Career.

"S-sorry," Gadget stuttered. She dropped her head and rubbed her arm awkwardly. She pulled up the jacket and draped it over her shoulders, warding off the chill. She wore it backwards, so her back was still mostly exposed to the cold.

The fire Peeta built stopped hypothermia from setting in. It was as Atala said during training; it wasn't just the tributes that could kill. Nature was just as dangerous a foe in the arena.

It was comforting. The heat hit her and, although it was steadily becoming warmer in the air, it wasn't something she minded greatly.

"Sun's coming up," Peeta offered, like he realized that she couldn't tell if it was becoming night or day.

Gadget glanced at the trees that surrounded the clearing they were in. She had no idea where they were. Corduroy and Peeta could've taken her anywhere.

But she noticed, with muted jubilation, that the trees were no longer bleeding.

After all, trees didn't bleed, and even if they did, it'd be more likely something that the Gamemakers would create to harm or drive tributes in a certain direction.

Bleeding trees didn't do anything except baffle.

Unless the liquid was downright toxic.

The tracker jacker venom was gone. Out of her system.

"How odd," Corduroy commented. He tilted his head to the side and leaned against the wood of a tree. He balanced his braced leg carefully, unbending. "Eight bandages for both your arm, chest, and his shoulder."

Corduroy gestured to Peeta, and Gadget noticed for the first time that he was wearing only his shirt.

District Twelve's jackets were black. Which meant that the one she was now wearing, that fitted over her and was slightly too big…was Peeta's.

Why would he do something like that for her? The arena gets hot in the day, and very, very cold at night. And yet he had given her the literal clothing on his back.

"Eight. The number eight," Corduroy continued. "The number that means overcoming challenges…and represents victory."

Gadget dropped her gaze as the guilt returned to her tenfold. Lace…

"I cannot say I feel very victorious right now," Corduroy said. "District Eight only has four victors. Not eight. But half of that. Four."

Gadget frowned, trying to make sense of it all. Corduroy seemed to be basing some kind of importance on numbers.

Peeta was also watching Corduroy with a perplexed expression. Did they have a conversation while she was out? Get to know each other?

"Did I tell you about the Nylon Home?" Corduroy asked and Gadget looked at him unsurely.

"You…d-didn't," she answered. It felt like whiplash, how quickly the topic of the conversation shifted.

"The Nylon Home," Corduroy said as he stripped a piece of bark off of the tree. "It was sparse. Eight children that the caretaker took care of."

Gadget wrapped her arms around herself as she listened. Where was this going?

"The first of the children," Corduroy continued as he snapped a piece from the bark, "was a wide-eyed little boy with a penchant for arson."

Gadget shared a matching expression of horrified fascination with Peeta as they listened to Corduroy in the warming dawn.

"The Nylon House, it did not have enough money to support and provide for all of these children," Corduroy told them, palming the separated piece of bark in his other hand. "So, they asked the little boy to help all the little children in their care by working in the big factory."

Gadget rubbed her arm again. Factory? she wondered.

"The factory was a scary place for the little boy," Corduroy said, "it was full of dangerous machines that made all kinds of clothes. But the little boy knew his duty, and so he worked day after day to help the other little children."

Gadget watched his hand as he took the bark and shifted about between his fingers.

"Until, one day, the boy did something he should not have done. He caused a fire in the factory and burned so many clothes. It was going to be an inferno…if someone had not stopped it.

"And they did. But the little boy was shaken and regretful. Nobody knew it was he who caused the fire that took away jobs from the people who were also looking to help their own little children.

"In his bed, that night, he tossed and turned and tried to sleep. But the monster under his bed saw his plight and took advantage."

Gadget's heart skipped a beat.

"The next morning, the little boy was nowhere to be found. All over, the little children looked, but they could not find him. For a second, it looked like the little boy would never be found!

"Until they did. Burned and charred, where the factory fire had started. Where a second fire had started somewhere in the night, where nobody saw. Because truthfully, who cared about little orphan children?"

Gadget sucked in a breath and shared a terrified glance with Peeta.

"And so, the monster under the bed took the first child." Corduroy tossed away the piece of bark he had snapped.

"Th-this doesn't sound nice…" Gadget said, hugging her knees to her chest.

"It was not," Corduroy agreed, "the second child was a girl with a mean-streak. She did what she liked with no regard for the other children in the Nylon House. She hated whatever anyone else had that she did not. Did not matter if it was talent, attention or possessions."

Gadget frowned in thought. How different would she have been if she fell down a similar path after her dad kicked her out?

"The caretaker was a patient person, but even they had their limits," Corduroy told them. "And that patience was exceeded by that girl. The girl that soon found herself houseless."

Gadget was certain neither she nor Peeta knew where this was going, but neither could deny their interest in hearing more. It was a welcome distraction from the last two day's events and mishaps.

Peeta had settled down near the fire. Whilst the morning was already raising the temperatures, it was still quite cool. Cold, even.

"And so the girl walked the district…alone, and angry. She did not see what she said and did as wrong. Not even as she made more and more people less inclined to help her."

This girl didn't sound pleasant, at all. Perhaps envious, and self-centered. Like someone else she knew.

"The girl had isolated herself from help and…made a pact with loneliness," Corduroy said. He rolled the strip of bark in his hand, then tossed it to his other hand. "But she had made her bed. Now she had to lie in it."

Gadget glanced over at Peeta, who'd turned to look at her at the same time. They both shared wondering looks, then returned their attention to Corduroy. She wanted to know more.

"So, the monster under the bed struck again," Corduroy said, and he snapped off a piece of the bark. "The next day, the girl was found in a ditch on the edge of the district. She had been alone and vulnerable in her sleep, and the monster took advantage of that."

Corduroy tossed the piece of bark down at his feet.

"The monster under the bed took the second child." He palmed the rest of the bark in his hand, and grabbed onto the edge.

"Mmm…" Gadget made a soft noise, but held back any questions. Corduroy said there were eight children.

Was he among them?

"The third of the children," Corduroy said as he applied slow pressure to the piece of bark, "was a boy that had been left in the Nylon House after his parents left him no other choice."

Gadget blinked. Just like her!

"A sad series of events, really. And the boy was determined in spite of it. He wanted to flee the nest he had been stuck in. He wanted to be an adventurer," Corduroy said. The bark cracked softly under his continuous pressure.

Gadget thought she could relate.

"But what does a bird do when it cannot fly from the nest? What happens when a bird stays too long?" Corduroy asked.

Was Corduroy talking in euphemisms? Were these children real? Or perhaps it was some kind of District Eight folk tale.

"The predator comes. For they are always searching their territory to eat." Corduroy split the bark in half. "And this bird had stayed too long in the nest. The monster under the bed came for that boy, too."

Gadget shivered despite herself. The deadpan delivery of the narrative seemed frightening. And she believed these children were real.

"And so, when the caretaker came to check the room the boy slept in that night, all they saw was an empty room with an open window," Corduroy told them. "The monster under the bed took the third child."

Gadget found her hand unconsciously reaching up to wipe a tear away from her eyes. When did she start crying?

Corduroy noticed her action, and smiled wanly. "You are a kind person. That is why you feel...even for people whom you have never met."

He turned the bark around on his palm, and continued.

"The fourth was a girl, nearly a woman. But in the eyes of the law and the district's governance, she was still a child, and so she too, came to stay in the Nylon House."

Was there ever going to be a happy ending to this story?

He lifted his eyes to study Peeta and Gadget in turns, then resumed, "She was...very angry. Her heart and mind was crimson with boundless rage and fury. She had been betrayed by those she once loved."

Corduroy paused and he turned the bark, holding it by his thumb and forefinger.

He clenched his fist around the bark, cracking it in half, "Nothing could be done that would calm her anger. And in a very short time…"

"Th-the monster under the bed…t-t-took her," Gadget finished.

She seemed to be getting the rough gist of this tale. Though she hoped that some might have lived. But it was possibly wishful thinking.

"Yes, you are correct," Corduroy said.

He split the bark pieces. There were now four of them. One for each child thus far.

"The fifth child was another boy…"

Was, Gadget noted morosely.

"...and the monster under the bed was quick with him. You see, he was…very overweight."

At this, Gadget turned to look at Peeta with wide eyes.

In all honesty, there were few to no overweight people in the districts. For one, that would indicate an excess availability of food for that individual, and, from what she understood, food in even the farming districts were quite strictly regulated. No one had a lot to eat at any time.

Corduroy seemed to guess what Gadget and Peeta were thinking, and just nodded sagely.

"He stole from the plates of others, sometimes, even within sight of the caretaker. He was heedless of how he looked, or began to look, to others."

Gadget frowned. This boy did not sound pleasant. Eating in excess, to the point of taking from others, was reprehensible.

"One night, there were sounds, like someone eating, quite loudly. The few children who remained, heard, but did not move or stir from their positions. They were afraid to look. In the morning, the fifth child was gone, and no, there were no signs or remains or what might have been something that was eaten in his bed."

The hint was clear to Gadget. The boy was so wholly consumed, nothing remained to mark his passing.

"The sixth child…" Corduroy went on, splitting a piece of the bark into another two, "...was a young girl, who was the last mayor's daughter. But when her father died, she had no relatives, and all the material wealth…as much as can be had in a district, was taken from her."

Gadget thought she could see the patterns of her friend's tale, and something of a moral warning in each child.

"As one could imagine, she did not adjust well to the situation…or her own…and the Nylon House became quite a hotbed of theft, sometimes quite openly."

Just like the boy before her, Gadget thought bitterly, only, instead of food, it was for...anything.

"She won no favors with such behavior, and one day, she never returned to the Nylon House. The caretaker searched, but nobody was sorry or missed her. The monster had come for her, too."

Peeta's face was crestfallen, as each child was revealed, and none seemed to have redeemable qualities. Were the districts no better than the Capitol?

"The seventh child…" Corduroy paused and drew breath, looking rather distracted, himself.

Were the lives of these children always meant to end in misery?

"...he was...extremely arrogant. He believed himself above everyone, even above those in positions of authority. This made him very spiteful and easily angered by any slight against him, no matter who it came from. Chastisement he saw as an insult to his person, and regarded it so quite openly. He feared none, and believed himself destined for the Presidency."

Corduroy's expression became unreadable, and Gadget looked worriedly at him.

"The monsters…" he said.

Gadget's eyes widened. Plural?

"...they came for him in broad daylight. There was no searching for him. Everyone knew what took him, and where to. He was never seen again."

There were now seven pieces of that one piece of bark he held before.

"Soon, all that remained in the Nylon House was the eighth girl, and the caretaker," Corduroy told them. He held the last slip of the bark in his hand and rolled it around. "A hapless girl. Her parents were unable to take care of her, and though they loved her, they had to let her go."

This was leading to somewhere familiar.

"But despite her fears and anxieties, the girl did not let it get her down for too long. She looked on the bright side. Always."

Gadget perked up. Perhaps this one survived? She sounded different from the first seven.

"But, like with all the others, the monster under the bed came for her, too," Corduroy said solemnly. "The Nylon House was left empty."

He tossed the final piece of bark to the ground.

"So, Gadget," Corduroy said as he pushed himself off of the tree, "what happened to the eighth girl?"

Gadget blinked in surprise and opened and closed her mouth. Finally, she managed a weak, "I don't kn-know…"

"But you saw it," Corduroy stated with surprising coldness.

