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.

13. Deeper into the Abyss

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

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Author's Notes:

Triage: The hour is darkest before the dawn, and thus is Gadget's journey thrust into the darkest moments yet.

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 13

Deeper into the Abyss

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Gadget peeled her eyes open tiredly. The rays of the sun beamed down on her and she raised her hands to cover her face. I…I fell asleep, she thought worriedly, her mind already beginning to whirl with what that meant. Fear dribbled down her back as if a cold glass of water was poured gently over her head.

Her eyes shifted to her left and she had to swallow the scream that almost erupted from her throat. Because there, crouched and watching her, was Clove.

Gadget stretched her arms backward, alarmed, and she tried to push back to get away from the other girl, even as a demented smile spread across her lips. A smile that promised pain.

And then Clove was on her feet for less than a moment before she was on top of Gadget, and her feet pinned her legs down to the ground. Gadget tried to raise her arms to push Clove off of her, but she easily caught them in her hand and pushed Gadget's arms above her head. Despite her diminutive size, she was so, so much stronger. She clearly had a better-built body, and had better meals even now. The Careers controlled the Cornucopia, and thus had all the best supplies and food.

In less than ten seconds, Clove had captured her. Gadget whimpered at the thought. At the smile that only grew wider on Clove's face. She didn't dare try to fight back against her grip. Clove knew what she was doing. And Gadget didn't want to make her more furious at her than she knew she already had.

"P-pl-" Gadget started to beg and plead. She could only guess how pathetic the Capitol saw her as. A girl that would accomplish nothing.

Clove's hand shot out before Gadget could finish saying anything, and her hand wrapped around her throat and threw her head back against the soil, dazing her.

"I didn't say you could sleep," Clove said callously. A sadistic grin split her face and Gadget could tell beyond anything that she was truly enjoying this.

Gadget blinked the blurriness out of her eyes rapidly. What could she do but apologize? What did Clove want from her? To torment her about the very same thing that she already tormented herself over?

"Were you hoping that this would distract me - or that I would forget - about Cato?" Clove asked. Her hand squeezed, applying pressure to Gadget's throat, and steadily cutting off her airflow.

"I-" Gadget tried to say. Tried to apologize. But Clove was unmoved by her attempts to speak and she lowered her face right above Gadget. Right in front of her. There was nowhere that she could look to escape what was happening.

"Shut. Up." Clove said. Her hand tightened ever so slightly, and Gadget gasped out as oxygen fled her lungs.

She stared with panicked eyes into Clove's cold, merciless ones. She didn't want to die! She didn't want to die like this! Not in such a painful way. Her legs kicked out feebly. Maybe…maybe she should've tried to run from Binary. Because at least that way, the nightlock on his knife would end her quicker.

"How should I kill you?" Clove pondered. Her eyes didn't move away from her face, and Gadget squeaked in terror. Clove, however, lowered her head further until her lips were right beside Gadget's ear. "Or maybe I should keep you alive. Just long enough to make you watch as I tear your friend, Eight, apart."

"No!" Gadget cried. She shook her head rapidly, but it did nothing from Clove's hard grip on her. She tried to wiggle free, but Clove was so much stronger than her.

Clove's hand began to close ever tighter around her throat. She couldn't breathe! Gadget wiggled uselessly against the ground and her eyes darted around desperately. Despairingly. Clove was going to kill her! She tried to shift her legs from under Clove, but she couldn't move. She was stuck, and Clove wasn't going to let her go!

Gadget could barely notice the others approaching from over Clove's shoulder. Marvel. Glimmer…

Binary.

"You're weak. Deadweight," Clove said. "Do you think my protection extends to when you run out of usefulness?"

Gadget shook her head weakly, gasping for air all the while. Air that she couldn't reach. Dark shadows crept in from the corners of her vision. She was unable to stop the soft choked attempts to draw breath into her burning lungs, her panic fueling her hopeless situation.

But then Clove's grip loosened, and Gadget could breathe again. She coughed roughly, and she sucked in a large breath, as deep as she could. What had…why had…

"I could get the others to hold you down," Clove began, and Gadget's dead eyes flicked to her hand. The same hand that had been wrapped around her throat. And she watched it with a terrible sense of dread as Clove reached for one of the many knives in her vest, and slipped it free. "Then I could cut you open."

Gadget held her breath as Clove leaned forward again. Close enough that they could kiss. And Clove touched the cold steel of her knife to Gadget's cheek. Her heart thudded against her chest and, dimly, she wondered if Clove could feel it.

Clove held the knife close, steadily and sure, and Gadget didn't dare move. She could only look up at the girl above her. See the sadism in her eyes. An expression of madness on her face. Then, finally, Clove sliced the knife against her. Not deep, but hard enough to split her skin. Gadget whimpered in pain and she fought to not turn away. If she did…then it would only get worse.

"I could cut your heart out," Clove continued calmly, even as the knife in her hand drew steadily across her cheek. "I could hold it out in front of you, and we could count down your last heartbeats together before it stops."

Gadget wanted to cry. This was…this was so much worse than anything she could have imagined. She could feel the side of her face wet with blood even as Clove drew the knife down, down, down towards her chin.

"Or…" Clove said, trailing off, and she twisted her knife upwards so that the blade was pointed right down on her. "I could make you watch as I plunge my knife into it."

Gadget stared up at Clove hopelessly. She could do nothing. Never had she felt more helpless than she had in that moment. Not when Binary did those horrible, horrible things. When he hurt her arm…

Against Binary, Gadget was utterly hopeless. And now…Clove proved just how helpless she was. She almost breathed a sigh of relief as Clove lifted her knife away. But inside, she knew that Clove was far from done with her. Indeed, Clove extended her arm, right above Gadget's head, where she'd captured Gadget's own. And slowly, she pressed the knife into the skin of her unbandaged arm. Harder than before. Hard enough to pierce her skin again, and hard enough that Gadget squirmed in pain, a soft squeak of protest escaping her.

"I could get that staff of yours," Clove began, nodding towards the Cornucopia, "and I could show you your insides on the outside."

Gadget wanted to vomit.

"I could spin them around and around on your staff," Clove continued, and she pulled her knife free from the surface cut she'd created. "And I could get Marina to keep twirling it until we've pulled all of your entrails out."

Clove brought her knife down again, piercing the flesh of her arms again. It hurts! But Gadget could only look up at Clove with tearful eyes.

"Pl-please," she whimpered. "Please s-stop," she choked out.

"Stop?" Clove scoffed. She twisted her knife ever so slightly, cutting her skin open ever more. "I haven't even started. This was just maintenance."

Tears spilled down Gadget's cheeks. Entwining with the blood Clove had caused. This was misery. Why couldn't Clove just kill her and get it over with?

"Your friend from Eight begged for me to stop," Clove said. "Cried for it." Clove pressed the knife into her skin more and Gadget cried out at the cruelty she was inflicting upon her. "It would've been fun if it hadn't been so boring."

Gadget knew. Oh, how she knew. Lace had died in her arms, after all. Her first friend. And now, Clove was going to do the exact same to her. Torture her with impunity.

"I volunteered for this," Clove continued, and she lifted her knife at last. "I can draw this out for days if I want. For Cato." Fury enveloped her face. "It's been a fantasy of mine since I became a tribute," she admitted. "Giving the Capitol a show that they won't ever forget."

The short girl scowled when Gadget whimpered softly, and she poked the knife into Gadget's solar plexus hard enough to pierce through the shirt and skin. "Stop your whimper-"

What did Clove expect from her, honestly? She was absolutely terrified, powerless, and hopeless. She didn't want to die, but also couldn't see any way out of this. Not with Marvel, Glimmer, and Binary just mere feet away from her. On the rare probability of her dislodging Clove, Binary or Marvel could easily recapture her in microseconds. That's assuming Clove didn't cut a tendon to disable her first.

She was also starving, and an audible growl emanating from her stomach served to remind her of the fact, as well as make Clove pause in her dialogue. Her lips twisted in something between disgust and amusement. The others must have heard it too, because Binary arched an eyebrow, Glimmer smirked, and Marvel looked…intrigued.

Clove cackled, lowly and almost under her breath. But everyone could hear it. Gadget knew that everyone could hear it. For a moment, Gadget could've sworn she saw Marvel look momentarily disturbed. But then it was gone, so fast that it might have just been her imagination.

"Hungry, Thief?" Clove purred. "Even after all that you stole from us?"

Gadget bit down on her lip and squirmed pointlessly from side to side. She didn't know why she bothered. She knew already that whatever Clove planned for her, she wasn't going to escape from. And her own district partner was only going to watch as Clove butchered her.

"How is it that your stomach is fiercer than you are?" Clove asked, and she slowly started to draw her knife up Gadget's torso. Only barely enough to stop from cutting into her shirt.

"P-please ju-st-" Gadget tried to say, to plead to the girl above her that had no mercy in her eyes.

"Kill you?" Clove interrupted with an amused raised eyebrow. She scoffed. "You're so predictable." Her knife reached the base of Gadget's navel, and her frightful eyes stared into Clove's own once more. "You don't deserve mercy," she spat.

There were so many things Gadget wished she could do. So many things she wished she could do to avoid what was happening, and what was going to happen. But she could only watch in mortification as Clove sliced her knife in one downward motion, splitting her shirt open and baring her torso by flipping apart the ruined clothes and jacket.

"No!" Gadget cried again, and she tried to pry her hands free to protect herself. But it was useless. Clove was so much stronger than she was. And she had just bared her for all of Panem to see. Humiliation flooded her cheeks and she closed her eyes and shook her head in a vain attempt to escape what was happening. She could only clench her eyes shut. It was all she could do. She didn't want to see it anymore.

"No, no, NO!" Clove said, and the knife was at her neck, the blade just a mere bit of pressure away from cutting through her skin. "Open your eyes, Thief! Open it or I will carve it out, and force the other one open…I can do it, you know. All I have to do is cut off your eyelid."

She didn't want to. She didn't want to! But she had no choice, did she? She couldn't imagine what kind of pain she'd endure if she lost an eye, and there was the off-chance Clove would pierce the blade too deep, going straight to the brain…

You deserve this, said a voice in her head, and it sounded a lot like Zeno. After all, Lace died because of you. Your best and only friend. Corduroy secretly hates you, and you know it. Peeta knows he'll die if he stays near you. You. Deserve. This.

"Open. Your. Eyes!" Clove ordered firmly.

Finally, as slowly as she could, Gadget obeyed. Glimmer and Marvel openly leered at her. Binary seemed indifferent, as he was occasionally looking around them, before coming back to her and Clove. Clove, for her part, was grinning madly once more.

"She looks like a man," Glimmer jeered with a small giggle.

Clove once more placed the point of the knife on Gadget's midsection, right where she originally placed it, since there was a small dot of blood from when she'd pierced the skin earlier. "Now where were we?" She hummed. "Red is a nice color on you…"

You deserve this. You deserve this. You deserve this…

Gadget eyed Clove with open terror, but she didn't whimper anymore, and she didn't plead, either. There was...resigned acceptance. That didn't mean she was unafraid. The fear of excruciating pain was still a subject of great terror, and Gadget had the belligerent virus sitting on her, knife like a tracker jacker's stinger poised to strike into her, to inject the great pain, and draw blood, as she so craved.

"Let me make it clear, Three…" Clove said, "...I own you, wholly. You will follow my instructions to the letter. And if you sleep again, without my permission, I will cut off your toes...or your nose."

As she said all this, Clove lightly dragged the knife tip downwards, not hard enough to cut skin, but enough that it trailed a painful line that left a definite mark on her belly, going to her navel.

When Gadget said or did nothing, Clove scowled, and abruptly got off the taller girl, then reached down and dragged Gadget to her feet by the hair. Gadget was unable to stop a pained outcry, and her left hand instinctively shot up to grasp Clove's wrist. She quickly released her hold when she saw Clove's arched eyebrow and deepened scowl. The Career's only response was to shove Gadget towards Marvel. As she stumbled into the older boy, Gadget frantically grabbed at the overshirt with the zipper and pulled it together.

"Get back to work!" Clove barked.

Gadget's face warped into pure misery, and she half bent her form as she felt a sharp pain in her midsection. Was her body consuming itself again?

Eyeing Gadget, Binary spoke to Clove, "She may need some food, first."

"The thief gets nothing!" Clove retorted, "She took enough the last time."

Binary simply shot Clove an irritating look. "I agree, but think of it logically; if she dies of starvation or is incapacitated by it, she would not be able to finish your suit. And no one can complete it, except her. It's a trade-off, but a small one. Some food, for a properly functioning suit."

Gadget didn't want to look at them. Not while they discussed if she was even allowed to eat. The fruit snack pack Monkshood had swiped from Cato's…corpse burned in the pit of her pocket.

Binary turned to address Gadget: "And she will finish it."

Clove looked extremely annoyed but finally acquiesced. "Fine, Marvel, give her a little food, but I expect you to work twice as fast, and finish faster. You will not sleep. Sleep is for the dead."

Gadget gulped and had the feeling Binary did not do any favors for her. And really, he didn't.

Marvel's face betrayed nothing, but he nodded at Clove and grabbed Gadget by the arm, leading her away. They walked the short distance toward the Cornucopia, and Marvel began to search through the assorted piles of food. The girl only expected to be given the equivalent of about five or so berries, or something to that effect. So she was a little surprised when Marvel picked a fair few packs and items and began to pile them onto a small plate, which he then handed to her.