Lace!? He was talking about Lace!

The tears poured down again, but this time, Corduroy's face was completely like stone. She felt cold inside. Guilt, shame, regret and despair all began to resurface.

"Peeta told me what had happened," Corduroy said. "But I wanted to hear it from your point of view."

What went unsaid, to Gadget's ears, was that he was verifying to see if Peeta had lied to him.

So, she told him what happened.

She shared how she'd met Peeta, and shortly after, how they happened upon Lace, and how she wanted to go down after Lace, despite the three members of the Career Pack surrounding the girl. "Peeta stop-stopped me," she said, "h-he told me how I would j-just end up d-d-dying…along with-with Lace."

She sniffled and lowered her gaze, unable to bear that stony gaze of Corduroy. This was it. The end of the friendship she had made with Corduroy. She didn't blame him if he hated her for it.

She deserved it.

"I c-c-couldn't save h-her…Corduroy…I'm-I'm s-s-s-sorry!"

All my fault. All my fault, she kept telling herself in her head over and over.

But, after a moment, she heard words she did not expect to hear.

"Peeta...was correct."

Slowly, she lifted her head, eyes falling on a softer gaze, but no less sorrowful.

"Had you gone to her, I would be mourning the death of two friends. And likely, I would still be captive…or otherwise dead myself."

Peeta let out a breath. Evidently, he too was waiting on some sort of verdict from the mysterious boy.

"But…" Gadget trailed off as she remembered something. "Lace said…she had a l-lov-loving family. A mom a-and dad."

Corduroy nodded. "She did say that," he said. "But she lied."

Gadget's heart sank. Lace was…just like her. Almost completely alone.

"At least, partly," Corduroy amended. "She had a mom and dad that loved her, but they could not take care of her." He looked to Peeta, then back to Gadget. "It was complicated, as I understand it."

Which changed nothing. She was closer to being like Gadget than she had thought. The only difference was…it sounded like Lace's parents did actually love her.

That was not something she could say about herself. Zeno…her dad…he hated her with all of his being. And her brothers, Micra and Flux…she barely knew them.

Until she was kicked out, all of her brothers were basically strangers. Strangers that she lived with…until she didn't.

"Who is the monster under the bed in her story?" Corduroy asked. He paced over to the fire and held a single hand up to warm himself.

It flashed in Gadget's mind's eye. The screams Lace produced as Clove stabbed her again and again. Her pleas for mercy that went unheeded.

Lace's kind eyes and supporting words even as she died in Gadget's arms.

Words that she didn't deserve. Lace didn't deserve her. She deserved someone better. Someone who could have saved her.

But all she got in the end was her.

Weak, pathetic Gadget Trevelyan.

"It was…" Gadget started, then choked on her words. She rubbed the tears that gathered in her eyes away. "It w-w-was Cl-Clove," she whimpered.

Corduroy's expression hardened again. Gadget noted how his hand trembled slightly.

He was barely holding back rage.

"The monster has a face," he declared, "perhaps I will get to be Clove's monster."

Gadget and Peeta exchanged nervous glances at that, but at the same time, Gadget felt a pang of envy for her dead friend. How nice it must be to have someone who cared so much, that they'd be willing to avenge their death.

Corduroy gave them an apologetic look. "I have taken up ample time, and the dawn is fast-approaching. Moreover I have not even asked how you fare."

He was gazing at Gadget when he finished his statement, and the girl looked down at herself. She lowered the jacket to examine the bandage. She largely ignored any feeling of embarrassment, since they saw a lot more when they removed her jacket and shirt to examine and treat her wounds.

She made a soft noise of pain when even a soft touch over the bandage caused severe discomfort.

"We had to…cauterize the wound," Corduroy offered an explanation.

"O-oh." Gadget immediately felt the stinging sensation of a burn in her chest.

"How does it feel?" Peeta asked tentatively. "The pain, I mean? Is it bad? We used whatever we had from the pack, and washed out the wound, but we have no idea how much venom is still in you."

Gadget thought about it, and shrugged helplessly. She didn't know either. She wasn't seeing things anymore, at least. So that was a plus.

"It's n-not as bad…as-as y-yesterday," she answered.

Corduroy nodded, and said, "You will need to get some food into yourself."

As if to affirm what he had said, Gadget's stomach growled loudly, making the girl blush.

"B-but...w-we don't have en-enough…" Gadget tried to argue lamely.

"And conserving them until they are spoiled or inedible will do no one any good either," Corduroy countered, "Peeta has shown me what we have, and most of it is short term consumables that will expire in another day or two at most."

"Better to eat them now before they go bad," Peeta added, "we might as well enjoy them…and these."

He fished out a handful of biscuits from his pockets and Gadget blinked. Where did he get those?

"Kernel," Peeta said, as if reading Gadget's mind, "when we knocked him out, these fell out."

"H-he won't b-be too happy…" Gadget said as she carefully retrieved her dried clothes and began to put it back on.

She slid off Peeta's jacket and put it gently down on the ground, before she grabbed her shirt and own jacket. She slipped the former over her head, and paused when she went to put on the latter.

There was still a hole in her shirt. She had barely noticed it before, but it was there because of Monkshood.

Gadget shook herself and grabbed her jacket. Neither the shirt or jacket were damp. They were dry.

A burgeoning of guilt formed in her mind.

Peeta could have helped get his own clothes dry, but instead he gave her his jacket to keep her a little bit more warm in the already freezing night.

How was she supposed to repay that? Why did do such a kind act for her? She didn't deserve it. She was the last person who deserved it.

"That's his problem," Peeta said simply, as he began to retrieve whatever they had left in his pack.

It wasn't a lot, but given how little they all had, and assuming Corduroy had anything at all, this looked like a spread.

There were two apples, an orange, and the biscuits.

"Drink this."

Gadget looked up and saw Corduroy hold up a flask. He held out his hand, offering it to her.

"O-okay," Gadget said softly, and she took it from him. She uncapped the lid and put it to her lips.

Cool water pushed past her lips and she realized then just how thirsty she really was. And it tasted so good on her tongue.

"To wash the rest of the venom out," Corduroy said, and Gadget gave the tiniest of nods. She understood.

More and more water she drank from the flask, until she lapped at the last bit of what was left.

She flushed in embarrassment. "S-sorry," she stuttered and lowered the flask. This was the only flask they had left after Monkshood stole her other one.

And she had just emptied it so quickly.

"Now," Corduroy said as Gadget put the flask down at her side, "eat this." He held an apple and a biscuit out for her.

Gadget stared at them. "What a-about you t-two?" she asked. She looked between Corduroy and Peeta uncertainly. Food was limited, and she didn't want them to waste what little they still had on her.

One apple. One orange. Three biscuits. That was all they had left if Gadget were to take the two things offered to her.

It was depressingly minimal. But it was all they had left to combat their hunger.

"Those are for Corduroy," Peeta said, nodding at two of the biscuits and the last orange.

Corduroy looked at Peeta, his face blank.

"You haven't had anything since day one in the arena, right?" Peeta asked. "So that's yours."

Corduroy didn't say anything for another second, and Gadget wondered what he was thinking. What kind of calculations was he thinking of?

Finally, though, Corduroy nodded and took his designated share of the food.

"Don't worry about the water, by the way," Peeta said and Gadget looked away, avoiding his eyes. "We'll find some more."

Gadget wasn't sure if they would be able to. Seneca Crane could decide the fate of any possible water sources with the snap of his fingers.

It was his decision, and his alone, if they found any water near them.

The Head Gamemaker controlled everything about the arena, to the most minute detail.

Gadget's hand drifted to her abdomen at the thought. Seneca Crane had almost crushed her in that grotto. It had been the most intense pain she'd ever felt in her life.

And he could make her endure it again if he so wished.

Because all Gadget was, was a tool at Seneca Crane's disposal. Not a very useful one, but still one nonetheless.

A character in his show that he controlled.

Whatever Seneca Crane decided of her…she doubted it would ever be pleasant.

They were like RAW files in a datastream.

"Gadget tells me she put a knife to your throat to get you to join with her," Corduroy said conversationally to Peeta.

Gadget shook and looked at Corduroy. He bit down on the side of his biscuit, barely taking anything off it. There was an expression on his face she couldn't decipher.

Peeta chuckled slightly. "Yeah, that's pretty much what happened."

"You were…b-blended in-into the tree," Gadget said. She ducked her head and peeked at Corduroy and Peeta.

"Yeah, I did that, too," Peeta commented with an agreeable nod.

"Blending in?" Corduroy asked with intrigue. "How did you learn to do that?"

Peeta shrugged, somewhat bashful, to Gadget's surprise. It was a remarkable talent, to be able to do something like that.

"I, uh…" Peeta started to say, but stopped to take the last apple.

Gadget nibbled on her biscuit and sat down on the grass, crossing her legs. The sun had started to rise into the air, ever so slowly, the sky glowed a gorgeous pink.

"I decorate cakes," Peeta started to explain, "in the b…in the bakery…"

He went silent for a moment, looking lost in thought, then he looked up and cleared his throat.

"Sorry...was just remembering; I told Katniss about this too. In the bakery, I learned how to decorate the cakes, so I knew a lot about coloring."

"What did you use?" Corduroy asked.

"I…got a sponsor, who provided me with a lot of the materials to make a full disguise." Peeta ran a hand through his hair as he looked skywards.

Gadget realized that Peeta's district only had the one victor, and with Katniss' early death, the victor must have been frantic to do everything to give the remaining tribute from District Twelve a chance.

"I had to use it right away…" Peeta said with a sigh, "...the Careers came through where I was, and passed right by me. I got lucky…"

"Quite," Corduroy agreed laconically.

"What ab-about y-you?" Gadget asked Corduroy. "A-after y-you got away from th-the Cornuc-c-copia...what happened?"

Corduroy sighed softly, as he leaned back a moment.

"I have seen many Games since I was young...but nothing, nothing prepares you for what you will see and experience first-hand when…"

He faltered, possibly thinking about Lace again, and also about the Bloodbath before that.

"I did as you and Lace asked...but I question if it was the right choice, even if I lived."

"Katniss died," Peeta said flatly. "Katniss."

"Point taken," Corduroy replied laconically.

Gadget dropped her gaze down to the biscuit in her hand. Katniss. Peeta said her name with such meaning that it was so clear to her how much he missed her.

She wondered how things would be if she was still alive. Would Gadget have even stumbled into Peeta if that had happened? Would she be dead like…like Lace?

There was no point in dwelling on what-ifs and possibilities that never happened…but they stuck in Gadget's mind.

"Can…" Gadget began, and then hesitated. Was it a good idea to ask?

Gadget bit her tongue, unsure. Would it be better to leave it alone completely?

"What…" Gadget looked at Peeta, and his eyes were so earnest, yet pained. It was enough to help her reach a decision. "What was K-Katniss like?" she asked.

Peeta smiled, just. But there was no mistaking the sorrow Gadget could see in his expression.

"She was…stubborn," Peeta told them with a weak laugh. He looked down at the apple in his hand and bit into it.

Stubborn…kind of like you, Gadget thought.

Peeta swallowed. "Really sarcastic, too," he said. "But she was brave and strong and…" he stopped and ducked his head even lower. "She took care of the people she loved."

Gadget's heart squeezed.

"I gave her bread once," Peeta admitted softly. But he didn't look at either Gadget or Corduroy. He stared at the ground, at his feet, firmly and unmoving. "It was raining and I just saw her there."

It almost sounded familiar to Gadget. But, at least Katniss had someone looking out for her.

"I think she was trying to barter, or trade something," Peeta said with a shrug. "Whatever it was, I think it fell through, and she didn't have any food to go back home with."

Gadget nibbled on her biscuit. If she hadn't been reaped, would she have had to do things like that in order to just eat? Before the Games, her only food source had been her school food.

How differently would life have been?

"So, I…burnt some bread," Peeta said, quieter than before that Gadget had to strain her ears to hear. "Mom wasn't happy with me and wanted me to toss it out, but I only did it because Katniss was there."

Gadget felt a twinge of envy for the dead girl. How nice it must have been to have someone looking out for you like that? Well, Peeta was in love with Katniss, and - Gadget felt guilt pool in her stomach.

Plus, it meant Katniss must have obviously been starving. Gadget remembered that Katniss had a younger sister. Who knows who else she had to look after.

"I get the feeling she and her family were in a bad way," Peeta continued, "I like to think I managed to help."

Gadget nodded, but she didn't know what else to say to that.

After he carefully chewed up his food, Corduroy then turned to look at Gadget intently. "Gadget, we need to discuss something that might be…sensitive."

She felt nervous at first, then frowned. What would be considered sensitive?

Unless they meant Binary. It had to be.

But nobody would think her fond of the boy in any way; he made her life hell. Plus there was what she did in the interview. Her actions had sabotaged him and even won her some favor from sponsors.

"Wh-what is it?" Gadget asked.

"Binary," Corduroy replied flatly.

"You might not be able to fight him…right now, but there's nothing to say we can't," Peeta joined in, "we're not going to look for him, but on the off chance we run into him..."

"I understand…" Gadget said.

Where to start? She was more than willing to dump the data and reveal all, but they didn't have all day, and Seneca Crane and the people were all watching.

Always watching.

It reminded her of the metal eye in the junkyard. She piled on scraps together one day and realized it looked vaguely like an eye that would never stop staring. It just stood there, staring, watching. All the time.

But the point was, she needed to compress the relevant information only into as short a time as possible. If Seneca Crane got impatient, he might do something drastic, like make the ground eat them, or something.

He had already done it once.

"He…" Gadget had already admitted the things Binary had done to her. To Caesar in front of the entire country.

So why was this so much harder?

"He hurt me," Gadget said meekly. She ducked her head low; she didn't want to see how they looked at her. "He's…r-really smart."

Gadget thought back to their school projects. Binary always had something clever ready. Something that would impress the teachers.

She didn't have that ability. She never did.

But that wasn't what Corduroy was asking about. Gadget knew he didn't care about that. It wasn't why he was asking.

"Binary…he's…m-most effective when so-someone carries out his i-instructions," she told them softly. Her thumb drew patterns over the biscuit in her hand.

"Someone such as Kernel?" Corduroy questioned.

"Y-yeah," Gadget agreed.

Binary wasn't always alone when he tormented her. He always had a friend with him. Someone like Stattick.

"He l-likes…being in control. T-to be the-the one telling people...what to do…an-and how…to do it."

"A commander," Corduroy observed, "but not a follower."

"Never," Gadget remarked bitterly.

"I watched your interview," Peeta said, "I think you captured the hearts of the people of the Capitol."

"Re-really?" Gadget asked wonderingly.

Although Beetee, Wiress and Septimius had said as much, it was still hard to believe. Eventually though, with enough people saying it, maybe it was time to accept the facts as they had been stated.

"You mentioned that he liked to beat you and chased you all around the place...I also remember Caesar mentioning you had family. Why didn't any of them ever help you?"

Gadget froze, her expression ashen.

What could she tell him that she wouldn't be too mortified to tell?

Just tell them the truth. What does it matter? You're not going to survive this anyway.

That inner voice was rather morbid, but true, in Gadget's opinion, so she followed that idea.

"B-because...th-they hated me."

Corduroy's face was unreadable, but his knuckles were white and his fist clenched. Peeta's face was more open, and he looked shocked.

"M-my dad, more th-than my brothers…" Gadget said, "...mostly my br-brothers j-just treat-treated me like I d-didn't exist. Ex-cept…uhm…Syncis, my oldest brother."

"But why?" Peeta couldn't help asking.

Gadget fidgeted with her hands. She knew the world was watching. She'd already thrown Binary into the recycle bin, what was one more?

"My d-dad. He b-...he blames me…f-for my mom's death…when I was b-b-born."

The boys looked grim, but neither spoke, so she continued.

"When I was tw-twelve...he threw me ou-out of th-the house...said that he w-wouldn't feed m-m-my...mom's killer another d-d-day."

"I'm sorry, Gadget, but I gotta say...your dad's a piece of schist," Peeta said sincerely.

A high-pitched repetitive sound emerged, and Gadget realized with mild shock that it was coming from her.

"Wow, a laugh," Peeta said with a small smile.

"You made it sound like you and your father did not get along," Corduroy said, his eyes peering into Gadget's, "but I did not know it was this bad."

Gadget sniffed and dropped her head. Down, down, down her gaze fell until she was looking at her shoes.

She had tried so hard in the past to make her dad care for her. To earn his love. But she never did. No matter how hard she tried, she wasn't ever good enough.

And nothing she did mattered in the end, when he forced her out into the cold.

"I…" Gadget blinked and her vision went blurry. Tears built up behind her eyes and she fought to squeeze them away. "I've had to…s-s-sleep in th-the ju-junkyard," she told them quietly.

It couldn't be compared in the slightest to a real home. She had nothing. Her dad had taken the little she had, and the Hunger Games had taken the rest.

Her token…the one thing she still had left of her mom…was gone.

"D-do you kn-know what dad told-told me before we lef-left for the Capitol?" she asked redundantly. Of course they wouldn't know. They couldn't have possibly known.

"What did he say?" Corduroy inquired.

Always so kind to her. Even though she didn't deserve his kindness. She didn't deserve anyone's kindness.

A tear slipped down Gadget's cheek and she didn't bother to try to wipe it off. What was the point? Everyone already saw her for how weak she was. And there was no chance she could ever win, not really.

"That…he…" Gadget bit her lip and sniffled. "He-he has a l-lot ri-riding on my tim-time of death."

The clearing went silent. All Gadget could hear was the sound of wind on leaves, and her own pathetic sniffling.

"He's betting on me d-d-dying," Gadget stuttered.

Peeta and Corduroy shared twin frowns. The former's emotions were more obvious, but he said nothing more to the effect of what had just been revealed.

She raised her biscuit and dug her teeth down into it to tear off another piece. Corduroy and Peeta had already done so much for her. Kept her alive and gave her food.

Even though it would be so much easier to leave her behind and with nothing.

Leave her to fend for herself, which she was already used to. Everyone grew to despise her eventually.

Gadget glanced skyward. Was pity the only way she was able to draw sponsors? Between the interview and now…she was just a pity parade for all of Panem to watch.

"Then your father does not deserve your love," Corduroy said, and he reached forward, startling Gadget as he took her hand gently.

She couldn't hold back the rest, and Gadget released a silent sob. She turned her hand over in Corduroy's and grabbed his back, and held it like a lifeline.

"N-not eve-even my br-brothers l-love me," Gadget sobbed.

I'm unlovable…

Micra and Flux…they couldn't even look at her before the reaping. And they didn't even bother to see her before she left.

She was less than nothing to them.

All she was worth was the money her dad bet on her time of death.

Only Syncis cared. And not even he knew much about his own sister. Not even her age until Gadget reminded him.

"Th-they…" Gadget stuttered, and what was left of the biscuit in her free hand fell to her side. "D-dad mad-made me p-put my na-name in f-for…tesserae."

Enough times to have eight slips in the reaping bowl.

Peeta, in what Gadget thought could've been horrified rapture, asked, "How many times?"

"F-f-fi-five," Gadget said softly. She felt Corduroy's fingers rub circles into the back of her hand.

Five times, Zeno ordered Gadget to put her name in for more tesserae. Five times he ordered her to put her name in for food. Five times he made her put her name in for food she would never get to eat.

"He…he sai-said that…" Gadget sunk in her position. "I-I cou-could be let ba-back h-home if I to-t-took tesserae."

She could remember it so vividly in her mind. Her dad dangling the proverbial keys to the house in front of her face. And over and over again she fell for it.

"B-b-but da-dad never did," Gadget stuttered. She lowered her head ever further. Why would Corduroy or Peeta care about any of this? Her life before the Games wasn't their problem.

The words just kept coming out.

"I-I-I…had to si-sign up for-for more t-tesserae whe-when school was out," she told them. "Be-because th-they fed m-me there."

"Unlike your own father," Corduroy said. It wasn't a question. He was stating it like he already knew the answer.

Gadget didn't dare look up at him, even as his fingers rubbed shapes into her palm. All she managed was a quiet, "Yeah."

"Your dad-" Peeta started to say.

"No, no," Corduroy interrupted, his voice calm. Gadget could almost feel as his eyes shifted away, and then back onto her. "That man stopped being your father long before you were evicted."

How could Corduroy be so confident in his statement?

"Gadget, please look at me," Corduroy told her gently.

Gadget resisted for a second, then tilted her head up to look at him. There would be no hiding the red tint of her eyes now. No hiding the tears.

"You, Gadget Trevelyan," Corduroy told her, unflinching even as he stared at her, "are worth more than the thing you call your father."

Gadget nearly recoiled. Not in disgust, but surprise. Corduroy's words were so kind, and they struck her so deep.

She felt heat rush up to her cheeks.

How could Corduroy mean something like that? Even after all of her failures, he still insisted that she was more than she really was.

Lace…the girl that Corduroy was reaped with. His friend from home. She was dead because Gadget was too slow. Too slow to act. Too slow to find her before the Careers did.

Too slow to act in the Cornucopia and take what she needed in order to save her friend.

Lace was dead and it was her fault. And although Corduroy and Peeta insisted that wasn't the case, Gadget knew it wasn't true.

If she had been smarter…if she had run away from the Cornucopia instead of risking everything, Lace would still be alive.

Gadget shook her head, and her disbelief must have shown on her face because Corduroy dropped the little bit left of his food and placed his hand on her shoulder.

"I can tell you do not believe me," he said, and Gadget winced. "But I will keep telling you that until you believe it."

Gadget lowered her gaze, as if she felt processors in her stomach.

Corduroy truly sounded like he meant it.

But that didn't necessarily mean that it was true.

Though it didn't stop her from feeling…nice. It didn't stop her heart from skipping a beat at the kind words.

"Anyway," Gadget said, trying to hide the small blush on her cheeks, "y-you should know…B-Binary's n-n-not helpless on h-his own...he's…he's more d-dangerous...alone."

This sobered up Corduroy and Peeta quickly, who both exchanged looks, then returned their attention to Gadget.

"He's…he knows how to use a kn-knife, or sp-spear, well…an-and other weapons."

Peeta's hand reached up to unconsciously rub his shoulder where the crossbow bolt went through. Nobody needed further proof of Binary's skill with a crossbow.

Green eyes wandered over the campsite as she began to pull her belongings close to hand; her staff, her pack. It just occurred to her that with the Gamemakers having such total control of the arena as well as the longevity of the tributes, it was prudent to have everything on hand to move in a hurry.

"Th-there's one more thing…" Gadget said, drawing the boys' attention back on her.