"Eat it quick and keep your back towards Clove," Marvel said softly, his expression stern. "Now dammit."

Gripping the plate clumsily, Gadget hastened to eat the ready-made dry food. There were some meat, vegetables, some kind of fruit, a few nuts, and a dry potato. He also held a kind of glucose drink in his hand, which seemed to be for her too, but he was anxiously watching the other Careers instead of her. The closest one to them was Marina, but she was busy watching over Kernel still and was seemingly sulking by herself.

While the portions were far more than she anticipated, it was still not that much and Gadget was done in less than a few minutes. Marvel took the empty plate and shoved the sweet drink into her hands. It had a purple bottle cap, which Gadget quickly unstoppered and drank. The flavor reminded her of grapes. It was room temperature, but given how rarely she ever got to enjoy such a luxurious drink, this was an absolute treat for her and she thirstily gulped it like there was no tomorrow.

In all likelihood, Gadget had no tomorrow.

"Done?" Marvel asked. Gadget nodded and looked nervously at him. He grabbed the drink pack from her and eyed it. "Damn...you drank it all."

She shouldn't have done that. She should have only taken a few sips. Marvel would be furious with her for taking more than what he wanted of her.

He tipped it over and let the last few drops spill into his mouth. When he saw Gadget watching him wide-eyed, he shrugged. "What? It's standard fare in my district, whatever I gave you, but in here? In the Games? This is practically ambrosia. You better be grateful."

"Th-thank you," Gadget said immediately.

Marvel smirked. "Oh, you won't be, not after this. Now it's time to get to work."

Gadget sighed and slumped her shoulders. She didn't need the reminder that her life was measured in hours now. But she shot the older boy a quizzical look when she heard him mutter, "And may the odds be ever in your favor…"

What?

He noticed her watching him and scowled. "What're you waiting for, get moving!"

Gone was any sign of kindness or mercy now, and Gadget seemed oddly happier for it. She was more used to the Careers being all bossy and aggressive. But when they showed other characteristics...it was confusing.

"Hey…" Marina called out, "...what's that?!"

A soft but familiar beeping noise began to get closer to the Careers and the others.

"Sponsors!" Glimmer cried.

Immediately, the whole group, even Binary and Kernel, gathered and watched as the container and the parachute slowly began its forward descent…straight towards Gadget. Before it could reach her though, Marvel reached out and caught it mere feet away from the girl. Clove took it out of Marvel's hands and irritatedly pulled off the parachute net, then opened the container. Gadget only watched with despairing eyes as Clove produced a note, and promptly crumpled it up.

Clove smirked and looked upwards. "THANK YOU, BEETEE!" she said mockingly.

Clove looked at Gadget and beckoned her forward with an outstretched finger. And what could Gadget do but obey? Anything but obeying meant a torturous end. The dull sting in her cheek reminded her of that very clearly.

She then shoved the container into Gadget's arms so hard, the girl stumbled backwards and fell down, so she was forced to look up at Clove. "As I said before: Get. To. Work."

She walked a little distance away, before she turned and stopped a trailing Glimmer, and spoke a harshly whispered order at her. Glimmer made a whining noise in the negative, but after a knife flashed into Clove's hands, and the tip touched Glimmer's throat, the other girl growled but said, "Fine."

"You have two hours, Three," Clove called threateningly. "Then we're leaving."

Glimmer stalked back towards Gadget, glowering. "C'mon!"

Gadget didn't need any convincing. She held back her whimper as Glimmer shoved her forward, back to where she had woken up and left the supplies she'd been building. She glanced down into the container for the first time, but not even the batteries, magnets, plastic, and everything else put a smile on her face.

"Work, Stalagmite," Glimmer said with a vicious glare. Gadget tried not to think about the promises of her death. She tried not to think about how Clove was going to force her to take the last of her supplies from the cave Peeta found on their first night…

She tried not to think about how, outside of the Career Pack, there were only five tributes. And how Corduroy and Peeta were two of them. There were too many people here, inside the Career Pack. There were never big alliances for a reason inside the Hunger Games…

Gadget crouched down in front of her supplies and placed the newest container to the side. She only barely noticed Binary's approach as he came up behind herself and Glimmer.

"There was a District Three tribute, about a decade and a half ago," Binary said to Glimmer, but as Gadget grabbed a gear from her pile of supplies, she knew that it was directed at her.

She already knew who he was talking about.

"He was strong for a District Three tribute," Binary revealed. "Strong enough that the Careers were interested in recruiting him."

Gadget blinked in surprise. Binary hadn't told her that before. What did…what did that mean?

"But, Gizmo Kassver listened to his decrepit mentor, an old man that was far past his prime, and he refused their offer."

Grid…

Glimmer scoffed. "Who does that remind me of?" she asked, and Gadget could picture in her head the mocking pose she struck. "Oh, that's right! District Eleven." She chuckled softly. "Oh, he'll regret that."

"Which is exactly what the Careers of the 59th Games thought," Binary said. "So, they tore him apart, before letting their outlier member finish him off."

"So what?" Glimmer asked, sounding irritable. "Why does some dead tribute matter to anything?"

Binary paused. Then, he said, "He was my father."

Gadget froze, just as she clicked a second gear into place. So…so that was why his story about Gizmo seemed to mean so much to him.

"It's the weak that have something to prove," Binary said. "You understand that better than anyone."

"What?" Glimmer hissed. She sounded murderous. What was Binary doing? Why was he riling her up like-

"Because you understand better than anyone here that the weak are like bugs that evolve and, with time, become harder to kill," Binary amended quickly, and Gadget felt Glimmer's anger dwindle.

"It was someone weak," Glimmer spat, almost dismissively, "that killed Cato."

Ice filled Gadget's veins and she turned sharply to face Glimmer and Binary behind her. And while the latter looked down at her with indifference once more, Glimmer stared at her with disgust. She fingered the hilt of her scimitar attached to her belt, and Gadget fearfully eyed it, flickering her dead gaze between it and Glimmer's own eyes.

Glimmer hummed thoughtfully. "I could just tell Clove that you tried to attack me," she said, an almost cheerful tone escaping her lips, "and I killed you in self-defense."

Gadget swallowed. Whatever Clove wanted…it didn't matter if a rogue Career went against whatever she ordered. And it would be done in seconds. Before she could do anything. And what could she do here, in the Cornucopia?

"You have something to do, Three," Glimmer said, tilting her head at Binary, and barely even looking at him. "Get to it. You're not the only outlier here that I can use anymore," she said with a dark grin.

She pulled her scimitar from her belt in one swift movement and tapped it against Binary's chest, and finally turned her head to loom at him. She giggled, somehow sounding both girly and cold at the same time.

"You're still at the bottom rung. You're not one of us," Glimmer said, rolling her eyes. "I'm not stupid. I know you've been trying to play me."

Binary frowned, but he otherwise said nothing. At least there's that, Gadget realized. If he thought Glimmer was in his corner…he was wrong. Gadget glanced down at his knife, sheathed away. The knife coated in nightlock juice. One slice of it and Glimmer was dead. It, along with his spear, were the only weapons the rest of the Careers had allowed him to have, and Gadget had no inkling to tell them about his knife.

"Go get to work," Glimmer bit out, raising the knife just a fraction, and the perfect position to thrust it into Binary if she so wanted to. "Before I run out of patience with you."

Binary stepped back, finally. He looked at Glimmer with a sour expression, and then at Gadget, and she could feel her heartbeat against her chest, so hard she felt it in her throat.

"Dig a trench, Gadget," Binary said. "Make it a deep one. You aren't safe anymore."

---

Binary's words wouldn't stop ringing around in her head. They kept replaying. Gadget had never once been safe in the arena, but that hadn't been what he was referring to. He was referring to how he wasn't going to try to help her if the Careers decided they didn't want her around anymore.

It was hard to work with someone who would kill her without a second thought right behind her, pacing. Occasionally, she muttered something that Gadget couldn't hear, but otherwise, she said nothing at all, though Gadget tried her best to strain her ears to pick up something - anything - that might be useful.

Gadget didn't want to turn around. Not to look at Glimmer or any of the other Careers. Nor did she want to turn to see the progress Kernel and Binary made on the launch pedestals for the mines. As if the Careers weren't strong enough…

"That's it!" Clove shouted, and Gadget twisted her head around quickly. Had two hours already passed by so quickly? She'd only made so much progress on the arm of the suit.

She hoped that it was enough for the Careers to be satisfied. Or more specifically, for Clove to be satisfied.

"Marina," Clove barked, "you're with me." Gadget saw Marina straighten up and walked towards Clove, picking up two backpacks as she went. "Glimmer, bring the thief over here."

Gadget didn't have time to stand, or do much of anything before Glimmer's hand wrapped around her hair and tugged her back. Hard. She let out a cry of pain. This wasn't new, not really. Binary did the same at home. Or rather…he had someone else do it for him.

But it didn't make the pain any less. The nerves on her scalp felt like they were on fire, and there was no sympathy in Glimmer's eyes. She tried to catch herself with her feet in some attempt to stand up, but it was useless. Glimmer didn't stop.

"Ah!" Gadget cried. Why? Why did they do this? Gadget didn't know if she even wanted to understand. Her hands clutched at Glimmer's as she was hauled across the grass of the clearing.

It was like a dull taser against her scalp. One that just kept electrocuting and zapping, but not powerful enough to stop all of her movements at once. Her thoughts still spun around in her head, and useless begs and pleads escaped through her lips without her even realizing it.

They could hurt and torture her as badly as they wanted, but as long as she was still able to function - still able to build the suit, then they were going to keep her alive. The thought sent a shiver down her spine. That was not an existence worth living. Not to her.

For what felt like hours, Glimmer pulled her by her hair across the Cornucopia. Her nerves inflamed. And there was nothing she could do but endure. Just as she always had to. Endure, or…

There was no time to think before she was thrown forward, and deposited on the ground. Right in front of the boots of Clove. She heard them laughing so clearly. How did someone enjoy this cruelty so much? How could anyone be capable of so much cruelty? How did the Capitol enjoy her suffering? Hadn't she been through enough?

You know you haven't, she thought to herself. This was the least that she deserved. For the things she had done to Cato before he died.

Clove scoffed. "This is what killed Cato?" she asked. Gadget watched with tearful eyes as one of her boots rose out of her sight. She didn't want to look up. She knew what she would find and she didn't want to see it.

Clove's boot pressed into her back and shoved her down into the ground, and Gadget's head made contact with the dirt. Just as where she belonged. In the dirt. Beneath everyone else.

"You'd better be grateful that I didn't kill you," Clove said. "I have to compose myself every time I see you. So I don't prematurely gut you like the animal you are."

Gadget sobbed pathetically. She was always just going to be a tool for someone else's survival. It's all she was ever going to be. All she was useful for.

"Music to my ears," Glimmer cooed.

"Go on, Thief," Clove spat. "On your hands and knees."

The firm foot on her back lessened. There was no disobeying. There was no point in it. Clove could and would kill her in an instant if she wanted to. And Gadget feared just how much she wanted to.

Slowly, weakly, Gadget planted her palms in the dirt and lifted herself onto her knees slowly, just as Clove instructed her to do.

"Good," Clove said, but she didn't sound pleased. "Now, show your appreciation for my mercy. Kiss my boot," she ordered.

Gadget closed her eyes and whimpered. She wanted to shake her head and disobey, but she couldn't. She knew she couldn't. Was this why she was still alive? To sink down to such a low level that she had to…to kiss Clove's boot for mercy?

Her foot against Gadget's back increased in pressure and felt herself lower against her will. "I told you to kiss it," Clove said icily.

Humiliation flooded through her entire being. Heat flushed to her cheeks, dusting them red. And she lowered her head and pressed her lips to Clove's boot. The taste of blood and dirt flooded her sinuses, and though Gadget craved to spit the horrible taste out…she resisted, and swallowed it down.

Glimmer and Marina laughed so loudly in her ears. Like a bell that wouldn't stop ringing. Gadget could feel a tear slip down her skin, across her nose before dripping down into Clove's boot.

This humiliation…would it ever end?

"Good dog," Clove said, and Gadget could hear the smile in her voice. "Remember why this is happening, District Three," she said. "All because you killed Cato."

Gadget whimpered. She knew that. She had already known. Clove didn't need to remind her how much she despised her for it. Gadget knew it better than anyone.

"H-how is th-that ant d-d-d-different to the people y-you killed?" Gadget asked quietly. "Y-you aren't th-the only one wi-with friends-"

Gadget didn't get to finish. Clove's foot raised off her back and slammed down on the back of her neck, and Gadget was sent sprawling to the ground, a squeak in her throat.

"Watch your mouth," Clove stated coldly. Pain rushed up and down Gadget's body, and she was helpless to stop it. "They were nothing. They didn't even matter. Nothing but kills to add to my belt. Just like you are. Do you understand?"

Gadget tried to nod. To apologize. But she managed nothing at all. Her dead eyes stared fearfully across the clearing, where Marvel, Binary, and Kernel were. Marvel barely spared them a glance, keeping a close eye on the two as they dug around one of the launch pedestals. Idly, Gadget wondered who it belonged to. They'd already dug up so many mines, Gadget realized for the first time. How hadn't she noticed?

Kernel turned around and glanced at her for the first time since Binary took them to this…place. And Gadget could have recoiled at the amount of pure hate in Kernel's eyes. Beyond anything she had seen in Binary's or…or Zeno's…

Clove's boot lifted off her and Gadget sucked in a harsh breath. She lifted her chest off the ground, but she didn't dare move any further than that. Clove hadn't given her permission to. And Gadget didn't want to hurt again.