"B-Binary always has pl-plans. More th-than one. An-and he's good with t-t-traps."

"How remarkable," Corduroy said, "a dangerous adversary indeed. District Three certainly presents formidable tributes."

Tributes? Plural? Gadget looked baffled at this, but Corduroy offered no further input.

After that, they ate quietly. Chewing on whatever portions they had.

"Wh-what would you ha-have done…" Gadget started, and flushed when she realized she was the one initiating a conversation, "...i-if you didn't get reaped? If you…if you escaped the reaping com-completely?"

"People think since I'm a baker's son, I'd take over the bakery, or stay in the family business," Peeta said, "but really? I would have liked to be a painter."

"Th-that makes sense," Gadget said.

"I suppose I could see that," Corduroy said, "based on your story."

Gadget smiled, just a fraction.

Corduroy leaned back and looked thoughtful, before speaking, "As cliché as it might be, what with me being from the textile district, I always fancied myself a fashion designer."

He had a wistful look on his face as he spoke, and Gadget nodded, but partially regretted asking, as it probably brought up more memories of Lace for him.

When she saw the two boys looking over at her, she realized it was her turn, and she wondered what she would have become if she had escaped the reaping all the way.

"I...I like creating things," she said, "th-there's so ma-many things...th-that people need...I c-can make ma-m-machines, or something...th-that makes things easier…"

This…this is nice, Gadget thought. For just a moment, she could pretend that she wasn't in the Hunger Games. For just a moment, she could pretend that everything was fine.

She looked up shyly at them. "Life is h-h-hard enough…"

"You're a really kind person, Gadget," Peeta said.

As they finished whatever they had, Gadget studied her surroundings again. It was really secure, hiding them from sight, with only one or two ways out of the clearing.

"H-how'd…uhm…how'd you two…find this place?" she asked.

"It kinda just…well, we sort of stumbled into it…" Peeta replied.

After a moment's thought, Corduroy nodded, "Indeed, almost as if it…popped up."

"Th-that makes sense…" Gadget remarked.

"How so?" Peeta asked.

"Th-the Gamemakers…" she said, "...they control…ev-everything. Even th-the ground."

Almost as if to prove that point, the ground beneath their feet started to shake and tremble. With a squeak, Gadget crouched to the ground, her food momentarily forgotten as the thought of finding protection flooded her mind.

She watched as Corduroy and Peeta slid to their knees and balanced themselves carefully as the suddenness of the quake slid into a steady continuation.

Loud creaks and groans announced the collapse of trees. Gadget didn't need to look to know that roots were pulled up through the ground. She didn't dare move. She didn't even dare breathe.

This was just like what happened in the grotto. How Gadget had barely managed to escape being crushed between the rock and soil. It was a deadly, horrifying reminder that Seneca Crane had absolute control over the arena and could change the landscape at a whim.

"Point taken," Corduroy said blandly, snapping Gadget out of her reverie. "I suppose that is their way of telling us to get moving."

Reluctantly pushing herself up, Gadget looked dazedly around her, and saw that the cover of trees and rocks were broken down. A number of trees had been uprooted and now lay prone on the ground.

Seneca Crane's intent was clear to Gadget. Move. Or I'll make you move.

They were completely exposed.

"Grab everything," Corduroy said needlessly, "from now on, we keep everything on hand and be ready to move at a moment's notice."

Gadget didn't need to be told twice. She kicked herself for not having her supplies already with her, however limited they may be.

The familiar, terrible sound of the ground tearing apart made Gadget turn. Where once was a relative flat surface of the clearing, a cliff had begun to tear skyward. The sound of roots and rock breaking and shifting was so, so similar to what had happened in the grotto. She couldn't stop it from replaying in her head, over and over again.

"All set," Peeta announced, slinging his pack over his shoulder.

Gadget fumbled with her breastplate and shoulder pad, clumsily equipping it and stumbled to her feet.

Corduroy reached out a hand for her to take, which she did almost without thought.

Better him leading than her. Just as it was meant to be.

Peeta followed quietly behind them as they crossed over a log, and left their little sanctuary.

It was almost as soon as they crossed the border of the clearing they'd taken for themselves that the shaking and trembling came to a slow, steady stop until it was like nothing had happened at all.

The only sign that something had happened was the destruction Seneca Crane left behind them.

Now they were once again at the mercy of the Gamemakers, the Careers, and all the other tributes.

One hand on her knife, which was loosely sheathed at the belt, Gadget swore to herself not to let anything happen to the boys on her watch.

She would do her best.

---

By midmorning it was warm enough that they were unbuttoning their jackets and rolling up sleeves. They mostly stayed close to the first body of water they found, conveniently a river. As Gadget had drained the flask in practically one gulp that morning, the river was a brand new hard disk for them, and they constantly refilled the flask, having to share between them.

At Peeta's suggestion, they waded through the stream, which was only shin-deep, and as it was going downstream, they weren't pushing against the water, and made less noise, they also left no footprints as the path in the water was mostly stones, Gadget quietly commented they could carry some stones and use some cloth material to make a sling of sorts.

"Assuming we find any," Corduroy remarked, "still, it is a valid idea."

They all began to carry as many of the stones and pebbles as they could or were willing to carry.

Worse come to worse, they could just throw it at any assailants.

She felt rather jealous of Binary right then, because he had a crossbow. So as she followed Corduroy and Peeta, her mind began to work on how she might build a ranged weapon with what resources were available to her in this arena.

At least it wasn't a desert or snowy landscape. A forest had a lot she could work with. A basic bow and some arrows were doable. Corduroy and Peeta each now had a throwing knife. The blade was double-edged and thin, but broadened at the hilt. Great for throwing, and could cut, but there was a risk of affecting its accuracy by using it like a survival knife.

Gadget still had the survival knife, and it was the opposite of the boys' knives. More useful for close-quarter combat or cutting and sawing as needed.

One of the boys quietly called her name and Gadget looked at them, prompting Peeta to place his index finger to his lips, calling for her to be quiet.

Mentally kicking herself, Gadget complied and crouched low, drawing out her staff from its baldric as both boys flanked her, eyes watchful for an attack. They'd heard someone.

Now paranoid for traps and ambushes, Gadget peeled her eyes to spot anything, and reminded herself it wasn't just tributes, but mutts and the terrain itself. Perhaps Seneca Crane didn't want them playing cautious and to leave the water.

"We're too low here," Peeta said, "can't see anything."

After looking around, with Gadget's gaze following his, Corduroy pointed up a hilltop.

"There," he said, "we will have a significantly better view of the land and the people nearby."

Quietly, they waded out of the waters and Peeta stamped his feet on the ground, making Gadget note it was hard, so they'd leave no prints or tracks, at least.

Together, the trio made their way up the hill and they quickly fell flat on their stomachs when they heard a rustling noise even nearer them.

Gadget was the first to crawl towards the edge of the hilltop and the first thing she saw was a shock of flame-red hair below.

It was the volunteer from District Five…Finch, if she recalled correctly.

The girl was looking around herself warily, but not upwards, and every time she made noises by walking through the bushes, she'd quickly duck down, in case anyone came looking. It was then that Gadget realized with a frown that some of the bushes were actually rustling on their own.

Finch was actually more cautious and quiet.

The message seemed to be clear here as well: attack her.

Tactically, Gadget, Corduroy and Peeta had the advantage. They were right on top of her, and could likely get the drop on the redhead, much like Monkshood did to her and Peeta two days back.

But she didn't like how it felt to be ambushed, and even if at some point she was going to be forced to fight, Gadget did not wish to attack Finch.

Besides, she seemed to be just trying to survive. She was moving through berry bushes.

Peeta lightly tapped her shoulder and he nodded at the bushes. Sharing the nod, they crawled back down from the hilltop in case Finch decided to look up.

"If she leaves soon, we could grab a load for ourselves too," Peeta said.

There were a lot of bushes, all full of berries.

From what she could remember of her training in the days leading up to the Games, they didn't look like any of the poisonous berries.

Still, they didn't want tributes dying from the environment as much as possible. It was more entertaining for the Capitolites when fights happened between the teenagers, which was what Seneca Crane seemed to be pushing for here.

She decided not to tell the boys what she suspected Seneca Crane wanted of them, plus he would hear it, and his mood seemed quite mercurial. Even if there was a miniscule chance that he was fascinated by her, he made it clear he had no qualms about ending her life for the sake of entertainment or blowing up some drama.

"Perhaps it would be best if we observed how she reacts to it," Corduroy whispered back. "If I remember, nightlock will kill in mere seconds. If the berries are deadly, we will know soon."

With a nod, all three crawled as quietly as they could back to the edge and found Finch was still standing among the bushes, a handful of berries in her palms.

She seemed to be thinking the same thing as the three of them and was tapping her foot worriedly, having an internal debate about taking a chance or leaving them behind.

Finally, it seemed hunger won out, and Finch took a tentative bite of one berry.

Gadget watched, holding her breath as trepidation ran down her entire being. She watched as Finch clenched her free hand, waiting for death. The whole environment also quietened, as if waiting with bated breath, along with them.

Waiting. Always waiting.

After a few seconds that seemed to last an eternity, Finch apparently decided that it wasn't deadly and began to eat some more.

With a signal from Peeta, they retreated again, and he spoke, "Right, I think it's safe enough, let's grab as much as we can and go.

Gadget nodded and saw Corduroy do the same from the edge of her vision. She began to skirt around the small hilltop, approaching the bushes furthest from Finch.

While there were three of them, and Finch appeared unarmed, Gadget wasn't sure of her capabilities, but all of the time in training showed Gadget that Finch was exceptionally quick on her feet.

She kept low, and hoped Seneca Crane didn't trigger the bushes to rustle again, Gadget started to pluck handfuls of the tiny red berries. Between her, Corduroy, Peeta and Finch, they were stripping the bushes.

Finch moved in a circuit, somehow almost mechanically and calculatingly. Gadget didn't know where exactly Corduroy or Peeta were, but she moved clockwise and stuck low to the ground.

Low to the ground, Gadget, she reminded herself.

Eventually, they'd taken as much as they were willing to, even eating a few handfuls along the way. So they began to make their way back towards the river.

To Gadget's surprise, Seneca Crane did not push or retaliate.

But again, not wanting to tempt fate, she made no mention of it. She also did not assume that the Head Gamemaker was being magnanimous or letting this go.

They were his playthings, and he was likely devising punishments for not attacking Finch.

They'd feel it later, for sure.

And Gadget was going to do her best to be prepared for it.

---

"Gadget," Corduroy said, his eyes studying the treetops as they walked.

"Yes?" Gadget replied.

They had spent most of the morning to early afternoon just traveling along open paths, slopes and hills, staying as close to water as they could while the heat was beating down on them, or moving around large obstacles, mostly massive boulders and collapsed trees.

Fortunately, they'd been mostly surrounded by trees, which gave them lots of shade.

They had been traveling west and northwards for the most part.

"Have you noticed the sometimes none-too-subtle movements of the terrain and surroundings?" Corduroy asked.

Gadget blinked, then looked again, and after a moment, her eyes caught on to the shifting positions of the trees.

At first she'd thought it might have been residual effects of the hallucinogenic properties of tracker jacker venom, since most of the time, she'd noticed the movements from the corners of her vision, or she saw what looked like movement in the distance.

"Y-yes," Gadget replied, "d-do you think...tha-that we're b-b-being led...uhm...someplace?"