The back of her neck felt like it was burning. Clove had known what she was doing, Gadget was certain. Hard enough to hurt, but not hard enough to damage or…or kill, as Gadget had seen in earlier Games.

"Get her up," Clove said. Whether to Glimmer or Marina, Gadget didn't know. And it didn't matter to her. All that mattered was that someone grabbed her by the arms and hauled her to her feet.

"Here," Marina offered to Clove, holding out one of the backpacks to her. Clove took it without a word and slung it over her shoulder, while Marina did the same to her own pack.

Gadget wondered if she could run once they were in the forest. If she could duck between the trees before Clove's knife hit her in the back. She had no idea where she would go, though. Corduroy and Peeta…they could be anywhere. And Gadget had nothing left. Everything she had taken from the Cornucopia on her first day had slowly been stripped away from her until she had nothing left.

"You're going to take us to that cave, Thief," Clove ordered and Gadget stiffened. As if she could have forgotten. "No tricks, or you'll wish I'd killed you yesterday."

Gadget gulped and gave a shallow nod. She'd already known that. Had come to the same exact conclusion. Clove was already looking for reasons to torture her. For what…for what she did to Cato.

"Glimmer, you keep an eye on the other two," Clove said. "Make sure they don't stop digging up the mines."

"Aw, come on," Glimmer whined brattily. Her grip hardened around Gadget's bicep, and she winced. "I've been keeping guard since day one," she complained.

Clove frowned and stared at Glimmer. Gadget darted her eyes down to her feet. She didn't want to get into the middle of this. She wished she could sink into the ground and pretend she wasn't here.

"And you'll continue to keep guard until the mines are done," Clove replied coldly. Not a trace of sympathy in her voice.

"No," Glimmer said. "You aren't the only one that can get kills!" She drew up her free hand to exaggeratedly examine her nails. "Marvel's a big boy, he can handle this himself."

Marina said something that Gadget couldn't hear. It was too quiet. A whisper in the air that was directed towards Clove. Whatever it was Marina said, though, it made Clove's stance relax.

"Fine," Clove bit out reluctantly. "You can come."

Glimmer's hold on Gadget's arm eased. "Perfect," she said. She adjusted the bow strap across her torso and the quiver of arrows along her back. Had the Careers been this divided before? Gadget wasn't sure. Had Cato been the piece that held the alliance together?

Glimmer shoved Gadget forward, and she nearly tripped over her own feet as she was pushed. Clove shot Glimmer a somewhat amused grin, before turning her eyes onto Gadget.

"Get moving, Thief. Bring me to that cave," Clove said. "Then we'll see if you're lying or not…and my knives are craving a stabbing."

What could Gadget do but obey? She turned and stepped forward, inching closer to and closer to the forest. One, two, three, four, she counted.

"Glimmer, go scout ahead," Clove said blandly. Gadget couldn't see her, not when she was walking ahead of them all. Whatever Clove was thinking, Gadget couldn't tell.

"Why me?" Glimmer asked incredulously. She sounded so very annoyed to Gadget.

"You wanted to come along with us," Marina replied instead. From beside Gadget, she saw her palm on her sword handle. A weapon that looked so very sharp. Enough to easily impale her. Gadget eyed it, flicking her gaze around the trees around her. "You're the big fish, right?"

Ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen.

Glimmer scoffed, unmoved. "You've become quite the diamond ever since Cato died, huh?" she replied haughtily.

Gadget turned her head slightly, just in time to see Clove stiffen, and the grip on her knives tighten. She could see the anger on her face.

"You bitch!" Marina snapped, all pretense of goodwill gone. She looked about ready to attack Glimmer. There was a look in her eye that Gadget didn't like. It didn't bode well for anyone. Gadget least of all.

If the Careers disliked each other this much, then…how far away was their collapse? How long until they finally turned on each other? And Gadget felt like she was in the middle of it all.

"Shut up, Glimmer," Clove said darkly. Both Marina and Glimmer went silent. "You didn't know Cato like I did. You don't know what he meant to me." Clove stepped closer towards Glimmer. "You have no right to mention his name," she spat. "Not to try to get me on your side."

Glimmer sniffed, and Gadget watched fearfully as the two Careers eyed each other up and down. It was no secret that they did not like each other. Not anymore. Gadget wondered how everything had deteriorated so fast since training.

"My mentors told me that you're not supposed to break up the Pack," Clove said, "but for you, I can make an exception." She spun a knife through her fingers. "Scout ahead. Now. We don't want the thief to die before she's allowed to."

Gadget glanced at Glimmer and saw a snarl adorn her pretty features. "Fine," she said, in a clipped tone. She turned in Gadget's direction and let her shoulder hit Gadget's own.

Glimmer pulled her bow down and notched an arrow before she disappeared into the treeline. One less Career, Gadget thought. At least for a moment. Her dead eyes looked fearfully at Clove and Marina.

"I don't trust the Ones," Marina said lowly and Gadget turned away quickly. She didn't know how badly Clove would treat her if she knew she was listening in. How badly she could and probably would torture her with ease.

"Explain," Clove demanded.

The Pack was crumbling before Gadget's eyes. Or maybe it was always like this. But now she had an internal look at them all. All of the people inside of it.

"We don't have any district partners," Marina said quickly, and Gadget could feel Clove's rage without looking at her. A burning inferno that was going to consume anything in its path. "I mean that we're alone! And Marvel and Glimmer have each other!"

Cracks in the armor of the Career Pack. Gadget had no idea they even existed. They seemed impossible to beat. But even if they broke apart, how could Gadget ever hope to fight even one of them off again? What she had done to Cato…it was like a darkness that enveloped her very being. And insurmountable guilt crushed upon her and she couldn't hold up.

Clove didn't say anything. And that fact left Gadget more discomfort than if she replied to Marina's statement at all. And then, "Explain it to me quickly, or I'll get bored. And when I get bored, I get stabby."

"They outnumber us," Marina said, as quickly as Clove had suggested. "As they have district loyalty." Gadget could hear the tell-tale sound of a knife flipping through the air, and Marina spoke faster, "You're strong, but you can't take both of the Ones at the same time!"

"Sounds like you finally figured out your place," Clove commented callously. "Beneath the rest of us."

"I can help you kill them," Marina continued. "We can separate them to make them easier to kill," she reasoned. In the Hunger Games and the circumstances that surrounded them…Gadget thought that it was sound logic. And that fact made her ill.

Clove tossed a knife up and caught it again. Gadget could hear the handle land in her palm. "Alliance inside an alliance," she mused. "Alright."

Marina released a breath. A relieved sigh that Gadget could hear so clearly. "Don't worry about Three spilling to them," she said, and Gadget froze. Why had she hoped to be unnoticed? It was impossible here. "She won't say anything, will you Longfin?" Marina asked mockingly.

Gadget looked at Clove and Marina with scared eyes. She shook her head and both of the Career girls smirked in satisfaction.

"If you do," Clove stated slowly, stepping forward little by little, "then I'll cut off your fingers one by one until you scream for forgiveness."

Gadget swallowed. Clove twirled her knife and Gadget's eyes followed it nervously. She was so, so scared. The slightest movement would give Clove an incentive to brutalize her. More than she already had. And maybe Gadget deserved it. No. She knew that she would deserve it.

"She's back," Marina said, staring at a point over Gadget's shoulder. She didn't need to look around to know that Glimmer had returned. Then Marina looked back to Gadget and gestured with her hand to turn.

Gadget turned around and there Glimmer was, standing at the edge of the forest. Her previously notched arrow was gone, and Gadget supposed that it had been returned to its quiver.

"Go on, then, Thief," Clove said, and Gadget felt a knife at her back. "Start walking."

Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen…

---

While it was completely unnecessary, Glimmer enjoyed shoving Gadget at every opportunity. Be it because she was too slow, or stumbling, or looking too exhausted, the District One girl was all too happy to get rough and send Gadget almost sprawling each time. And once, she actually did. She became wary of falling after that because Glimmer was sadistic about making her get up quickly, prodding her rear with an arrow. Hard.

Despite that, Gadget preferred Glimmer over Clove to be the one shoving. The latter only ever shoved with a knife. Gadget already sported three marks on her back where she wasn't swift enough to avoid Clove's encouragement. Once when it was Glimmer, Gadget had turned back to look, only to see Glimmer grinning, and fingering an arrowhead thoughtfully, as if daring Gadget to protest. It was all the excuse she'd need to kill.

And Marina's mocking words of 'Longfin' and other taunts whispered endlessly in her ear. She walked beside Gadget, spinning her serrated sword casually in her hand. Her callous offers of helping her play dead like she did in the Bloodbath. Permanently.

The melodies of the mockingjays were growing quieter, which was when she and the other two girls began to look around warily. The last time the air stilled in this manner, danger was imminent. Gadget thought she'd grown a knack for sensing it.

Everything looked so eerie. The trees grew closer together here. Gadget hadn't noticed it before. Not the last time she had gone through here. She had been too busy running away from the Cornucopia to notice it.

The arrow pointed at Gadget's back disappeared, and she was allowed to breathe a little easier.

Wait.

Why did Glimmer take her arrow off of her?

She heard faint hooting noises that came in rapid succession from one another, and the loud pitter-patter of feet on the fallen tree logs and thick branches of trees. Dread filled her up to her chest as she felt malevolent eyes on her person. She was still fresh from her hellish experience the day before (had it been a day or less so far?) with the Malware Stalker, but at least the daylight didn't abruptly vanish this time. Or maybe that could be worse since she most certainly heard more than one mutt this time.

"Glimmer, look," Marina said, prompting Clove, Glimmer, and even Gadget to look first at Marina, then at whatever she was facing.

It was a horde of primate-type mutts. She'd seen this kind before. The mutts were based on a now-extinct species of monkey known as the mandrill. Only, the real mandrills were supposedly much smaller, and significantly less vicious. These mutts could tear a tribute apart single-handedly, but they worked in hordes, which made them even more terrifying. The only way tributes had a chance against mandrills was to work together. Clove, Marina, and Glimmer probably could handle them, but Gadget would be shredded. She now wished she had the suit for herself. It would be her only chance.

Then, to everyone's surprise, the mandrills moved on, with one last growl at the girls from one of them.

They weren't the intended targets.

Who…?

Gadget started and began to panic internally. Could the mandrills be hunting Corduroy and Peeta?! It had to be! The only others left were Monkshood, Finch, and Thresh. Finch was somewhere far away, unless she had moved into this area. She had no idea where Thresh was, and…and Monkshood stabbed her in the back and left her to Binary's whims, and Gadget had no idea where she had gone. But what if it was Corduroy and Peeta? What if they'd come looking for her?

It made Gadget feel conflicted. On one hand, she didn't want the boys to put themselves at risk for her sake. She didn't deserve it. On the other, she desperately wanted to get away from the Careers. But even with just these three, the boys would be outmatched. Clove alone could kill them both...no, Gadget couldn't risk it. If she saw them, she'd signal them to leave her here. But first, they'd have to contend with the mandrills, and she had no way of helping them with that.

"Where are they going?" Glimmer asked, mystified.

"Who cares? Hey, Longfin, get going." Marina shoved Gadget with far more force than Glimmer ever used, sending the girl sprawling with a yelp.

Reminding herself how much she deserved all this, Gadget didn't fight or cry anymore. There was only a resigned acceptance. And the best thing she could hope for when the end inevitably came, was that Clove would be merciful and quick. She idly wondered when she'd come to terms that it was going to end for her. But she supposed she was simply just too exhausted, physically, and mentally, and no amount of encouragement from her memories of Septimius, Beetee, and Wiress could make her delude herself any longer.

She was going to die, and that's all there was to it.

Still, she couldn't help crying out when Clove nearly tore her hair from her scalp, forcing her to her feet. A hard kick to her spine sent her almost sprawling again, but she barely kept her balance and hurriedly walked, with Glimmer eagerly chasing behind, prodding her with an arrow again.

They were reaching a large clearing, almost big enough to be a meadow, when they heard a deep voice crying out. The Career girls ducked behind Gadget, who, with Clove and Marina's hands firmly pressed against her back, was forced to stand ramrod straight as Thresh backed out from the copse of trees beyond them into the clearing.

So it was Thresh.

The mandrills were driving him ahead, and he held his crescent sword out towards the mutts, warily watching them all as they advanced at their own leisure. Thresh was big, he might have a chance against just a handful of the mandrills. But Gadget could see the injuries that he'd already sustained. Blood marred his face, and he was favoring his right side. But the group before them meant they'd all need to work together…

She swallowed a yelp when Marina's hands went over her middle and her mouth.

"Watch, Longfin, watch," Marina instructed in a whisper.

Clove and Glimmer stalked forward, impossibly silent. This was when Gadget finally realized that her killing Cato truly was a complete and utter fluke. They had literal years of training. District Two was literally the main supplier of Peacekeepers! Their whole life was dedicated to fighting and killing in one way or another.

And as big a man as Thresh was, he was no match for what was coming for him. Marina ensured her silence. There would be nothing to stop Gadget from soaking Marina's hand in her tears. She calculated the odds of a favorable result should she bite Marina's hand and shout a warning to Thresh. The end result played itself in her mind and told her nothing she did or didn't do would alter his fate. Only her own. If he looked back he'd know Clove and Glimmer were near him, but the mutts could attack him from behind. Or if he ignored the warning and headed back at the mutts, he'd still die, only now the girls likely would too.

This was it. She was going to see another person die in front of her. And she could do nothing to stop it. Thresh had spared her in the Bloodbath, whether he knew it or not. She could only watch as Glimmer hung back and notched an arrow in her bow as Clove snuck forward, readying two of her knives.

Her only hope was if, somehow, Thresh could…could kill Clove and Glimmer. And that very thought made her nauseous. Someone was going to die.

Thresh swung his sword through a mandrill as it jumped for him, and Gadget watched in horror as Glimmer let her arrow fly.

And she watched as it tore into Thresh's shoulder and knocked him off balance. She watched as Thresh groaned and looked over his shoulder. She watched as he realized he'd been cornered. And she watched as he gripped his sword tighter.

Clove lunged forward as Thresh twisted around and thrust his sword out. But Clove was so much faster, and she ducked easily beneath the blade, and threw one of her knives out, catching Thresh's knee.

Gadget felt her eyes water with tears. This couldn't be happening. Could she have stopped this? Could she have yelled something out and given Thresh the upper hand? The mandrills weren't attacking. They hovered behind them. Like they were creating a border that couldn't be penetrated.

They were stopping Thresh from running.

Gadget sobbed softly into Marina's hand at the realization. That was the point of the mandrills. Seneca Crane was toying with them. He could send them all to finish them all off if he so wanted. Did Clove and the rest of the Careers know that? Was that why they took this risk? Because they know how the Gamemakers act?

Seneca Crane wanted a story. And…he wouldn't get that story if a tribute died to a mutt like that, right? Was that it?

Gadget decided that she didn't care. It didn't matter. She didn't want to watch, but she knew Marina was keeping her eyes on her. She was making sure that she kept her eyes open, and watched.

Glimmer fired another arrow, but this time Thresh was ready for it, and he lumbered out of the way, his hand flying up to catch the arrow that was already in his shoulder. He looked so furious, and Gadget could see as he flicked his attention between Clove and Glimmer.

The mandrills growled behind him and Thresh glanced back. He swung his sword between the three of them, very clearly unsure of his next move.

He was trapped. Utterly.

Clove laughed slightly. "This is where the outlier realizes he has nowhere to run," she said cruelly.

Thresh snarled back. He turned his back fully to the mandrills. Gadget wondered if he'd come to the same conclusion that she had. She squirmed within Marina's grasp. He was going to die!

"No, Longfin," Marina whispered, and her grip on Gadget became stronger. "Watch," she emphasized.

She didn't want to! She didn't want to!

But she had to.

Thresh grunted something that Gadget couldn't hear, but it made Clove's face turn red in rage. She rushed forward, knives in hand, as Thresh prepared himself for her next strike.

Glimmer's arrow whizzed through the air, right into Thresh's thigh. He yelled in pain, but otherwise did and said nothing. How was he still going? Gadget would have collapsed after the first arrow.

Clove roared in anger, ducking under Thresh's swing, and swiping her knife into his legs. Gadget watched in horror as Thresh stumbled, but he swung again like he hadn't been hit at all. And this time Clove was unable to dodge in time, and the blade cut across her cheek.

"Argh!" Clove groaned. She touched a hand to her face and grinned savagely, her knives rotating in her hands.

Another person dead. And Gadget was going to watch it, helpless to do anything else. She felt her tears roll down her face, and her sobs were muffled by Marina's hand.

Clove threw her knife and catapulted into a sprint towards Thresh. He tried to move his sword to block the incoming strike, but Gadget knew it was hopeless. It struck him in the chest, and Clove thrust her second blade through his knee.

Thresh roared in pain, but he wasn't done yet. He swung his sword around, even as he fell to his good knee, and towards Clove as she pulled another knife free from her vest.

She swung her knife up as Thresh swung his sword down, and her knife went wide and out of her grip. Her eyes widened and she stumbled backwards a step as Thresh climbed back to his feet on rather wobbly legs.

Thresh didn't have much time. Gadget wanted to shout for him to run, but where could he possibly go that Clove or Glimmer wouldn't find him? He was…he was just as trapped as she was.

Glimmer notched another arrow as Thresh drew his sword high above his head, and prepared to bring it down on Clove. But Glimmer shot her arrow first, and Gadget saw as pierced his side, and his grip on his sword slackened.

It was all Clove needed. She pulled two more knives free from her vest and pounced at Thresh quickly before he was able to get his bearings. And Clove slashed his second knee, spinning around swiftly to do the same to the back of his legs. Gadget knew then that it was over. Even as the mandrills growled and moved about, Gadget knew that it was already over.

Thresh fell to his knees. Get up! Gadget pleaded. Run! And he looked up, glancing at Glimmer as the girl notched another arrow. He looked like he was fighting with his arms to lift his sword again, and tried to plant his feet to stand back up.

Clove circled Thresh, her grip so tight on her knives that Gadget saw her knuckles turn white. She stared at him with an enraged expression. Whatever Thresh had said to her…it made her completely furious. Then, she brought her foot up and kicked him in the center of the chest.

Thresh fell back onto his rear. He was unable to keep himself up. He panted, but his expression remained defiant.

"You shouldn't have left that field, Eleven," Clove purred in spite of her anger. Gadget could feel herself pale. She already knew what was going to happen before Clove did it.

She was going to play with her food.

Thresh said nothing. Gadget wondered if he'd come to the same conclusion that she did. He only glared at Clove hatefully. He extended his sword out, but Clove easily stepped out of the way and sliced her knife into his arm. And the sword dropped.

He was truly defenseless now, and Gadget took in the injuries he'd sustained and fought with. Until he couldn't anymore. This was…this was horrible. This couldn't be happening. Bloody marks all over his side from the mandrills. Seneca Crane had just…softened Thresh up for Clove and Glimmer.

Then, with no warning, he threw his arm out at Clove. One final attempt to stop her from killing him.

But again, Clove was faster, because she plunged her knife into Thresh's hand before he could reach her, and he yelled at what Gadget could only imagine the amount of pain he felt.

She watched as Clove's knife split through his hand, the blade sticking out through the back, and she stuck the knife into the ground above his head.

The mandrills let out one last growl, and then they disappeared into the trees. Their…purpose had been fulfilled, Gadget supposed. How could anyone be so cruel to do this? What Clove was doing, toying with Thresh. Just as Seneca Crane did with them, by having the mandrills there at all.

Gadget knew that being boring in the Hunger Games was a death sentence. It was…the big reason that Gamemakers sent mutts after tributes. That's what she gathered, anyway. Was that all Thresh was to them? Boring? Then wasn't Gadget the same exact thing?

Marina's hand fell away from Gadget's mouth, and the arm around her waist rose to her shoulder. "Go, Longfin," Marina spat in her ear.

She wished she could run. But they would find her. And they would make her pay for it. Her only bargaining chip was the suit she was building, but that meant nothing in the face of boredom, or…or if they'd deemed her too useless to bother keeping around.

Marina shoved her forward, hard, and Gadget stumbled. But she caught herself on a tree and moved into the area. Glimmer smirked at her, a satisfied smile on her lips, and Clove didn't bother to look up, too busy whispering what Gadget could only think of to be threats to Thresh.

Terror built in her chest as she could do nothing but watch as Clove put her forefinger, and middle finger on Thresh's chest, and 'walked' them down to the handle of her knife that protruded from his torso. And she grabbed, and twisted it, and Thresh's tortured scream echoed through the forest, and rang through her ears.

This was…this was horrible! Gadget wanted to throw up. This couldn't be happening. It couldn't!

But it was. And she could do nothing.

Thresh looked so much in agony. He grimaced when he wasn't screaming, and he paid Gadget no attention as she and Marina stepped into view. And Clove…Gadget could see just how much Clove was enjoying this. Her face was the picture of glee.

She released her hold on the knife and jammed her fingers into the wound on his side that the mandrills had opened. And Thresh screamed in pain once more.

"Kill him, Clove!" Glimmer egged on.

There were no words to describe it. Tears rolled down Gadget's face, staining her cheeks. Useless. Helpless. Thresh was going to die in front of her, his screams echoing all around her.

"Cato offered you a place in the Pack," Clove said mockingly. Her feet dug into the wounds on his knees, pinning him down, as her hand drifted up to claw at the wound she'd made on his arm. He looked in so much pain, and Gadget's heart ached. "Do you regret turning us down now?" she asked.

This is…this is like what Binary said, Gadget idly realized. Like what happened to Gizmo all over again. A tribute invited into the Career Pact, and now…and now…

Gadget stared fearfully at Clove. She pulled her hand out of the wound in Thresh's side and grabbed another knife in her vest. "Where should I start?" Clove pondered aloud.

How could Thresh be so silent? Gadget looked at him, silently begging that he still had it in him to fight back against Clove. He'd yet to say a word. And Gadget could tell that that fact irritated Clove to no end.

"No suggestions?" she asked sarcastically. "Fine." She spun her knife around, letting it hover above Thresh's face. Gadget held her breath. What was she going to do?

Then, very quickly, Clove pulled his arm towards her and put the knife between his fingers. She hummed in thought, cooking her head at Thresh like she was asking a silent question.

"Fingers are very sensitive to pain," Clove conversationally mentioned, pressing her knife into his ring finger as she did so. And finally, Gadget noticed Thresh begin to squirm. Something that the Careers seemed to notice, as well.

"Not so tough now," Glimmer sneered snootily.

Gadget swallowed. Please…please don't…

"You know," Clove continued, lowering her face closer to Thresh's, "your district partner begged me to stop."

Oh…oh no. It was a lie. Gadget knew it was a lie. Monkshood had made sure that she knew what had happened to Rue, but…but Thresh didn't know that.

And indeed, Thresh's features morphed into utter rage. "What was her name?" Clove asked, pressing her knife harder into Thresh's hand. But it didn't look like it was enough to distract him from the new rage Clove had just stoked. "Rue?"

Thresh yelled. Fury coated his words. "YOU KILL HER!? he shouted, just as strong as his screams of pain had been. Gadget could see his hand embedded with a knife curl.

Clove grinned. "First, I did exactly what I'm going to do to you," she purred. "Each finger, one by one until she was shouting your name," she lied.

Thresh roared in anger, and he tried to move. But for once, it didn't look like he was strong enough. Gadget knew from experience how badly the knees could hurt. Binary had made sure of it. But she couldn't imagine the agony Thresh must have been experiencing.

"And then," Clove continued, savoring her every word, "I cut her apart until she cried blood."

"I'LL KILL YOU!" Thresh shouted, truly enraged.

"No you won't," Clove said simply. She pressed her knife harder to Thresh's finger, but Gadget didn't see him wince or grimace at it. It was like he was running on nothing but fury. "Your partner died alone," she said. "Crying for help." She pulled her knife away from his fingers. "Your name."

And then Clove plunged her knife into Thresh's hand once more, cutting right through it just like she had done to the other. Thresh yelled in pain, but Clove wasn't done.

Gadget tried to step back. She didn't want to see this. It was…it was deranged. Horrible. Clove was going to torture him to death, and there was nothing Gadget could have done to stop it. But Marina grabbed her firmly by the bicep, and she couldn't move. Her eyes were forcefully trained on the sight before her, and she couldn't wipe the tears away.

She gripped the knife by its handle, and drew it up, through his hand, through the bone and flesh, and the terrible sound of flesh being torn was mixed with Thresh's screaming. Until at last, Clove tore the knife free, splitting Thresh's hand in half.

Clove cackled in sadistic glee as Thresh screamed in pain worse than anything Gadget had ever heard. She had just…torn his hand in half. Like it had been nothing, and required so little effort. Bile rose in Gadget's throat at the sight of it. There was so much blood. So much. And she could see the fragment of bone.

She couldn't hold it back. She tilted her head forward, so at least she wouldn't get it on her clothes. And then she retched onto the ground in front of her, splattering it with the meal Marvel had given her that morning.

"Eww," Glimmer hissed in disgust. Gadget flushed red, as humiliation colored her cheeks. She tried to duck her head, but Marina tugged her harshly to the side.

"Please," Gadget said weakly, even as Marina maneuvered them to the side of Clove and Thresh. "Pl-please ju-just k-ki-k-kill him," Gadget stuttered out. He had been through enough torture! Nobody deserved that. Nobody did.

Clove hummed in thought. A cruel smirk spread across her face, and Gadget felt her heart jump to her throat, and her stomach sink.

"What would you do, Three?" Clove asked, tapping her bloody knife against Thresh's chin. Almost absentmindedly. Gadget stilled. What did…what did that mean?

Gadget glanced at Glimmer, but she didn't seem at all concerned by Clove's thought process…and Gadget was much too frightened to be able to look at Marina.

"You killed Cato," Clove spat, standing up at last, over Thresh's hurt body. Gadget tried to step back again, but Marina's hold on her was firm. She wasn't going to go anywhere. A sadistic grin spread across Clove's lips, despite the anger Gadget could see in her eyes. "You're a killer."

The words stung her deeply. Enough to reignite her tears. I…I…

How could she defend herself? She'd meant full well to do what she did. She'd murdered him. She'd murdered Cato in order to survive. That was how the Hunger Games worked. Kill or be killed. But that fact didn't stop her guilt from crushing her so hard she could barely breathe.

"I…" Gadget tried to say, but what could she say? Clove's glare stopped any words, leaving them to die on her tongue.

Clove walked around Thresh slowly, casually picking up her discarded knives and fitting them back into her vest one by one. Glimmer did the same, picking up a backpack that sat at the edge of the area that Gadget didn't see.