"Or to someone," Peeta joined in, "or even a group. Maybe they weren't happy at the lack of confrontations?"

No need to ask who 'they' were, but Gadget looked skywards nonetheless.

"Weapons out, then," Corduroy said, already holding his knife ready.

Peeta nodded and took out his two-pronged staff, as did Gadget.

Gadget was mentally kicking herself for not trying harder to make a bow or sling. Either choice would have given them a range advantage. Now they had to hope whoever they were about to meet did not have such advantages, or if they did, that they'd be hopeless with it.

If it was the Career Pack...chances were, they'd be good with any weapon, so their only hope would be to sneak by or escape. And if it were the Career Pack, Gadget had to plan how to draw them away from the boys, lest they get killed in the crossfire or fight.

Because it wasn't them that they wanted, not really. They would let them go if it meant killing Gadget. But the Careers were cruel. They liked to play with their food. So what then? Would they torture Corduroy and Peeta just to make her suffer?

And of course, because she was hoping against hope that it would not be them…

"FOUND YOU!" someone shouted.

Gadget froze mid-step, a coldness running down her spine that made her shiver. She felt Corduroy grab her hand, and Peeta came to a stop on her other side.

There was a thunderous crack and crash that shook the ground, and when the trio looked behind them, the path they'd just come through was now blocked by a massive fallen tree trunk. A large boulder that had been against the tree had been split in two, and large pieces of rock made even trying to climb the tree trunk a health hazard.

Down, down at the bottom of the slope was the Career Pack. The exact people Gadget wished to avoid. She should've known that this kind of confrontation would be inevitable.

Cato grinned and he twisted his sword about, like he was showing it off. It shone so brightly in the sun.

Almost the entire pack half-crouched at Cato's excited cry followed by the crashing tree, but they all soon sported gleeful looks when they landed their eyes on Gadget.

They were all here. All but Glimmer. Clove especially wore a sick smirk that made Gadget's insides coil. She had two knives in each of her hands, both stained with the blood of one of her victims. She didn't even bother to clean off the gore.

Lace…

Gadget wanted to throw up.

The others, Marvel and Marina, Gadget could barely focus on them. Not when the blood of one of her friends was still on the knives of her murderer. But both of them looked so eager. So, so eager to kill or hurt her.

Marvel had a spear in his hand, and his kukri attached to his belt. Gadget had seen in person during training how far he could throw those spears. He could run one through her in seconds.

And Marina…Gadget didn't think she liked her chances with her any better. She had torn Husk apart. Left him in so much misery before she finally killed him.

No, Gadget hated any odds she might have had between any of them.

She took stock of the situation and looked around her frantically. Most of the trees and undergrowth were far too thickly clustered together on either side. And a lot of the trees had low-hanging branches that looked decidedly sharp, enough that running straight at them could lead to a painful impaling.

That…that was why they had come this way. The branches were too dangerous. Too sharp to go through. That was why Seneca Crane changed the environment.

He steered them all towards each other so that this could happen.

The path to the south of them was a little too narrow for an easy escape unless they were willing to move sideways single-file.

But the path leading north, behind the Career Pack, was wide and clear.

This confrontation was being all but forced.

But four Careers against her, Peeta and Corduroy, there was no contest or outcome other than their immediate deaths.

The only miniscule advantage that they had was they were on the top of the slope.

"Well then," Cato said, twirling his sword around, "three for one."

Oh no…oh no…

"Eight, Lover Boy, and Looongfinnn," Marina said tauntingly, dragging out her last word with caress-like mockery. Gadget stared frightfully at the serrated sword in her hand. "Should've known you three would've found each other eventually."

Gadget was only dimly aware of how hard her hand squeezed around Corduroy's. Hoping for comfort that she would not find there. There was nothing but dread, fear, and despair.

An oddly warm sensation began to build in her belly.

She tried to take a step back - to go where she didn't know.

"You move and you're dead," Cato warned and Gadget stilled instantly. His grip tightened around his sword.

The warmth within her was growing. Her heart still beat quickly, but she was no longer quite inclined to run, and not because Cato threatened her.

"Do you expect me to beg?" Corduroy asked coldly, and Gadget noticed that his eyes were focused closely on Clove.

Cato snickered and glanced back at Marvel and Clove as if he had heard something amusing. "Oh, you'll beg," he stated confidently.

How were they supposed to get out of this? There was nowhere they could go that wouldn't end with one of them dying…

Because one of us is supposed to die.

The realization struck Gadget like a weight. A weight too heavy. She had known from the beginning the control the Gamemakers and Seneca Crane had. They could kill any of them at any moment that they pleased.

But they wanted to give their audience a show and…that was what led them here. Where one of them, if not all of them, was going to die.

Tears plucked at Gadget's eyes. No matter how much she tried to forget that Corduroy and Peeta were her friends, at least one of them had to die so that the other could live.

And Gadget had not a single bit of faith that she would survive this.

An inner resolve began to form within...

It wasn't a matter of when she would die. It was a matter of how and where.

"Aw." Marina stared at Gadget and she tried to look away, to hide herself. She wished she could disappear. "Does the baby want to cry?"

Gadget felt Corduroy squeeze her hand.

"Lover Boy," Marvel said, "you missing your girl?" he asked with a cocky smirk. He placed his spear in the ground and turned it slightly.

Gadget could see Peeta tense.

It was Marvel's turn to snicker. He and Cato…they were almost like one person. Was it mandatory for all Careers to gloat?

"Glimmer's gonna miss this," he said. "I get to kill both of the Twelves!"

Gadget took Peeta's hand in her own. She had forgotten. Peeta had said that he had seen Katniss die. He had watched as Marvel butchered her. And here Marvel was, taunting him about it.

"But hey," Marvel continued with a shrug, "you've got another girl for you." He pointed at Gadget with his free hand. "Even if she is a bit young for you."

Gadget flushed.

"Get some action before you die?" Marvel curled one hand into a fist and pushed his spear out with the other, and thrusted his hips into the air in a perverted motion that made Gadget sick to even think about what he was insinuating.

Gadget could practically feel the anger thrumming off of Peeta. He didn't deserve this. He deserved so much better.

Better than me.

She was the one responsible for getting him into this mess. This was all her fault.

"Because let's face it, man," Marvel went on, "you're gonna end up with your entrails on the end of my spear and it's. Going. To. Be. Marvelous."

Gadget was starting to hate his need to make a pun out of his own name.

Peeta stepped forward once, and Gadget could see the murderous intent in his eyes even as he passed her. She curled her hand desperately around his own to stop him. There was no chance he could take the Careers. Not four of them. Much less alone.

Marvel let out a short cackle at what Gadget presumed was the rage he could so clearly see on Peeta's face.

"Glad to see we've all caught up," Cato remarked easily. He was enjoying this, Gadget could see. He knew he had them cornered.

"I want the Eight boy," Clove said sharply. She sliced her knives together, creating an eerie screeching sound that echoed around the trees and into the forest. "Would be fun to complete the set."

Cato chuckled and looked at Clove in a way that Gadget could almost describe as adoring.

This isn't fair…

Anger stirred in her stomach. Cato and Clove, and all of the rest of the Careers…they could be friends. Maybe they could even be more than friends. But someone like Gadget…they killed her friend.

The warmth was now a burning sensation within her heart. She felt hot inside, and it wasn't the weather.

The first person to ever declare herself to be Gadget's friend, and they killed her. Made her bleed and cut into her skin and made her scream.

It wasn't fair!

She could only imagine the fury that Corduroy felt. His district partner, and a girl that had been his friend for who knows how long? And she was killed by these Careers.

By Clove.

These…these…cheaters!

Gadget dipped her hand into her pocket, curling her hand around one of the stones she'd picked up. She withdrew it quickly and prepared herself.

"G-get away!" she cried, and twisted her shoulder back, before hurling the stone as hard as she could at Clove.

The rock soared for what seemed like less than a second as it raced towards its mark, and…

Clove cracked her knife against the stone as it reached her, and sent it flying into the trees, splintering a branch as it went.

The psychotic smirk on Clove's face disappeared and she flicked her attention away from Corduroy and onto Gadget.

Gadget's stomach sank. Stupid! she scolded herself. What did you think was going to happen!? She had let her anger get the best of her. Stupid! she thought again.

But she had a strong desire now to keep trying until she could see fear in Clove's eyes.

Cato took a large step to the side, an almost protective expression on his face. Before the simmering anger took over and he pointed his sword at Gadget. "Know your place, Thief," he said, cuttingly.

Gadget opened her mouth, then closed it again. Her heart beat hard against her chest. She put her foot backwards behind herself, and eased off of her front foot, pulling back just a tiny bit.

Her lips pursed and curled downwards into an expression no one had ever seen on her before.

A scowl.

"Don't worry, Cato," Clove reassured. She tossed one of her knives into the air, watching it flip, and then she threw her second one up as she caught the first one by the handle. "She's just mad I killed her little friend."

Gadget winced, and Clove seemed to take that as confirmation, because her smirk was back. She looked at Corduroy, and though Gadget couldn't see his expression, she knew that he hid his wrath better than she had.

"Oh, she screamed," Clove said, as if she were relishing the memory. "And begged."

Gadget took Corduroy's hand again. She had to let him know that he wasn't alone. He might have known Lace for longer than Gadget had, but he wasn't alone.

Lace meant…so much to her.

"Honestly," Clove continued, juggling her knives between her hands, "it was boring. 'Please don't kill me!'" she said mockingly and with a roll of her eyes.

"EN-ENOUGH!" Gadget screamed, surprising herself, "You'll pay for what you did!"

"Ooooo! Longfin's got teeth!" Marina cooed gleefully, "Does she bite too?"

"The thief is mine," Cato warned, "the rest of you can take whoever you want."

They were done talking and taunting. This was it. She supposed that unlike Lace, none of them were pleading, and all of them had a score they'd love to settle with one or more of the Careers.

"It's a lot more fun when they run," Clove said

Was there any point to running? Did they want to run? Did they really care about surviving?

The way Gadget saw it, if they could take down at least one of them...it'd be enough.

"You heard the lady," Cato said viciously. "How about a…ten second head start?" he proposed, leering at Gadget.

They were like rats in a maze.

But they were cornered rats. It was over.

Gadget had resigned herself to it, and from a quick glance, it seemed like Peeta and Corduroy were too.

"Go. Win. You win by surviving. I know you can. And you will."

Septimius' voice, a memory of what he'd said to her, his final piece of advice to her before she parted from him, Beetee, and Wiress at the launch pad.

Dammit.

She dug into her pockets and hurled a rock at Cato's midsection. But just like how Clove had before, he swung his sword around swiftly and easily, sending the rock flying away.

At the same time, Corduroy and Peeta both hurled as many rocks as they could fish out of pockets or packs, throwing at anyone and everyone. And although most of the Careers were able to easily dodge them, it presented an opportunity. One that gave them just a little more time.

"Follow me!" Gadget said to Corduroy and Peeta.

They ran southwards, towards the narrow cluster of trees and rocks and soil. Gadget briefly remembered nearly being crushed to death and a mild sense of claustrophobia began to crop up, but Septimius' words spurned her onwards.

There. A slim pathway cut into granite. Very, very thin, and one that barely provided any form of escape. But it was the best option they had, and Gadget pushed herself into the opening, twisting her body sideways.