"Well, Killer," Clove said, and Gadget grimaced horribly at the newly derived nickname, "Come here."

Gadget wanted to shake her head and say 'no'. But Marina released her hold on her arm and shoved her forward to Clove, who grabbed her and escorted her right over to Thresh. Her heart pounded against her chest, heavily. So loudly that Gadget could have sworn Clove would have heard it.

"You want me to mercy-kill him?" Clove asked, and Gadget thought she sounded almost amused. Her hand was hard on Gadget's wrist. Tighter than Marina's had been on her bicep. She could feel Clove's nails dig into her skin, but she said nothing. Because that was the least that she deserved.

Thresh stared up at them, still. He hid his pain, Gadget could tell. His eyes narrowed at them, like he was wondering what they were going to do.

"If you want his death to be merciful," Clove said with a deranged smirk, "do it yourself." She gestured to the knife that was still stuck in Thresh's chest.

No…no!

She couldn't! She couldn't do it! Panic warped her mind so severely, and she tried to pull away from Clove. But all she did was hold onto her and grin so, so sadistically.

"Do it," Clove said coldly, wagging her bloody knife in front of her, "or I'll do what I did to him…to you."

Was there even an option? Clove pushed her forward, and Gadget almost collapsed on top of Thresh. She couldn't do this. She couldn't. She couldn't! She couldn't!

The two locked eyes with one another, and Gadget felt like an eternity passed between them both. His eyes widened briefly, perhaps finally recognizing her, and realizing that he'd stared right into her dead green eyes. Realizing that back in the Cornucopia, he'd spared her life by not striking her. And how was she going to repay that kindness? How was she going to show her gratitude? She was going to kill him. But quickly. End his suffering. She wished she could help him escape instead. But logic told her that was the height of futility and foolishness.

He's already dead, she told herself. The blood loss, the injuries, the shock alone will set in soon, and the infections from the mandrills, plus the ruptured arteries…

She hated how clinically she was diagnosing Thresh, but what else could she do? She did not want to think about what Clove was forcing her to do. If she refused now, she would die like him, and possibly take much much longer to die. She knew that Clove could keep her alive for days if she wanted. And every single second of those days would be pure pain. Her only recourse then would be to hope insanity or death came on its own when her body gave up and shut down to end her suffering.

Thresh's eyes were dulling. He knew the end for him was coming. A mighty man, brought low by the cruel Careers. He gave Gadget a nearly imperceptible nod, or perhaps she'd imagined it, to justify what she was about to do.

"I'm…I'm s-s-sorry…" she whispered between sobs as she knelt down to grasp the handle of the knife.

Wanting to cause as little pain as she could, she wrenched it out hard, eliciting a grunt from Thresh, but as she held the knife high over her head, she ignored the giggling of Marina and Glimmer, and focused on Thresh's face. He smiled weakly at her, teeth reddened with blood. And that act brought to mind Lace, who, in her last moments, comforted Gadget, and she could see Thresh mouthing the words, "Thank you." to her. She didn't deserve thanks, she didn't deserve to be smiled at like that. She was just a monster, no better than Clove, and with each moment she was trapped with them, she became ever more as vile as they were.

With a cry of anguish, she drove the knife down straight through Thresh's chest. The sickening wet crunch as the knife pierced flesh, rib, and what she hoped was his heart was a sound that would haunt her forever. Thresh's eyes widened, and he cried out in pain with a wheeze.

He was still alive…

His eyes, they looked so agonized, and his lips turned downward, a grunt escaping through him. Gadget froze in fear. This wasn't supposed to happen. He should be dead already! It should've been enough to kill him! Why wasn't he dying!?

Gadget pulled the knife out, the revolting squelch of Thresh's flesh and insides hit her ears, and she wanted to throw up all over again. The Careers were laughing at her. She could hear them. "I-I-I'm s-sorry!" she sobbed.

Desperately and despairingly, she slammed the knife into his chest once more, aiming again for his heart. To put him out of this misery. Just like she'd intended to do the first time. But it didn't work, because this time Thresh yelled out in complete agony. One hand curled around the knife embedded into his palm, and the other…Gadget looked away from the other. She felt ill. This wasn't how she wanted it to be.

It felt like nothing before. The push of a steel blade through his body. As it ripped apart his skin and flesh, and slid inside his body. Blood hugged the knife, and dribbled all around him. His eyes were looking everywhere. From Gadget, to Clove, who she knew stood just behind her, and Glimmer and Marina.

Gadget gasped broken, sobbing apologies as she butchered the fallen boy. This wasn't how…

She pulled on the knife again, ripping it free from his torso with another sound that made her feel sick to her stomach. Why hadn't he died!? Ice filled her veins, all the way to her heart.

Thresh barely moved under her, but she could tell he was still alive. He mouthed something she couldn't possibly understand, blood dribbling past his lips. Could he still breathe? Gadget sobbed, raising the knife high above her head, and thrusted it back down into his chest again. Feeling as it sunk back into place. It felt horrible!

"He's not dying!" Gadget sobbed.

"The neck, stalagmite," Glimmer called, like she found this whole thing funny!

Gadget pulled the knife out. Her tears were nearly blinding. Everything was so blurry, and she couldn't see Thresh's face through it. She wasn't sure if she wanted to see his accusing eyes as they glared at her. Everything had gone horribly wrong! Thresh should have already died!

She forced the knife down, right where Glimmer suggested, and she felt the knife sew through the skin on Thresh's neck. "I'm sorry!" she cried again, sniffing pathetically as the blade cut deeper and deeper. She heard Thresh spit out a wad of blood, before his body stilled underneath her.

With a choked sob, Gadget yanked the knife free and rubbed her eyes with her arm. Thresh released one last noise, and then his head fell back and he stared blankly into the sky, his life gone.

Boom!

He was…he was dead…

The strange sobbing noises came from Gadget as she struggled to breathe evenly. But it was a wasted effort. She quickly reached up to pull his eyes closed, just as she did for Jason, but Clove's hand caught her by the wrist. "No, Killer."

Murderer…killer…

She was a murderer. And there was no excuse. Cato…she had to kill him, right!? If she wanted to live, she had to! But Thresh…there was no excuse for what she'd done. She had taken his life. He was drenched in blood. Massacred. By her.

Clove pushed her to the side, and Gadget fell onto her front. She didn't bother to try to catch herself. Bile burned in her throat. The phantom sensation of the blade sinking into the muscles of Thresh's torso. Slinking into a place that it didn't belong. All before she pulled it out and did it again.

Gadget retched onto the ground again. Her hands shook under her as she rose onto her hands and knees, so similar to the position Clove forced her into earlier that day. Her head pounded. She felt like it was going to explode. How could the Careers possibly enjoy this? How!?

"Well done, Killer," Clove snickered somewhere behind her. Gadget heard her walking around Thresh's…Thresh's corpse. "Couldn't have done better myself."

Gadget wanted to retch again. Thresh was supposed to die quickly! She'd wanted to put him out of his misery. Kill…kill him quick so he didn't have to endure any pain that she would've had him go through…

And…and…

"You killed as many people as I have," Clove said, in an almost teasing tone. "Killer." Gadget turned slightly to look at Clove, watching as she picked up the crescent sword.

"I'm sorry," Gadget whimpered. But it wouldn't change anything. It meant nothing. No amount of apologies would ever change what she had just done.

She hated herself for it.

She closed her eyes and pulled herself into a ball on the ground. The Careers were walking around, but she knew they were paying her close attention. They were making sure she wasn't going to run. Or maybe they already knew she wasn't going to. Murderer, murderer, murderer!

Gadget could hear a heavy, abhorrent crunch. A steel blade cutting through flesh and sinew. She looked up and squeaked in horror and fear. Because before her, Clove was handling the crescent sword on Thresh's body.

And she swung it into his throat, creating a wound so deep that his head threatened to loll off his body. Gadget gasped and crawled backward. No, no!

"What are you doing!?" Glimmer shrieked in disgust. She hopped back, dropping the backpack she'd picked up, down to her feet.

Clove didn't answer, but Gadget could see the smirk on her face as she pulled the sword free from Thresh's neck. She looked towards Gadget at that moment, and Gadget's dead eyes met her insanity-filled ones. Clove was…she was going to decapitate him!

"Stop!" Gadget cried out, sobbing. "Don't!"

Clove's smirk grew wider, and, without looking away from Gadget, she slammed the sword back down into the flesh of Thresh's neck, and Gadget watched as it buried ever deeper. She could hear the tendons breaking. Bone cracking. Flesh and muscle tearing. And blood…there was so much blood!

Her guilt was tormenting her. It squeezed around her like a vice, so hard she didn't know how she was still able to breathe. She heard a vile, wet wrenching noise, and Gadget could do nothing as Clove pulled the sword out of Thresh's neck once more.

"Please…pl-please stop!" Gadget cried. She whimpered. This couldn't be real! Why was this happening!? Thresh didn't deserve this. He deserved…all of the dead deserved more than this!

Clove didn't make a sound. She was silent. Eyes on Gadget, while her own pleaded with the deranged Career to stop. And then Clove swung the sword back down, shredding through Thresh's neck again, and his head split from his body. Gadget watched with large, terrified eyes as it rolled to Clove's feet. And she watched as Clove discarded the sword and picked up Thresh's head with one hand.

Gadget was going to be sick. This was…this was beyond anything she'd seen. It was worse than even Sperren! She knew of Games where the Careers took trophies from their dead victims, but not like this! What kind of person did this!?

Clove grabbed the jaw of Thresh's head and turned it around so that she could look into his eyes. The dead eyes that Clove had refused to let her close for…for this reason.

"How could you kill me, Three!?" Clove asked mockingly. She grabbed Thresh's jaw, and moved it about to look like he was talking. "You took me from my friends!" Like a puppet on a string.

Gadget sobbed.

"Did you enjoy it?" Clove asked, stepping forward. "Was putting me through so much pain worth your every fantasy?"

No! Gadget shook her head wildly. "I didn't!" What kind of question was that? She'd…butchered him! The tears wouldn't stop coming. She had put him through so much pain! So much pain!

She cast a quick glance around and saw that even Marina and Glimmer were horrified and disgusted respectively. But they didn't stop Clove from having her…fun. To be honest, it didn't look like anyone wanted to get between her and her toy. Ichor and sinew continued to drip from the remnants of Thresh's neck. The sight made Gadget choke. She had nothing left to throw up. Please let the mandrills come back. She couldn't believe it, but she actually welcomed the potential distraction of the mandrill mutts. Anything to stop Clove.

The diminutive Career girl glared at Gadget for a moment, then looked down at the head. After a moment, an evil grin spread across her lips and she looked intently at Gadget.

"I think you should wear his head around your neck."

Gadget's eyes widened in horror. No! NO! PLEASE NO!

Her head shook and all that she could do was whimper. This was too horrible! She did not want to wear Thresh's head! She'd take off, run, just let the girls stab her dead. It was better. Yes. Much better. Looking at Glimmer, the girl was grimacing. She did not like this any better. Marina though...Marina shrugged.

"It's just a trophy," Marina said, "my people do it all the time."

Gadget wanted to die. She wanted it more than anything she ever wanted in her life. She had caused this. She put Thresh through so much pain before he died. Pain he didn't deserve. And then she'd killed him. His screams were going to echo in her mind forever. The way that she…that she tortured him before he died.

She was just as bad as Cato. Murderer! Killer! Lace was dead because of her. If…if she had fallen to the landmines before the countdown ended…she would still be alive. Gadget was certain she would still have been alive.

Her mind was brought back to the present as Clove now approached her intently, and Gadget, against her better judgment, scrambled backwards. For once, though, Clove did not scowl, but smiled even more as she increased her own speed to catch up with Gadget. She abruptly stamped a foot down on Gadget's middle, immediately causing her to feel a deep throbbing pain to pulse all the way from her middle, up her spine, right into her throat. If she had anything left, she would have emptied it all over Clove's foot. But she didn't, and that was both good and bad.

"We should be going," Glimmer said in a near-whine. Gadget could see her, just beyond Clove, tapping her foot irritably. "Someone else could show up."

Or a mutt, Gadget thought. Horror tore through her entire body, and she couldn't stop shaking. Seneca Crane had the full capabilities to send the mandrills back after them. Or something worse.

Clove scoffed, but didn't she turn around to face Glimmer or Marina. Like this very morning, she pushed her body down onto Gadget's, pinning her beneath her with only her boot. "Have you looted the body?" she asked.

"He didn't have much," Marina said. She passed Glimmer, swiping her shoulder with her own, and picked up the backpack she'd dropped. If she noticed the glare Glimmer shot her, she didn't say anything. "Just this."

Clove didn't even look at the backpack. She held Thresh's head up and stared at it dismissively. "You're not even worth remembering," she remarked. She rotated her heel, then, to press into Gadget. Her face split into an ever bigger grin when she saw Gadget wince and grimace.

Dread built in Gadget's stomach. Clove mockingly waved Thresh's head in front of her, and she stared with despair into his dead eyes. Eyes that would never see ever again. She was responsible for that. She caused this. They still looked like they were in so much pain. Agonizing pain.

All my fault.

Clove reached forward, so close until Thresh's head was inches away from her own. His blood dripped down onto her. Ichor and broken muscle that dribbled and fell upon her chest. And Gadget could do nothing at all but sit and watch in horror as her…as her victim's head was dangled right in front of her.

"Why don't you give poor Eleven a kiss?" Clove asked in a faux-timid voice. She pursed her lips and shook Thresh's head forward ever so slowly.

Gadget turned away and squeezed her eyes shut. It didn't stop her tears from slipping out, unbidden…but at least she couldn't see it. Not as Clove mocked him like he was nothing and didn't matter.

Clove said something, but Gadget didn't care. Her weight disappeared, but Gadget didn't want to look. She wanted to curl up and die. She was so, so scared.

More than that, she was so utterly tired. Her body and mind had reached its limit. She'd barely eaten, and when she managed to get anything down, she would end up throwing it all back out sometime later. Even if the tracker jacker venom had cleared her system days prior, she felt like she'd be able to hallucinate almost at will now. Though his eyes were empty, devoid of life, truly dead as opposed to her 'almost' ones, she saw accusation in his, as Clove waved it around in her face.

"Oh, little Gadget," Clove hissed, her voice dripping with venom. "Are you afraid? Does the sight of death make your pathetic heart tremble? Are you going to cry when I kill you, just like I'm going to kill your worthless little friends?"

Tearfully, Gadget gazed towards Clove, her entire body quivering, and every part of her was desperate for her to keep her head turned away to shield herself from the horror unfolding before her. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't escape the grisly tableau. The sight had etched into her mind, a scar that she was sure would never fade from her psyche.

With a sudden movement, Clove launched the severed head towards Gadget, a wicked grin dancing upon her lips. Time seemed to slow as the grotesque projectile flew through the air, the weight of death hurtling toward her. In that fleeting moment, Gadget's survival instincts took over, and she reached out, her trembling hand lurching forward.

The severed head landed in her shivering palm, and Gadget stared at it in pure horror, her mind reeling. Blood stained her fingers, mingling with the sweat of fear that dotted her brow. The weight of the head pressed down on her being, a sickening reminder of the atrocities she had unwillingly become a part of, the malice of the Careers, and the cruelty of the girl above her.

Thresh's blood had already begun to stain her clothing, and she couldn't look away from his eyes. His empty and dead eyes. Full of condemnation. Gadget started to stand, though she didn't know how she managed it. Her feet shook much under her, threatening to make her fall.

"I'm sorry," Gadget whispered in a broken sob. She stumbled over to Thresh's corpse. She heard, ever so clearly, Clove's snickering laughter as she joined Glimmer and Marina - to go over what supplies they had just…just stolen off of Thresh.

Gadget shook, and she collapsed to her knees beside Thresh's corpse. She whispered more apologies, again and again as she softly set the head down at where Clove had separated his neck from his head. Then, she reached out and closed his eyes.

For a moment, he looked almost peaceful. But what she had done to him…it was anything but. She had done this to him. Her eyes drifted towards his chest almost automatically. I did this, she thought with horror. I killed him…

Gadget stared down at her hands that were covered in Thresh's blood. A stark reminder of what she was responsible for. Clove and Glimmer might have pinned him down, but Gadget had been the one to…to…

She drew a shuddering breath. Her eyes drifted down Thresh's body and stopped at one of his jacket pockets, and she could see something that resembled a slight bulge. Gadget wiped her eyes with her arm and guilt flooded through her. She had killed him and now…now she was going to take something that belonged to him.

With a whimper, Gadget reached into Thresh's pocket with shaky hands, and wrapped her fingers around something small. She shot a deft glance at the Careers to see if they were paying her any attention at all, before pulling it out.

It was a small, electric fan with a small switch to turn the metallic rotor blades on. It was, very clearly, a sponsored gift.

Gadget wanted to close her eyes and never open them again. She was a terrible person. Everything Zeno ever said about her…everything Binary ever said about her was all true. She didn't even deserve to have made it this far into the Games. She should already be dead.

She wished she already was.

"Aghn!" Gadget yelped suddenly as a foot slammed against her side and shoved her over. The fan slipped out of her fingers as she fell, and she reached out to catch it before it was out of her reach.

But Clove picked it up first. Gadget looked up at her as she examined it, and then quickly gazed down at the dirt as Clove looked at her. "Found a little toy, Killer?" she mocked.

"What'd you find?" Marina asked. It wasn't directed at Gadget, but at Clove. To them, Gadget knew she wasn't really a person, after all. She was just something that they could abuse if they felt bored enough.

Clove scoffed, but she sounded very entertained. "A fan," she said. "Trying to keep your findings a secret, Killer?" Clove asked, and her foot shot into Gadget's side.

And then, for a moment, pain was all Gadget knew. She squeaked out a silent protest that she was sure would only encourage Clove and the other two girls. "I-I wa-was goi-going to use it f-for the s-suit."

Clove hummed in thought. "Were you?" she asked. She stepped to the side to pluck up Thresh's crescent sword.

"Yes," Gadget sobbed weakly. She drew her arm over her eyes to draw her tears out. Glimmer looked disgusted at the sight of her, and Gadget lowered her eyes again.

"Get her up," Clove ordered.

Before Gadget could think, someone had already grabbed her by the arms and pulled her up onto her feet. It didn't matter to her who it was. She only gazed at Thresh's bloody corpse with disgust. Disgust for herself.

"Ah, ah," Clove said, and suddenly the sharp point of the crescent sword tapped against her chin, forcing her head up to look into Clove's eyes. "If you're lying to me, I'll do to you what you did to him," she said with kick to Thresh's corpse.

"Okay," Gadget said in a broken voice. Even now, her eyes still watered with unshed tears.

Clove frowned but she dropped the sword to her side and flipped the fan between her fingers. Then, finally, she tossed it at Gadget's chest, and her hands had to fly up to cling to the piece of tech.

"Let's go," Clove said. The blade of the sword sunk into the ground with a thunk that made Gadget wince. "Now, Killer."

Gadget acquiesced. With one last look at Thresh, she started walking.

One, two, three, four…

---

The four girls trooped through the woods, the mockingjays were back, twittering and whistling merry tunes to one another. There was no longer any impending sense of new dangers. There were fewer and fewer tributes remaining. Soon, the main event would be held, when the final fight would be fought by the last few survivors. Gadget felt like she was being watched, but she assumed it was just Clove, Glimmer, or Marina, most of them stayed behind her, but Glimmer occasionally moved ahead, her bow held ready, and her right hand within reach of one of her two quivers.

Gadget had had enough of it all. She was still smeared all over her front with Thresh's blood, gore and guck. It was truly amazing how much of it was dripping continuously from his head alone. She desperately wanted to wash herself off. Even when she'd spent most of a year living in the junkyard, she'd never ever gotten this messy, and more so, with human remains. But on the other hand, this led to darker, more dangerous thoughts. Like just dipping her head into the water…and not bringing it back up. Perhaps if the Career girls saw her visibly trying to off herself, they'd just sit back and watch to see if she'd go through with it, and hear the cannons going off for her.

Perhaps Seneca Crane would just oblige her and put something in the water, like that Game where tributes watched in horror as one of them drank water from the river without using a purifying flask. The end result was painful, disgusting and quite embarrassing. And it was no less than Gadget deserved. Her shoulders slumped further and further as they neared the caves. Gadget admired the usefulness of the place, especially the cave. She was glad that the Gamemakers hadn't altered the location. How now one else came to appropriate it for themselves was a bit beyond her. Unless the Gamemakers had something to do with it.

"Wait," Glimmer called, right hand held up clenched in a fist.

After a moment, Clove stepped forward, simultaneously shoving Gadget into Marina's arms, who silently wrapped one arm around Gadget's middle and her scimitar was loosely pressed to her throat.

"I see it too," Clove said, peering at the ground.

Glimmer nodded. "Fresh tracks."

Fresh tracks? Where? Gadget peered as much as she could without moving her head and especially her neck, not with Marina's sword just waiting to cut into her flesh. Or maybe she would. Could she just lurch forward fast enough and decapitate herself? She started moving her neck and head forward, wondering if she had the courage to do it quickly. It would hurt, but it should be quick and her troubles would be over. She mentally apologized to Septimius, Beetee, Wiress, Corduroy, and Peeta, then leaned her head back, and tensed her muscles for the end.

"The hell are you doing, Longfin?!" Marina demanded as she abruptly pulled the sword away from her neck.

No!

Marina roughly turned Gadget around to face her. She peered at Gadget's listless eyes, and frowned. "Were you…?"

"All clear!" Glimmer called out, drawing everyone's attention to her. "But there was someone here maybe earlier today or yesterday."

Who though? Gadget found herself wondering idly.

And then the next thought really struck her; if they had been here, specifically, in the cave, and Glimmer had found tracks, based on the way she was pointing at a faint muddy shoeprint to Clove, then that meant maybe her things were found and tampered with. Alarmed, she barely needed nudging or urging by Marina to move forward and into the cave. Glimmer had a flashlight which she used to illuminate the cave. It didn't look like anything was touched. Most people would not be able to make head or tails of what she was working on anyway. At least, she hoped.

But who was here? Finch? Monkshood? The boys?

Something told her it was likely the boys. She was glad they weren't here. Even if she'd joined them, Corduroy and Peeta wouldn't last long against Clove, Glimmer, and Marina. Clove alone was more than capable of taking down the boys. If anything, Gadget wouldn't be able to do anything except get in the way.

"Well, get moving, Stalagmite!" Glimmer ordered with a violent shove.

Gadget sighed as she stumbled further into the cave. She didn't take or need very long to gather everything. She'd scattered things around, but there was a sense of organization to her chaos. To anyone but her, this would look like a whole pile of junk. Without anything or reason to delay, she gathered up everything and put it into the pack. While one part of her sought to delay the process of completing the suit, another part of her welcomed the eventual end to her suffering and misery. She'd be able to die like Lace, like all those others who didn't deserve to die, but they did anyway, because this was the Hunger Games.

Once she had everything secured in the backpack, she headed out with Glimmer right behind her. But Glimmer spotted Clove and Marina talking in hushed whispers, and she went over towards them, briefly putting some distance between her and Gadget. For a moment, Gadget contemplated making a run, but dismissed it quickly when she realized her weakened state meant she wouldn't get far. On the other hand, the well fed trio of girls would not need much effort to catch up to her. If they chose to kill her for running, she welcomed it, but if they chose to drag her back, the suffering she'd receive would be quite significant.

She suddenly remembered the fruit snack Monkshood gave to her from Cato's body. Assuming Clove or the others didn't immediately snatch it away if she tried to eat them now, she wouldn't starve just yet.

A brief rustle of the nearby bushes and a dash of hair had Gadget's eyes, but not her head, moving. Was it the boys? It couldn't be a mutt. A mutt would have shown itself or had some indicator of an impending attack. It served to ramp up excitement and drama for the audience. She shook her head, as if clearing it, and surreptitiously wiggled her right wrist, hidden from view from the Careers, in the negative. Whoever it was, would hopefully take it as a warning not to act. She couldn't risk the boys, and she had nothing against Finch. And Monkshood, well the girl was many things, but stupid was not one of them.

"All right, that's enough wasting time," Clove said, and grabbed Gadget by the arm, pulling first, then pushing her in the direction back to the Cornucopia. "Hurry up. I want my suit finished."

---

The smell of the trees wafted through her nostrils as she walked. The Careers chattered loudly behind her, without a worry that someone could possibly catch them off guard. Marina's sword dug into her back with each step.

Four thousand sixty-three, four thousand sixty-four, four thousand sixty-five, four thousand sixty-six…

She could throw herself backwards. Thrust herself onto Marina's sword. And then it would all be over. Relief at last, if she could withstand the pain.

The Cornucopia came into view between the trees and Gadget's stomach dropped. Because all it promised was more pain. Marina's sword pressed more insistently into her back, urging her forward.

Four thousand seventy, four thousand seventy-one, four thousand seventy-two, four thousand seventy-three…

They entered through the clearing and Gadget stopped as she glanced to her left. There, next to one of the crates of organized supplies, was Finch. She stared back at Gadget in surprise, before she swiftly grabbed something off the crate that Gadget couldn't see.

"The Five girl!" Clove shouted behind Gadget, and before she could even move, she was forcefully pushed to the side by one of the girls.

But Finch looked like she was prepared. She spun around so fast, and took off into a sprint towards the treeline.

Glimmer stepped in front of Gadget and notched an arrow, before letting it go and pierce through the air. Gadget watched as it went and she realized, belatedly, that if it hit…then it would leave only Corduroy, Peeta, and Monkshood as the only tributes outside of this Career Pack.

And if that was the case, then…then there was no point in the Careers letting her, or Kernel, or Binary stick around much longer.

The arrow sailed right towards Finch, and Gadget truly thought it was going to hit.

But then Finch stopped and ducked at the last second, letting the arrow fly over her head harmlessly. Gadget couldn't make out the expression on her face, not at this distance, but she got the distinct impression that she was satisfied.

Before Glimmer could fire a second arrow, Finch was already gone. As quickly as she had appeared, she was gone. Glimmer whined, and Clove…Clove sounded furious.

"Marvel!" she yelled, and Gadget turned to look at the only male Career tribute left. He looked extremely annoyed with what had just unfolded. "You dumbass!" Clove shouted.

"Me!?" Marvel asked, gesturing to himself. "You were the ones that made her run away!" he argued back. He stepped to the side as Gadget and the girls got closer and closer. He picked up a deactivated mine. "I was trying," he said with emphasis, "to lure her into a marvelous false sense of security."

Clove scoffed. "Why bother when you can just kill her?" she asked, dropping the crescent sword to the ground beside her. Her fingers grabbed one of the knife handles in her vest and pulled it free. Her words were hissed in an almost calm way that hid the veneer of pure rage that Gadget suspected was right beneath the surface.