She began to half-hop, half run very awkwardly, but because of how slender she was, it wasn't too hard. Rock and stone pressed into her body, building a slight pressure, before it left again as she pushed onwards.

It was just like the grotto. If Seneca Crane so decided, he could push the walls together and crush her inside. Leave her a mangled corpse between soil, stone, and trees.

There was no way trees and rocks would cluster like this in a natural environment, but this wasn't natural, and she was thankful Seneca Crane wasn't trying to kill her right then by making the ground eat her up.

Peeta came next, pushed in by Corduroy, followed by the latter, just after he threw one more rock at Clove, but there was no way for Gadget to know if it hit.

Gadget could see that due to Peeta's bigger size, this passage was a bit harder for him, but not as hard as it was for Cato, who was the biggest of the Careers, and he had been the first one through.

That was quite a tactical blunder, but Gadget was grateful for that. Otherwise…there was no doubt in her mind that he would try to tear her head from her shoulders.

The shouts and noises of the Careers spurned Gadget, Peeta and Corduroy to move as quickly as they could.

It was so cold here. Even as Gadget grasped onto the strange arrangement of a combination of stone and tree that mixed together for a handhold, the surface felt as if it hadn't been touched by the sun in ages.

The chillness of the air was like a vice grip on Gadget's chest. She didn't want to look back to see how close the Careers might've been. Their taunting jeers were enough. They struck the fear of death deep inside her.

Corduroy's leg!

The reminder hit her like she'd been zapped by electricity. How could she have forgotten? Corduroy could still move, but his abilities were limited now because of the brace.

Gadget craned her neck, muscles straining as she peered over her shoulder; a task that, though simple, proved hard with the limited space. But she managed it, and her eyes landed on Corduroy.

So selfish, Gadget, she thought venomously to herself. She should've let Peeta and Corduroy go first. They weren't the top priority of the Careers. They didn't steal their supplies like she did. That had all been her. Exclusively her. And now…there was a good chance that they would die because of her.

"Loooongfinn!" Marina called from behind them, her voice bouncing off the pathway walls like a terrible melody.

Gadget's breathing hitched and her heart hammered ever harder against her chest, threatening to burst through her ribcage. The Careers were closing in fast despite the cramped space. And the Gamemakers wouldn't let this end without at least one of them dying. Gadget knew better than to think they would.

If Seneca Crane wanted a story for the audience so bad, then he would do what he could do to make that story interesting. If he wanted a story for his audience, then he would get it no matter the cost.

This was not going to end without bloodshed.

"Get her, Cato!" Clove's voice pierced the air, filled with psychotic excitement. Gadget shuddered, her mind racing with desperation. It was kill or be killed in the arena.

Gadget's chest expanded with her breath, brushing against the wall of stone and trees in front of her, and she realized that the pathway was becoming more thin.

It was going to become tighter and tighter before it widened. Gadget didn't know why she'd expected anything differently. The Gamemakers…Seneca Crane, wouldn't ever make this easy on them. He wanted excitement for his Games, and this was how he got it.

"Corduroy…" Gadget breathed, and the narrow pathway became too much to even turn her head again. "Your leg…"

"It is fine," Corduroy replied. He sounded almost breathless, but Gadget couldn't see for certain. She was stuck looking straight ahead. Towards the exit of the narrow path.

They weren't all going to survive this. It rang in Gadget's head over and over, a sickening reminder. Only one person survives the Hunger Games.

She had to keep moving. No time to slow down. If she slowed down, Cato or any of the other Careers could catch up to them.

A ball of panic began to grow in Gadget's chest.

The pathway pinched her from both sides, grazing her hips and legs. So much like the grotto, but the walls weren't moving.

"Ah!" Cato grunted.

"We need to keep moving," Peeta said loudly, and for a moment Gadget thought he had said it into her ear, but no, he wasn't that close. It was the passage that amplified their voices.

"I know, I kn-know!" Gadget stuttered. This was a nightmare! Her knees and elbows scraped against the rough stone, but she couldn't just stop!

The exit was getting closer. The opening at the end of the crevice. All Gadget could hear was the sound of her own ragged breaths, and the labored breathing of Corduroy and Peeta behind her.

There was no telling where the passage would lead them, but Gadget imagined that anything would be better than this, with the Careers on their trail like feral mutts.

As Gadget pushed forward, she could feel a cool breeze hit her face. The walls kept getting shallower, almost squeezing, enough to be uncomfortable, but left plenty of room to continue forward.

Gadget turned sideways once more, she sidled through rocks and branches as sharp as razors. They dug into her sides occasionally, but it wouldn't stop her or her friends. She wouldn't let it. Not when she was so close to the exit.

Yet the voices behind them grew louder and more urgent. Threats that promised pain and death that kept growing more and more sadistic the closer they made it to the exit.

And then, finally, the passage of trees began to widen, allowing Gadget, at last, to run more normally.

But that only promised that the Careers would be able to, soon, as well. She dropped her hand into her pocket to pull out more stones. They served as a useful tool to distract, if they failed to hurt.

Her hands, however, found nothing and Gadget's heart jumped to her throat. No, no! Had she already used all of them? How did she not notice?

She looked towards the opening, fear in her eyes, and as soon as she saw Peeta and Corduroy clearing the narrow passage, she raced forward to grab them by their hands, and ran as fast as she was able, the soles of her feet hammering into the ground.

Cato's furious roar was the last thing she heard as she sprinted away, and she let go of their hands.

They wouldn't have much time before the Careers caught back up with them. Gadget was only slightly confident in her running abilities, but the Careers had trained for this their whole lives. They were stronger and they were faster.

No, it wouldn't take them long to catch up.

"We made it!" Peeta exclaimed silently, his voice just creeping through the air, and Gadget was grateful for it. The quieter they were, the lesser chance the Careers had to find them.

"But we are not safe yet," Corduroy replied.

No, they were far from being safe.

Corduroy and Peeta's footsteps thumped against the ground as they went.

Time was ticking away. They needed to find somewhere to go. Cato, Clove, Marvel, and Marina - they wouldn't let Gadget go without a fight. Not now that they had found the person who took some of their supplies.

She heard Peeta suck in a harsh breath and she looked back to see him holding his shoulder with a muted, but still pained expression.

"P-Peeta?" she asked. Was he okay? Did Cato get him? Her heart spiked. No, no, that can't have happened!

Gadget slowed and she glanced between what was in front of them, and Peeta. He never abandoned her, even though she had told him to. She was determined to prove herself worthy of that loyalty.

"Wha-what happened?" she asked.

"It's fine," Peeta said, rolling his shoulder. The same shoulder that Binary had hit with an arrow. "Just a little hurt."

Gadget frowned concernedly. His shoulder had been fine up until they'd gone through the pathway. And he was so broad…of course he had trouble getting through it!

Corduroy had been surprisingly swift, and kept pace with them through it even with the brace on his leg. It ceased to be a hindrance to him, and maybe he'd gotten used to wearing it and how to move using it.

Gadget hoped he'd be able to take it off soon. His chances would increase dramatically with it gone and his leg healed.

The sound of rushing water made Gadget perk up, and she followed the noise. If it was a river, then it could create an opportunity to do what they did last time to get away from Binary and Kernel.

She slid out of the way of a tree and she could see ahead, through the thickness of the bushes and leaves, and she idly wondered why the Gamemakers didn't sharpen them to make them follow a path they'd wanted.

"Oh…" Gadget whimpered.

Gadget slowly came to a stop and planted her feet, hesitating. Oh no.

Right in front of them was a cliff that dropped off. Gadget walked forward quickly and nervously looked down.

They were at a cliff's edge, with what Gadget estimated to be a fifty foot drop to narrow rapids below. There was no way to tell how deep the water was.

Their best escape was the other side of the cliff, only there was a twenty foot gap between them.

A gorge with no exit except for the one behind them.

"No," Gadget said, panic and fear growing in her chest. She looked around desperately for something - anything - that could help them get away from the Careers.

But there was nothing.

Just a river that cut a cliff in half, and stretched around the cliffside. The narrow path…did the Gamemakers even expect them to survive going through it? Was that why it led to a dead end?

"No. No, no!" Gadget panicked. She paced left and right along the cliffside, hoping to see something that maybe she'd missed. But she knew that there was nothing.

The Careers were coming, and she had led Corduroy and Peeta onto a cliff with no exit.

"No!" Gadget sobbed, and her legs gave out from under her. She fell to her knees and lurched forward onto the ground, burying her hands into the grass.

The angry shouting told her that their life was measured in seconds. Minutes at most. It was hopeless. So utterly hopeless.

Was it because of what she said about her dad? Was this some revenge on his behalf? He'll get some money now, perhaps.

They were on an elevated edge, there was no real way to hide, and even if they did, it would buy them mere seconds. Their clothing stuck out like an RGB computer case.

"AAAARGH!" Gadget let out a cry of sheer frustration as she struck the ground in front of her repeatedly with her staff. Peeta and Corduroy could only watch in sympathy...and despair.

I'm so sorry, Corduroy. Peeta…

CRAAAACK!

The last time they heard that sound, a gigantic tree collapsed to block the path they came from. The ground trembled and shook as an exceptionally tall and heavy tree to the left of Gadget collapsed, right across the gorge.

For a moment, Gadget just stared in wide-eyed shock.

Was it a hallucination?

Take it or leave it.

A voice in her head that sounded oddly like Seneca Crane prompted her into action. "W-we need to cross it now!"

Wordlessly, the boys moved. No one really needed prompting to take a chance for survival.

Peeta once again went first, but this time he was not hindered by a narrow passage of trees or anything else. He'd slung his staff and used his backpack to hold it in place as he crawled on all fours. Although the tree was quite wide across, its many branches made quite an obstacle course, and it wasn't that well settled down.

He was nonetheless across in record time, and as Corduroy was gesturing for Gadget to go, the girl shook her head and said, "N-no. You go first. Hurry!"

With no time to argue, Corduroy gave her a meaningful look and nodded, then began the awkward journey across. He was slowed a bit by his brace and the tree creaking and groaning ominously.

"Careful!" Peeta cried as he grabbed hold of the thickest branches near the edge in an effort to stabilize it.

Gadget divided her attention between the approaching Careers and Corduroy's precarious journey over the gorge.

Only when he had taken both feet off the tree did Gadget sling her staff back into its baldric and She jumped onto the tree and almost instantly regretted it. The tree creaked and groaned as it scraped audibly on the edges. Cato was only fifty feet away from her! And the rest of the Careers…they'd spread out to cover more ground in their search for her and her friends.

It was now or never.

Gadget extended her arms to help her balance, and started across the tree. It was like the courses during training. The balance beams and all of the others.

"Watch out!" Peeta's warning had Gadget looking back, and she screamed as Cato leapt onto the tree as well.

She began to sideways stumble along, grasping at loose branches to support her frantic journey over to the boys.

"Where do you think you're going, Thief!?" Cato demanded.

The tree creaked and protested. Gadget could hear it scrape against the ground and she loomed up at Peeta. She saw his hands grasp onto the branches tightly in an attempt to keep it still.

Something pierced the air near her and Gadget gasped at the sight of a spear sail past her and embedded itself in the ground just short of Peeta.

"Aw, so close!" she heard Marvel lament.

Not them! If they want a target, leave them out of it!

The sound of the tree cracking made Gadget look back at Cato. He had closed the distance between them in such a short amount of time. Fury was etched into his face, and a hungry snarl on his lips.