"I was trying to get her to come back," Marvel replied, and Gadget could see now that he was angry, too. "I mean, could you imagine her face when she steps on this baby and blows up?" he asked, shaking the mine slightly in his hand. "It would've been marvelous!"

Clove flipped the knife from one hand to the other. She looked absolutely murderous, and Gadget wondered if she was going to be the one she took her frustration out on.

"Well," Glimmer said, flicking her blonde hair over her shoulder as she spoke, "we would've been here faster if Clove hadn't decided to give in to her weakness and cut off Eleven's head." She cocked her hip out and put her hand on it.

Clove seethed. Gadget could see her anger, mixed with insanity as it swirled in her eyes. She couldn't make out Marvel's expression, not from the angle she had. She could feel the walls closing in around her. How much more of this would she last? How much longer before one of the Careers decided that they didn't need her anymore and stabbed her through the heart?

Gadget doubted that they would even be that merciful. She had seen it briefly, but she knew that it wasn't just Clove that hated her for…for…for killing Cato. Glimmer hated her, too. They were only going to keep her around until she finished the suit…and then Clove was going to torture her. Clove was going to make her scream, and she had no doubt that she would follow up on the threats she'd made that very morning.

"Besides," Marvel said, rolling his shoulders, "we've got plenty of stuff to last us a month."

Clove snarled. She spun her knife around, but whatever she said next was belayed by Marina shoving Gadget harshly away, and she nearly dropped the backpack of the things she'd gathered.

"Go work on the suit, Longfin," Marina snapped.

"I-I need t-tools," Gadget whispered, her voice so low that she wasn't sure Marina had even heard her.

"Sure. Whatever," Marina replied dismissively. "Just get it done."

Gadget nodded submissively and scrambled away. It would be stupid to try to run away, even if the Careers were in the midst of an argument. They were always going to be watching them. To make sure that none of them got any…ideas.

She wasn't a member of the Pack. Just a living accessory.

She placed the backpack on the ground beside her other supplies. The Careers' arguing rang about in her ears. The Career Pack wasn't going to last much longer. Gadget knew that it wouldn't. There were too many people here at the Cornucopia. More than who was outside of it. Seneca Crane was going to grow bored of this eventually, and if he didn't, something would happen to split the Pack up.

It was only a matter of how and when.

Gadget walked over to one of the crates. She could feel someone's gaze on her. Clove, Marina, or someone else. It didn't matter, really. Gadget grabbed a screwdriver, carefully and slowly so that she looked as unthreatening as she was. If they took the tools she'd gathered away, it would make things so much more difficult.

It wasn't nearly enough, but Gadget feared that it was all the Careers would allow her to get. She glanced to the launch pedestals and her eyes stopped on one that hadn't been touched yet. Binary and Kernel had dug around all but three pedestals, and they had left hers untouched.

Her own pedestal. Where all of this began. Where this nightmare started.

She should have stepped off too early. It would've…put her out of this misery. Even if it would have disappointed Septimius, Beetee, and Wiress…at least it would have been easier than this.

Gadget frowned and walked towards the pedestal, and then crouched beside it. Just underneath it, she had watched her stylist get murdered in front of her. It didn't…it didn't stir up the same feelings of…of Thresh…or Cato…

Was…was she a bad person for that?

She put the screwdriver against one of the panels on the side of the pedestal, and began to take it off.

She was never going to stop being a murderer. Not until she died.

Gadget looked around as she pried the panel open. It didn't seem like anyone was paying her any attention, but she knew that wasn't true. The Careers were watching all of them. Her eyes landed on the treeline abruptly. She could swear she saw movement. Was Finch back?

But then Corduroy stepped out past the treeline and Gadget's eyes widened. They were here. They were here!

Why? Why would they stick their necks out for her like this? Was…was it them at the cave earlier? The markings that Glimmer and Clove saw? Had they followed them all the way back to the Cornucopia?

Corduroy slunk back into the shadows and Gadget shook her head subtly. They couldn't help her. Gadget had already made her bed. Now…now she had to lie in it.

She didn't want them to see her die. If they really cared about her, she didn't want them to see her die. Gadget shook her head again once more in Corduroy's direction, and she hoped that they saw. They didn't stand a chance against the Careers. And after Gadget's own failures…she didn't deserve to be saved by them.

She didn't deserve to be saved by anyone.

She'd given up, and she did not want the boys to get caught in the middle of whatever goes down that will be her death knell. The only thing that would delay her personal wish to end her life would be for either Corduroy or Peeta - about the only ones left in the arena she cared about - to be in peril. So her purpose for refusing Corduroy and Peeta was twofold. At least, she hoped her death would mean something, perhaps ensuring that one of the two boys won.

"Three."

Gadget spun her head around quickly, an apology already on her lips. But it died when she saw that it wasn't a Career crouching down beside her, but Kernel. He looked at her with a somewhat neutral expression, and Gadget winced at the marks and faded bruises she'd done to him. Dimly, she noted that he must have applied some kind of salve or cream to make them fade. She didn't know how she'd failed to spot it earlier.

He grabbed a fistful of dirt at the base of the pedestal, and started to dig. His hands had long been stained the color of the dirt, and Gadget couldn't imagine how sore his hands must've been.

Silently, she reached for the next screw on the panel and started to twist it out. These were components that she needed. Pieces that were important to the suit.

"Don't turn to look at me," Kernel said as he worked the ground, exposing more of the pedestal base, "try not to move your lips either. I want out of here."

Gadget's eyes widened, but she did as Kernel instructed and didn't look at him. Instead, she concentrated on the panel she was working on. Just one more screw and she can get to the interior.

"Wh-wh…uhm…what i-is your plan?" Gadget asked, idly wiping sweat off her brow.

"Not much of a plan," he replied, "but it's a work in progress. Right now, I'm thinkin' we set off one of these near the other mines, make a loud mess, and bolt in the distraction."

He was referring to the pedestal mines as he spoke. Gadget could see the merit in it, but not necessarily the feasibility of it. There were too many probabilities and variables: Clove or any other Career could see him and the intent in his eyes. They'd stop him, and she'd probably get tortured to death. She wanted death, but she didn't want to die like…like that.

"It's t-t-too uhm…s-s-sim…sim-" Gadget didn't want to insult Kernel.

"Simple?" he finished for her. "Yeah, but I did say it's in progress. Between us, we might have a better chance."

Gadget considered the options. The odds were so poor for them, it was laughable. Besides that, it wasn't enough to just run away. Gadget needed to sabotage the suit, at least. Deny Clove her armor and weapon. And they needed supplies. But there were too many things that needed doing and too few people to initiate a successful escape. Too damn many variables overall. Even if they managed to get Corduroy and Peeta in on the plan somehow, it would only increase the risks and the lives risked. So Gadget tried to calculate the best out of the worst plans available.

"Your plan…is-is-is th-the best…" Gadget said, "...for n-n-now…"

She noticed through her peripherals that Kernel managed a tight smile. "What d'you reckon needs improving?" he asked.

"Ta-take th-the detonator and b-b-b-blasting…cap off." Gadget surreptitiously gestured to the mine that Kernel was removing with both hands. "It wi-it will st-still explo-ode, but n-no real d-danger of shr-sh-shrapnel."

Kernel frowned. "But we need the explosion and the damage."

Gadget shook her head slightly, "T-too risky. W-we could be caught in blast…shrapnels…tr-travels far."

After a while, Kernel nodded. "Where should we put it?" he asked.

Wiping her sweat from her brow, Gadget made a furtive glance around. The Cornucopia had a rich volume of soil. If the mineral content was the same as would be found in natural conditions, then…"Th-the m-middle of the C-C-Cornucopia…i-it's the most ideal…big bang."

"Okay...so that's one part down," Kernel said.

Gadget was busy stripping out parts and wires and anything technological from the pedestal, when she couldn't help asking, "Wh-why would you h-h-help me? Es-escape…I mean."

Kernel did risk a look at her for a moment, then said, "It's not about me helping you. What was it Binary said?" he asked rhetorically. "We all have our parts to play?" Gadget peeked at him through her hair enough to see him shake his head and roll his eyes. "It's about you helping me."

Gadget frowned and stared down at the machinery in front of her. She reached forward onto the pedestal to disconnect some of the more sophisticated pieces. Was Kernel necessarily wrong? She was the only person here that could help him escape. And…in doing that…it helped herself. It made it so that she herself could get out.

"You stole my things," Kernel offhandedly mentioned and Gadget bit her lip. She had…punched him and hurt him until Corduroy knocked him out. She couldn't blame him if he was mad at her for that.

But now that they were both here, together…it felt insignificant.

"But you didn't kill me, so I guess I owe you at least that much," Kernel said, dropping his voice a few octaves. "And most importantly," he added, "I can't escape alone. My use to them," he spat, "is gonna end as soon as I finish diggin' up these mines."

Gadget paled. She had…forgotten about that. The Careers didn't have a reason to keep him alive. They were both slaves to the Careers. And if Clove grew bored enough, Kernel was going to be the first one to die.

Their time was running out.

"We could blow up the armor," Kernel said.

Gadget looked at him in surprise, momentarily forgetting the risk. That…that was so dangerous. She needed to use it for herself. And the sponsors…they'd be enraged. They'd call for her head. Because if nobody got to use it, then it was a waste of money and their time. Seneca Crane could…he could…

"Look away," Kernel implored, and Gadget did so with a flush. "Better destroyed than one of them getting it."

It would be suicide.

And maybe it would be worth it.

"Okay," she said softly, weakly. She was signing her own death sentence. But that didn't matter. At least this way, Corduroy and Peeta wouldn't try to save her, and they could focus on themselves, and their own survival.

"Excellent," Kernel said, just as softly. Then he made a quiet noise that Gadget suspected might have been a scoff. "Maybe the Careers," he said with such vitriolic hate that it took Gadget aback, "will do us a favor and kill the captain."

He looked towards Binary not too far away when he said the last part.

Gadget swallowed and ducked her gaze firmly onto the pedestal that she was gradually taking the pieces out of. She had never heard so much hate. Not even from her-no. Not even from Zeno.

The beeping sound of a sponsor redirected Gadget's attention, and she looked around the air to find it. She doubted it was for her. She'd already received a sponsor today, after all.

She saw from the corner of her eye as Kernel looked up in the air to see the sponsor as well. And Gadget realized she was right as it floated down towards where Marvel was standing, leaning on his spear casually. It seemed that the Careers' argument had ended.

Gadget watched as a cocky smirk crossed Marvel's features and he caught the sponsor in his outstretched hand. On the side of the container, the number of his district stood proudly.

"What did you get?" Glimmer asked as she approached.

Marvel frowned and pulled out a second container from the sponsor. "Some fuel," he said, then shrugged. He looked far from pleased.

"Aw, look on the bright side!" Glimmer urged. She spun around and looked right at Kernel. "Fire Girl's killer gets to set someone else on fire," she sang, a dark grin on her beautiful face.

Marvel grinned and he followed her gaze to Kernel. "Sounds marvelous, Glimmer. We can make the kernel…pop."

Kernel turned back around to continue digging, but Gadget see it. She could see just how furious he was. And she could see how immense his hatred was.

"They all deserve to die."

---

She was so thirsty. So hungry. Her face stung in pain from the knife Clove used to split her skin open. She could feel her insides twisting about. She didn't know how long she had sat there, working on the suit. But she knew it was hours. Hours where the sun in the sky didn't move an inch, and beamed down on them unendingly.

The Careers circled her like viruses in a datastream, as they ensured that Gadget was doing what she…was supposed to. They watched as she slid a gear into place on the suit, before she laid the foundations for the generator.

The only weapon she had was a spear. One that she had to cut open with painstaking effort, through the handle so that she could see the hollow recesses of what was inside.

But her thirst and hunger were overwhelming. She needed something to drink so desperately. Maybe she could…

Her thoughts trailed off.

But most of all…she needed a break. And with that thought, Gadget slouched to the side, dropping a screw beside her. Her hands and fingers were so sore. So pained.

Her hand dipped down to her pocket, where she'd kept the fruit snack pack up until that point. She wrapped an arm around her waist as she pulled it out and tore the pack open. She was so hungry she could barely think. Her stomach ached.

Without thinking much beyond it, she bit into the first fruit snack she pulled from the pack, practically devouring it in one bite. The flavor flooded through her taste buds and Gadget felt relief as she chewed on it and swallowed.

It was as she pulled a second piece out of the pack that she felt a harsh shove into her side and knocked her over, the pack slipping out between her sore fingers in her surprise. "Agh!" Gadget grunted.

"I didn't say you could eat," Clove snarled.

"I-I'm sor-sorry," Gadget stuttered, pulling her head off the ground. "I'm jus-just s-so hung-hungry," she said pleadingly.

"You'll eat," Clove started with a look of cruel fury, "when I say you can eat."

Gadget whimpered, whispering apologies. She barely noticed as Clove stepped around her and bent over to pick up the fruit snack pack. Clove was utterly silent, and that fact made Gadget squirm with uneasiness.

The air suddenly felt so thick. Gadget looked down at the ground again. She didn't want to see Clove's fury with her anymore. It was an ever-present reminder of the things that Gadget had done.

"This…" Clove hissed in barely restrained anger, "this is what Cato took with him before our hunt."

Oh…

She didn't have time to protest before Clove wrapped her fist in Gadget's hair and pulled her head back. It was just like that morning. All over again. Her dead eyes met Clove's sadistic ones, and she heard as she tore a knife free from her vest and put it to Gadget's throat.

You deserve this, Gadget, she reminded herself.

"I think," Clove said viciously, "that I'm going to cut you into pieces."

Gadget's heart thumped against her chest harshly. Clove was going to kill her. And that was all there was to it.

"First," Clove began, "I'll start with your fingers, and I'll cut them off one. By. One." She tapped her knife against Gadget's chin, forcing her head up as she released her grip on her hair. "Then…I'll skin you. Every part of you."

Gadget glanced past Clove, where she could see that the other Careers had come to stand and watch. Maybe Clove was going to force them all to take turns in killing her. Marina and Glimmer looked amused, but Marvel…he looked somewhat disturbed.

Gadget didn't understand, but she didn't have any time to dwell on it before Clove pressed her knife harder into her chin, forcing her to look back at Clove directly.

"You won't die from the blood loss. Or the pain," Clove purred. "You'll die of hypothermia."

Gadget didn't say anything. There was no point in pleading. Clove was going to do whatever she wished. Gadget's death was all but ensured. She couldn't imagine just how much pain Clove promised to unfold upon her. She didn't want to die like this. She didn't want to die full of agony.

Clove frowned suddenly and she pulled her knife away. Her face turned red in rage. She twisted her knife around in-between her fingers, and she pushed Gadget away roughly, letting her fall onto her back.

Clove tapped the end of her knife, and although she could see just how angry she was, Gadget could tell as she contemplated something. Then, at last, she said, "Get Nine."

W-what?

A demented grin appeared on Marina's face and she skulked off to the other end of the Cornucopia, where Gadget could see that Kernel was digging a hole near a pile of supplies that had been stacked up in the last few hours. She could see as Binary watched as Marina went, but said nothing as she grabbed Kernel by the arm and pulled harshly.

"W-wait-" Gadget tried to say, but Clove stomped down on her stomach. Hard.

"You stopped building," Clove said, flipping her knife around through the air, before catching it in her palm, "so watch the consequences."

Marina shoved Kernel to the ground in front of Clove.

"Nngh!" Kernel tried his best to catch himself when he collapsed.

Dirt and gravel scattered feebly, and he looked over towards Gadget, where he could see how red and swollen her fingers were, from overuse. She had been pulling or pushing things together, and more often than not they were stubborn pieces. Add to that the fact Gadget was running on fumes and very little rest…

"What is wrong with you people?" Kernel demanded. "You want her to make your suit for you but you won't let her rest her ha-AARGH!"

Clove stomped. Hard. Right on Kernel's left hand. She didn't look heavy, but Gadget knew the amount of force the girl just generated would more than make up for any lack of weight.

"You really talk too much," Clove muttered as she bent down and swung her left fist in a strange uppercut, which sent Kernel sprawling on his back, and she knelt down on top of his chest, grabbing his tongue and pulling hard, earning a guttural cry of pain, which went silent quickly when Clove pressed her knife against the tongue. "I think I'll cut it out."

"S-STOP!" Gadget cried out.

Clove's head whipped about incredibly fast and she grinned evilly at Gadget. "Finally."

Finally?

Clove cut part of Kernel's tongue, making him and Gadget scream at the same time. The other Careers seemed to catch on to what was happening though, and Glimmer said, "Oooh, let me go next!"

"One second," Clove said, and she leaned towards Kernel, pressing his head back against the ground, her knife dangerously close to his left eye. His own blood was pooling at the tip and before it could drip down into his eye, Clove licked the blade, and the blood.

"Eugh!" Glimmer said, and even Marvel made a soft noise.

Binary remained impassive.

Kernel abruptly lurched as he screamed again. Without noticing, Clove's other hand had drawn a second knife, and she rammed it through his right clavicle.

Gadget was watching in horror, and she pushed up to her feet. "PLEASE STOP HURTING HIM!"

"Why should I?" Clove retorted. "You're boring now...but Nine here?" She looked at Kernel, almost fondly. She'd let go of her off-hand knife and gripped him by the hair, pressing his head hard against the ground. "Nine is delicious."

She leaned over to lick the side of his face, and Kernel made an uncomfortable sound. With incredible grace, Clove kicked off of the boy and was now cradling his head in her lap, and she grinned maniacally at Glimmer.

"What do you got, Diamondhead?"

Glimmer matched Clove's grin and nocked an arrow, pulling the bowstring all the way, aiming the arrow straight between Kernel's legs.

"NOOOOO!" Gadget screamed whilst Kernel cried out something incoherent and Clove kept him pinned in a vice like grip on his head.

The arrow released, but just a hair's breadth away from striking the mark. Glimmer threw her head back and laughed. "THE LOOK ON THEIR FACES!"

"Okay my turn," Marina said as she knelt down by Kernel's side, and Glimmer moved away. "I love how you look at me, Nine."

Gadget saw the sheer hatred in his eyes.

"I think he looks at me with more emotion than you," Clove taunted Marina.

"Oh really?" Marina grinned, and she reached for the knife embedded in Kernel's right shoulder, and pulled it out while twisting at the same time, earning a groan of pain and frustration.

"St-stop it…p-p-please…" Gadget's hands were wringing in front of her as she tried to think what she could do to make them stop. "I-I-I won't finish the s-s-suit if you don't sto-stop!"

Marvel looked troubled again, but the three Career girls looked at her with pure rage.

"Did you hear that? I guess she really wants us to tear Nine to pieces, huh?" Clove said.

"Yeah, and as for Nine looking at you with more emotion, Clove? Let's see how he feels when I do this…"

She began carving lines and patterns over Kernel's forehead, eliciting cries of pain as Marina cut the symbol of her district on his forehead. When she was done, she kissed the wound and patted Kernel on the cheek. "Now you'll never forget me!"

"RRRRNG!" Was all Kernel managed. The frustration was clear in his voice.

The girls then ignored him and turned to look pointedly at Gadget, smiling. "Wh-what do you want?" she asked resignedly.

"I think you know, Killer," Clove said. "Hey, Glimmer, you think Nine needs his thumb?"

Glimmer began to kneel down and grabbed the boy's hand in hers and Gadget had enough. "NO! NO STOP! I'LL…I'll do whatever you want! Just PLEASE STOP HURTING HIM!"

Clove's smile and all pretenses of niceness faded away like a deleted file. She unceremoniously dropped Kernel's head to the ground as she got up and walked over him like he was little more than a rug for her and she grabbed Gadget by the collar of her ruined shirt, "No more resting, no more sneaking food when you're hungry…you'll starve if I say so. From now on, you'll finish this suit in record time, even if you start bleeding out. GOT IT?!"

"Y-yes…" Gadget said weakly.

"In fact, I want you to bleed." Clove shoved Gadget back. "Now GO!"

Gadget stumbled. "I-I need water," she said meekly. Clove gave Gadget a warning look. She spun her knife around and Gadget was quick to amend her statement. "F-for the generator!"

Clove looked at Gadget coldly for a moment. Then she said, "Marvel, bring Killer some water. But if I see you drink it…" Clove let the threats hang, and she glanced back at Kernel.

"An-and…" Gadget gazed at her feet. She didn't want to ask for more than she had to. Kernel was going to be…he was going to be tortured by them if she did the slightest thing wrong. "I-I need st-sticks and leaves for a f-fire."

Clove tilted her head back, only just. "Glimmer?"

"On it," Glimmer sang, and she walked off.

Clove's lips curled. "Good. Marina, go give Nine some first aid," she said, and Gadget looked up at the girl across from her with surprise. But Clove only grinned evilly. "I think we've found a new purpose for him."

Marvel approached them, a flask in his hand. "One container of water, as was requested," he said in a somewhat joking tone. Clove took it from him and tossed it to Gadget for her to catch.

Water…and she couldn't even drink it. She cast one last glance at Kernel as Marina pulled him up and they walked over to the mountain of supplies that had been piled.

"Back to work, Three!" Clove barked at Binary, who glared at her, but did as he was told by going back over to the mines, and restarting his work on reactivating them.

Gadget reluctantly sat down beside her supplies. She didn't react when Glimmer returned with sticks, leaves, and all sorts of other things to set aflame. Gadget got the fire started after a few seconds of fumbling, but it was all she needed.

Clove was going to watch her every movement as she did this.

She rummaged through her supplies, her nimble fingers selecting the necessary items. Two water containers - one smaller than the other - caught her attention.

Carefully, almost reverently, Gadget punctured a series of ventilation holes into the chosen furnace container, ensuring the vital flow of air. She then punctured a larger opening to the detachable lid of the outer vessel to act as the bearing for her turbine's shaft. But it was the minute aperture she carved into the lid of the inner container that held the key to redirecting the unleashed energy. The tip of her knife pierced through the metal, creating a conduit through which the steam would be guided. A slender tube of plastic, its placement secured by molten pine resin obtained from the nearby fire, would serve as the conductor, leading the unleashed might to its appointed destination.

With the groundwork laid, Gadget's attention turned to the salvaged treasure she had discovered - a small electronic fan blade. She seized upon it, handling it with a mix of reverence and purpose. Aligning a bolt at its heart, she fastened it tightly, the first nut serving as a steadfast guardian against dislodgement. The other two nuts anchored it securely, ensconcing the spinning wonder within the lid of the outer chamber. To complete this symphony of mechanics, she affixed a magnet to one of the fan's blades using the same pine resin as the plastic tube.

But there was more to this alchemical symphony of invention. Gadget's gaze alighted upon a copper wire, gleaming in the dim light. Her hands trembled slightly as she wound the wire meticulously, coiling it in concentric circles along the interior of the lid. Each loop held purpose, carefully calculated to avoid impeding the turbine's spinning motion. With painstaking care, the wire connected to the battery pack she had been sponsored, creating a pathway to the reservoir of energy to be harnessed. Her movements were both methodical and exultant as the circuit neared completion, bringing her contraption one step closer to life.

The steam generator, her masterpiece of makeshift engineering, stood before her in all its glory. Gadget's breath caught in her throat as she beheld her creation, her ingenuity made manifest. It was time to put it to the test. With focused determination, she disassembled the twin containers, revealing their true potential. The outer vessel became a receptacle for her chosen fuel source, while a tiny ember, plucked from the crackling embers of her fire, was transferred to the inner furnace. And then, the flames danced, devouring the dry leaves, twigs, and cloth with a voracious hunger, their fervor building with each passing moment.

Eyes fixed upon the elemental spectacle, Gadget observed with bated breath as the water within the chamber began its transformative journey. Gradually, the liquid roiled, defying the constraints of its molecular bonds. Wisps of steam curled and rose, as if heralding the birth of an otherworldly force. The pressure of the unleashed steam set the turbine into motion, its blades spinning with an almost supernatural velocity. As the ethereal machine whirred, the meticulously coiled copper wire, mere centimeters away, conducted the arcane current, electricity crackling through its serpentine embrace.

The energy flowed unabated, ensuring a steady power supply for her future exploits. Yet there was no time for self-congratulation, for her task remained unfinished.

There was more to this weapon than met the eye. Within the hollow recesses of the spear's internal handle, Gadget's nimble fingers threaded a labyrinth of wires. Like veins pulsating with life, they snaked their way downward, towards a hidden cache of scavenged capacitors and resistors salvaged from the discarded remnants of the arena's electronic launch pedestals. These relics of technology, once used to propel the hapless tributes into the blood-soaked fray, now found a new purpose in Gadget's hands.

With meticulous care, she soldered the capacitors and resistors together, forming a network of raw power. A hot steel screw, taken from the panel of her launch pedestal, served as her soldering iron. Scraped solder, harvested from the battered circuit boards of the launch pedestals, became the molten conduit binding the capacitors into a formidable force. A delicate dance of connections ensued, as she meticulously weaved the web of power within her weapon, ensuring every element aligned harmoniously. Upon a final inspection, she verified the connection of each wire, before sealing each component in wax, and storing them inside the hollowed handle of the leather wrapped spear.

As Gadget gazed upon her creation, a mix of awe and determination filled her eyes. The spear, now infused with the heart of electricity, powered by a homemade steam engine, possessed a lethal elegance that mirrored her own resourcefulness and survival instinct. The weight of her weapon settled into her grip, its lethal potential a palpable presence. Gadget's resolute stance bespoke the resolve etched upon her face. It was time. Time to test the limits of her creation. Her thoughts wove a tapestry of calculations, the equations of power dancing through her mind.

If…if I'm right…then on a full battery, I'll be getting approximately three amps, at around fifty volts. That's…that should be enough to stop a heart.

She couldn't help but acknowledge, in the depths of her thoughts, the twisted irony of gratitude towards the Capitol's advanced electronics, their twisted gifts fueling her innovation as she held what had to be the most sophisticated homemade weapon in the history of the Hunger Games.

Minutes stretched like eternities as Gadget waited for the battery to generate its charge, anticipation building like a tempest within her. At last, the moment arrived. She extended the spear, its end yearning for contact, aching to unleash their electrifying fury upon the world.

With a steady hand and a determined heart, Gadget guided the spear's tip towards a scrap piece of metal. The instant the metal made contact with the spear's lethal embrace, a burst of raw power crackled through the air, an aural testament to the weapon's unforgiving might. A smile, tinged with a mix of triumph and dark realization, crept across Gadget's lips. The electricity danced and writhed, illuminating her surroundings with a malevolent glow.

In the sky, the Capitol anthem began to play.