"You're not getting away this time," he told her, grabbing a branch.

A shiver ran up Gadget's spine.

Then, on purpose, he dropped his body, using his momentum to push the tree down.

Peeta yelled as he lost his grip on the largest branches.

It seemed Cato's actions had unforeseen consequences as the tree lost its precarious hold on either edge, and they lost their place.

Gadget's balance escaped her in an instant, and she slipped backwards on the log, and she toppled off the side.

Her heart leapt into her throat, and a scream escaped through her lips.

"GADGET!" Corduroy and Peeta's voices rang out in synchronization.

"CATO!" Clove shouted out at the same time.

The Careers were left on one side, and the boys on the other.

But the boys were safe!

And they're together. They'll be all right now.

That left Gadget to worry about herself. And between Cato and the fifty foot drop…it felt like time slowed down as she plummeted. Air stung the back of her neck. She didn't have time to think as the water rushed up to meet her.

She hit the water hard, and it was much colder than she'd expected, but it was mercifully deep enough that she didn't hit solid ground. She inhaled a mouthful of water and kicked her arms and legs to try and break the surface.

But it was a challenge harder than she was expecting with the effort of the rapids pushing her back down.

Water crashed into her and threw her along. Gadget pried her eyes open, but she could see nothing.

And then, all at once, she was above the surface. With a surprised sputter, she spat out the water and struggled to stay afloat. Where was Cato!?

"COME HERE!"

There he was.

A large hand reached for her face, and Gadget barely had time to scream before her head was grabbed and was being shoved under the water.

His grip was hard and firm, fingers digging into her hair. She opened her mouth to breathe air that she couldn't get, and all she got instead was another mouthful of water.

But…he had both hands free...so he lost his precious sword.

Gadget reached for the knife in her belt, and wildly thrust it at Cato as hard as she could. It sunk into flesh with a sound muted by the rapids, but she heard Cato's pained grunt. She pulled but he'd grabbed her wrist and wrenched it, hard.

Another muffled, pained scream by Gadget, and she let go of the knife, leaving it embedded in Cato, but he did let go of her face and she took the opportunity to push him down with both hands and herself up to the surface.

She broke through it, and gasped for oxygen before Cato could pull her back under. Gadget twisted around in his grip and she-

"AGH!" Gadget yelled as she felt herself and Cato slam against a rock as the current carried them at high speed down the river.

Idly, she really hoped there wasn't a waterfall somewhere. She only had one day of training in how to swim…she wasn't going to break world records with what little she knew.

"No, no…!" Gadget started sinking again, but this time due to her own weight. Between the rapids that threatened to push her under, and her armor, she could barely keep afloat.

"You're not escaping, Thief!" Cato shouted as he surfaced.

She couldn't help screaming again, but ironically, his grabbing her breastplate pulled her back up. She could see now she'd stabbed him in the leg, and the knife was still embedded in his thigh.

One chance. It was all she had. One chance to get free of him, but he didn't seem to be tiring down. How did someone like him have so much energy!? Gadget could already feel her own energy dwindling, and dwindling fast.

This was it! She lurched forward and she grabbed the handle of the blade and yanked with all her might.

Cato's stunned expression and gasp told her just how shocked he was by the pain. Without dwelling on it, Gadget cut the straps of her breastplate and shoulder plate, freeing herself of the older boy's hold.

She began to distance herself from him when he recovered his senses and lunged through the water after her, and his arm connected with her waist by her tool belt buckle.

"G-g-get aw-away!" Gadget shrieked. She swung her arm around - the only weapon she had on hand - to cut her knife into him. She didn't care where, just as long as it freed her from him.

But Cato was quick. So, so quick. And he caught her hand expertly, and started to squeeze it the moment it was in his own.

"You'd better be glad I lost my sword, bitch," Cato snarled. Gadget didn't need to imagine it. He would've gutted her worse than Marina had to Husk.

Fueled on pure adrenaline, Gadget kicked her foot out between Cato's legs and into his crotch, but all he did was merely groan. His second hand hit the release button on her tool belt, before he thrust out and gripped Gadget by the throat, and he began to squeeze.

"N-no," Gadget stuttered. Her free hand banged uselessly against Cato's chest as he stared coldly into her eyes.

This was it. This was how she died. Just as her dad…no…just as Zeno wanted. But…at least Corduroy and Peeta were safe.

At least the Careers wouldn't be able to hurt them for now. She had bought them some time.

But that didn't stop her heart from slamming against her chest hard enough to make her feel sore. She didn't want to die! She didn't want to die! She wanted to live!

Gadget drifted her eyes up and behind Cato, as the tree trunk barreled down the river towards them quickly, and her eyes widened in realization.

This was her chance!

Gadget kicked at Cato's chest. She needed to get free! She needed to! She had to!

"You're gonna-" Cato started, but this time, Gadget was quicker, and she plunged her thumb right into his eye.

Cato screamed in pain, but Gadget didn't stop, even as she winced. She was running on pure adrenaline now, and stopping would mean death. And she didn't stop even as she felt something slick and gooey on her finger.

But Cato did, and he let go to hold a hand to his eye.

Gadget had mere seconds as she glanced towards the tree. Cato twisted and turned in the water, she found herself drawing closer towards Cato, and he was still looking in the wrong direction, so, in a decisive moment, Gadget swam towards the leader of the Careers, grabbed him from behind, and turned with all her might until his face was directly in the path of the onrushing tree trunk while she ducked.

There was a sickening, wet crunching noise, and a pained groan.

When she resurfaced, Cato was half floating and weakly trying to swim and maintain his balance. He was stunned, it was her chance!

High on adrenaline, Gadget grabbed him and pushed his head underwater. The only difference was, he was too weak to fight back. A weak swing of his arms was the only resistance he could provide.

Through it all Gadget was screaming and crying, but she did not let him come up to breathe.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" she said repeatedly, but still, she did not let up.

All she could do was hold firm, and stare down through the water as Cato's arms fumbled and tried to grasp onto something.

All she could do was hold firm, and state down through the water at Cato's face as he slowly yet surely continued to run out of oxygen.

The seconds ticked by like hours, and Cato's struggles came to a slow stop, and his body went limp.

Boom!

Even after three minutes, and he'd long since stopped struggling, and she clearly heard a cannon fire, Gadget continued to hold him down as the current swept her downriver.

After she guessed ten minutes had passed...she knew he wasn't coming back.

---

Gadget heaved. He's dead. He's dead! He's dead he's dead, she began to think in increasing, worrying panic.

The currents were slowing down a little.

There was a waterfall in the end, but it was three feet down. The trunk had long since lodged itself between some rocks, whilst Gadget used Cato's body as a make-shift float, face down in the water.

It wasn't so much that she wanted to ensure he was dead as much as she didn't want to see his wide-eyed lifeless stare.

He died in fear.

He would have done the same thing to you… was what she heard in Septimius' voice.

"He's dead…" she whispered to herself, still reeling in disbelief. "...I-I-I killed him…"

The currents were now pushing her close to a bank in the river, the waters were shallow enough she could walk.

She half-sat in the river for a long time, one hand gripping the corpse of Cato.

Her first kill.

She was a murderer.

No. Not my first kill.

According to Zeno, she killed her mom too.

I killed Lace too. With her inaction.

Tears rolled freely down her face. She was a killer, no better than Cato.

"Someone…help me…" Gadget was mildly surprised to realize that voice was her own. And who would help a killer like her?

I killed I killed I killed.

Weakly, she began to pull the corpse up the bank, feeling like it was the least she could do.

"Yeah, that's the least you could do, Thief." Gadget whipped her head about, and gasped.

Cato stood there, looking down at her…and his corpse.

"You're n-not r-real," she whispered desperately.

Cato laughed, "Am I not? You're talking to me, aren't you?"

Something seemed off about his voice. He sounded familiar, but she wasn't sure where she'd heard it, and her mind was much too busy processing the impossibility of Cato being dead yet alive all at once.

"I'm sorry…" she said, crying again.

"Miss Trevelyan," Cato said, spreading his arms apart, "this, is the Hunger Games. Death is part of the process. And congratulations. You've impressed me."

His voice sounded less and less like Cato, and that way of talking…

Peering hard at his form, she gasped when he suddenly began to glitch before her eyes. His features changed, his build became slightly shorter, more slender, and his hair darkened, and a beard appeared on his face.

Now he was Seneca Crane.

"I d-d-don't w-want to…to kill…again."

His neutral expression darkened. "You will either be a bringer of death…or you will be dead. Choose carefully."

He faded away, but not before he seemed to take on Cato's shape once more

"Watch your back."

A high-pitched whistle reached her ears, snapping her out of it.

Someone was here! She wasn't alone.

Her hand shot towards her baldric and unsheathed her staff as quickly as she could, and spun around on her knees to face whoever the person was.

"Relax, it's only me."

Monkshood.

Gadget's arms quivered with nerves, and the staff in her hands trembled and shook. All around her, the air was thick with the smell of death and decay, and in her own horror she couldn't tell if the stench that haunted her was real or a figment of her imagination torturing her psyche. The weight of the body on her conscience threatened to crush her. Was she really going to have to take another life? The thought made her stomach churn like a faulty vent fan.

Cautiously, she took in Monkshood's disheveled appearance; her clothes were in tatters and her face bore the scratch marks of some previous confrontation. As her gaze drifted down to the bruise near Monkshood's eye, a vivid reminder of the violence she had inflicted...A moment she was sure the other girl had not forgotten.

But even as her brain screamed danger, and the adrenaline shot into her heart, she couldn't help but cast a wary glance at the corpse behind her - a constant reminder of the price of her victory. She had done this. She had taken Cato's life. The weight of her actions threatened to crush her will as she struggled to steel herself against the inevitable violence that lay ahead, as she spotted a glint of steel in Monkshood's grip.

"Nice work with tha' ragin' bull," Monkshood complimented as she slipped her dagger into her hand.

Gadget took a step back, carefully stepping past Cato's body.

Her eyes jumped to the trees to scan for Monkshood's diminutive ally. If Monkshood was here, then surely Rue was close.

"Wh-where's Rue?" Gadget asked, if just to buy herself more time. She didn't want to get jumped like she and Peeta had by the same duo a few days prior.

Monkshood's features morphed into an expression of anger. "Ain't that a bite," she said sharply, and she took a big step forward.

Gadget took one backwards. She thrust her staff out, but it came nowhere near Monkshood. She was much too far away and Monkshood merely eyed it with disdain.

The dagger in her hand rotated, and she pointed it at Gadget. "Your partner killed 'er."

What?

Gadget froze. Rue was dead. The knowledge sunk into her mind like a computer processing data. Another person was dead. Someone's whose face would light up in the sky that night. Someone who Gadget had known, if hadn't really interacted with.

Unless Monkshood wasn't telling the truth.

At that thought, Gadget's gaze shot back up to the trees. She glanced fearfully between the girl in front of her, and the possible trap above.

Monkshood stepped to the side, and Gadget mirrored her action, maneuvering herself to the right as Monkshood went left. Slowly, they began to circle each other. One step at a time.

"You don' believe me?" Monkshood queried, her arm extended, and her hand rotating slowly with the dagger. A weapon that, if Gadget wasn't careful enough, would embed itself in her.

Slow steps. Slow steps. Gadget was a fast runner. If she was careful, she could take off before Monkshood struck first. Although how fast Monkshood was had yet to be determined…she liked those odds better than fighting her.

"Then who's cannon was tha'?" Monkshood asked. She tilted her dagger up, waving it up at the sky.

"But I wouldn' trust 'er as far as I could throw 'er."

Husk's advice rang in her ears. Reverberating around like a broken recording stuck on an endless loop. This was the same girl that sold out Ridley to the Careers and stole her supplies.

Gadget's eyes slid down to the straps of the backpack around Monkshood's arms at the reminder. She had stolen from her and Peeta, and things Gadget was going to give to Corduroy. Left them with half the supplies they'd owned.

Step, step, step, they went, circling each other, yet neither of them made a move to strike. Gadget watched, trembling, as Monkshood kept a firm grip on her dagger.

The smell of death sunk into her sinuses, reminding her with a cruel caress of the kill that she had made. Nobody but her. Somewhere in District Two, she had torn a family apart. How could anyone enjoy this feeling? This feeling of causing such cruelty?

I'm a murderer!

There was simply no other way around it. She had murdered someone here in the arena. She had become a killer.

Gadget released a choked breath and her staff wobbled in her hand. She felt the taste of bile rise in the back of her throat.

All at once, the image of a bullet tearing out the back of Mortimer's skull appeared in her head. Mockingly reminding her that everyone around her here died sooner or later.

It was why she wanted Peeta away from her. He was safer with Corduroy than he was with her.

And now…she had gotten her wish. Corduroy and Peeta were alone together, and Gadget was far, far away from them.

Isn't that what you wanted?

It should've been. But Gadget had never felt more alone. Not even when she had been evicted and forced to live on the streets of District Three.

Chunks of Mortimer's brain and skull splattered against the wall. The carnage of the Bloodbath. Lace's mutilated body. Cato, drowned and suffocated because of her.

Because of me.

It was so much. It was too much.

Gadget leaned her head forward and retched. My fault. All my fault.

"Yeah," Monkshood said and Gadget looked up at her through her lashes. "Can' imagine tha' was a very nice encounter."

Gadget swallowed, grimacing at the taste of vomit on her tongue. She tried to readjust her staff in her grip and took a quick step to the side when Monkshood did the same.

"Binary…" Gadget said, "he…ki-killed R-Rue?" she asked.

"Yeah," Monkshood confirmed. She stepped to the left and Gadget took a wobbly step to the right. "'ow do you think I got this?" she asked, pointing with her dagger at the scratch marks on her cheek.

Gadget felt a pang of sympathy. It wouldn't have surprised her if Binary did kill Rue. He was certainly capable of it. He'd almost killed Corduroy and Peeta and…

But she didn't deserve this. None of them except for…except for Gadget herself.

Since deep down, there was a part of her that wished, hoped, and begged to die in the Games.

"Wh-what happ-happened?" Gadget asked, though really she didn't care for the details. The longer she kept Monkshood talking, the likelier it was that she could get away.

Gadget stepped to the right. Monkshood stepped to the left. With each slow step, they circled each other, poised for attack.

"Same thing we did to you," Monkshood said quickly, like she was expecting the question. "They got the jump on us."

Monkshood kicked a pebble and Gadget hopped unsteadily from foot to foot. Monkshood's face was twisted in anger and loathing, and she took another step to the left while Gadget went to the right.

It didn't surprise her at all that Binary would try to get the jump on one of the other tributes like Monkshood suggested he did. But how could Gadget trust anything she said?

She did tell you how to find Corduroy, she thought to herself in silence. But she also left Ridley behind to die.

"Guess you found your ally?" Monkshood asked conversationally in spite of the dagger she still had pointed at Gadget. She looked ready to strike at any moment.

Gadget dragged her foot back and prepared to pivot her body backwards. She needed to prepare to run. Run until she lost Monkshood. She'd already proven herself to be a better fighter the last time she and Rue had ambushed Gadget.

At the thought, Gadget glanced up at the trees one more time, in search of Rue. Monkshood had no reason to tell the truth. It could all be a distraction!

"I didn' see 'im with your partner and Nine," Monkshood said. She narrowed her eyes at Gadget. "So I guess you got 'im."

Another step to the left. Another one to the right. They'd gone in an almost complete circle, and now Gadget had her back to the trees, and Monkshood above Cato's body.

Monkshood extended her legs wide apart, and Gadget knew she was preparing to propel herself at her. The dagger rotated again in her hand, and Gadget could see it glint against the sunlight.

"You're all alone now, though."

Gadget tensed. Out of all the things Monkshood had said in this short span of time, that was the only thing Gadget knew for sure was true.

She had no one now. Corduroy and Peeta were gone.

You're all alone now. It rang like a mantra in her head.

"S-so?!" Gadget demanded at last.

"So…what're ya gonna do?" Monkshood asked.

What was she going to do? She had to run. It was all she could do here. She had no choice.

"You can do anythin'."

No…no she couldn't. She couldn't do anything. This was wrong! So, so wrong!

She didn't want to kill again! It was the worst feeling she had ever felt in her life…

She wasn't a Career. She wasn't…cruel like they were.

Something blared in the distance and Gadget jumped and her staff nearly dropped from her hands. What was that noise? She looked up in the direction it had come from, all the while keeping Monkshood within her line of sight.

And then, Gadget saw it. It shone against the sky, a red color that was different from what she'd seen the last few days.

The anthem.

It was earlier than usual. Right? Or could Seneca Crane just not wait to reveal what she had done to Cato to the rest of the Careers?

Before Gadget was ready, or she could prepare herself, Cato's smug face shone in the sky. Just like the day of the Bloodbath, now the Careers knew what had happened, and that Gadget was still alive.

Cato's face disappeared a moment later, and left the burgeoning of guilt to fill Gadget's stomach. In his place was Rue.

Gadget glanced to Monkshood in surprise, and she saw a flash of sadness cross her face. She'd been telling the truth about Rue's death, then.

Then, quickly as it had come, the anthem disappeared, and left Gadget and Monkshood in silence. All that was left was the sound of the water drifting just beyond them.

Monkshood crouched down suddenly and Gadget watched her warily as she ran her hands up down Cato's body, like she was searching for something.

Gadget opened her mouth, then closed it again. She took a half-step back. Maybe she could get away, if Monkshood had deemed her to be a non-threat.

She would never be able to bring herself to kill her. Not after what she'd done to Cato. She had done something terrible. Awful. And she didn't want to do it again.

Never, ever again.

Monkshood pulled something from one of Cato's pockets, and turned it around in her hand. She made a face, then looked at Gadget.

Gadget grimaced and went to shuffle back, but Monkshood tossed whatever it was she was holding into the air towards her, and Gadget caught it instinctually.

"The spoils of your victory," Monkshood told her as she stood up.

Victory…

It felt like bile on her tongue.

But still, Gadget looked down at the single packet of fruit snacks in her hand. It was small and wet, however it was better than nothing at all.

Monkshood examined Cato's corpse for a few seconds, then brought her leg up sharply to kick him in the ribs. Gadget winced at the strike, but Monkshood didn't stop until she was satisfied.

"Brute," Monkshood spat. "Not so tough now." She seemed to pause, then looked back at Gadget. "Nice work, Three."

Gadget recoiled. The words were reminiscent of their first encounter in the arena, when Monkshood took her supplies. But the words stung deep at her. Nice work. Was that all Cato's death meant?

Monkshood twisted her dagger around in her hand, contemplative. Then, she sheathed it and said, "We're both without our partners," she said, and Gadget froze. "We're both alone."

Gadget stepped back. She knew where this was going. She couldn't trust her. Monkshood betrayed Ridley.

"But I wouldn' trust 'er as far as I could throw 'er."

"An'...did Corduroy tell ya?" Monkshood asked.

That threw Gadget for a loop. She stopped slowly. What? What does Corduroy have to do with any of this?

A charming smile grew on Monkshood's face. "He didn', did he?"

Gadget shifted from foot to foot awkwardly. How was she supposed to respond to that? She didn't even understand the question.

"Ain't that a bite," Monkshood commented. She shook her head, her hair falling over her shoulders.

"W-what is?" Gadget asked.

Monkshood didn't answer, but she looked above her, eyes following something. "Seems you got a sponsor," she said instead of answering.

Gadget turned - not enough to look away completely from Monkshood - and looked to the sky, where a silver container gently floated down to them.

"Looks like you got some people excited," Monkshood said, as the container's beeping reached Gadget's ears.

It's parachute tangled in the branches of a tree, low enough to the ground for Gadget to grab and open. Inside, she saw an assortment of machine pieces she could use, and despite herself, she grinned.

"Look," Monkshood said, and the grin fled Gadget's face in an instant, "I'm not sayin' we partner up. I'm jus' sayin' we…truce for now." She waved a hand around. "The res' of the Careers can find ya. Follow the river. They'll get 'ere eventually."

They will. Or at least, Clove would. The thought made her look up and down the river stream even though she knew, logically, they wouldn't be there.

"And you've not got enough supplies to last alone," Monkshood continued.

That…was also true. Her supplies were small and incredibly limited. But that wasn't fair. Monkshood was the one to take those supplies!

She didn't have time to dwell on it before the ground rumbled and nearly knocked her off balance. A dull churning beneath the ground that threatened to become more severe.

It was a warning.

Move away from the body…or die.

Gadget didn't need any convincing. She sheathed her staff back into its baldric and unconsciously tapped the hilt of her knife, before she started to back away into the trees, and away from the river.

She didn't need to look back to know that Monkshood was right behind her. And even as she ran, she contemplated Monkshood's offer.

It was an offer of not being alone. Of having someone with her while she suffered through thoughts that plagued her mind after she killed Cato.

That was what she had done in its purest form. She'd murdered Cato. Drowned him.

Gadget stayed quiet for a full minute. The truth was, she was happy to agree. She meant it; she didn't want to kill anymore.

She turned, just a little bit. "Okay," she said quietly. Almost meekly. "T-truce."

The ground's shaking came to a tenuous stop. And so did Monkshood. Her face split into a grin and she offered her hand.

"You got a deal, partner."

Gadget eyed the outstretched hand, before she clasped it in her own and shook it once.

Monkshood released it and stepped around Gadget to lead the way. Where, Gadget did not know. But she was happy to have someone else lead the way.

"That was nice of you." Cato reappeared, walking beside her, while Monkshood was slightly ahead and off to the side, constantly tilting her head so she could watch Gadget from her peripherals.

Gadget stared straight ahead, her dead green eyes firmly on Monkshood's back. He wasn't really here beside her. It was a Gamemaker trick.

"I suppose that was the least you can do, after killing me." He turned his torso as he walked next to her so he could be facing her the whole time. "But it is a kind of a waste of time. You'll kill her eventually. Maybe you'll do to her what she did to Ridley?"

"What do you want?" Gadget whispered under her breath, but Cato seemed to hear her like she'd spoken aloud.

"Want? I want to help you win. I can't do it for myself anymore, so I'll win through you."

Somehow, that made Gadget feel sicker. Win on behalf of the Career? Horrible. The thought made her feel ill.

"Or if you don't, Miss Trevelyan," Cato went on, and Gadget turned sharply to look at him, "you'll end up just." His voice began to change. More feminine. "Like." And his features glitched before her eyes. "Me."

Gadget swallowed her cry. Right in front of her was the bloodied corpse of Lace, a wicked smile spread across her lips.