Sunrises have the power to be beautiful no matter where the sun rises. As Taiya watched the sunrise during her watch shift the next morning she couldn't help but smile. Despite the harsh reality she found herself in, a sunrise still has the ability to mesmerize those who watch it, even in the Hunger Games arena.

"You good?" Theo asked, waking up.

"Yeah, all good," Taiya nodded.

"What are you thinking about? I can almost hear your brain working," he joked.

"It's beautiful."

"What is? The snow?"

"Oh god no," Taiya scoffed. "The sun. The way it lights up the sky. It's beautiful. It's constant. You can always rely on the sun to rise every day. It'll never leave. People leave, but the sun… the sun stays."

"You thinking about your parents?" he asked.

"Yeah and you."

"Taiya…"

"You made me a promise. Do you remember that?" she asked, turning to him, her eyes filled with tears. "Before the funeral. You promised me that you'd be there for me so long as I need you. You lied. Because I need you. And you're telling me that you're going to give up on yourself to save me. That's not helping me, Theo. That's killing me," she stuttered as the tears started falling.

"Hey," he hushed as he pulled her in for a hug. "I'm sorry."

"Why are you doing this to me? You have a family still alive back home. You could have a family of your own one day. My family is dead, it's you who deserves to go home."

"Taiya. You do have a family. Look," he said, pulling her necklace up. "Annie, she cares about you as if you were another cousin. You finally reconnected with your aunt and uncle and Shark. You want to know why I'm doing this. I'm doing it because I know you'll recover when you go home. It'll hurt but you'll recover. If I lose you, I won't ever be the same. You'll have broken me forever."

"Theo it's the same for me."

"No, no it's not."

"How?" Taiya demanded.

"Because I'm in love with you!" he exclaimed, throwing his hands up as her face fell. "I know you're not in love with me and that's ok, I don't blame you. I had a crush on you since the first day we started school when we were 6. You were so beautiful with your pigtails, the mayor's daughter. I live in the fishing village, I didn't have a right to be talking to the mayor's daughter. I stared at you for 2 years straight just trying to build up the courage to say hi to you. And then Finnick knocked you off the dock and I was terrified you were going to set the Peacekeepers on us. But when he pulled you out you were so mad at him you just marched right up to me and asked me to join you in that stupid take over District 4 plan," he laughed. "You spent the next two weeks by my side at school planning it with me. You never cared I lived in the fishing village, you just liked me for me."

"Theo…" Taiya stuttered as she grabbed his face. "Why did you never tell me?"

"You never felt the same," he shrugged as he looked at the ground. "Our friendship is too important to me, I never wanted to jeopardize that by making you uncomfortable. I've been obsessed with you for 10 years Taiya, you didn't know I even existed for 2 of those. You have a chance to go home, make something of your life. If I go home I'll be going home without my best friend, without the one girl I ever noticed, without the girl that I'm in love with."

Taiya sobbed loudly before launching herself at him and pulling him in for a hug. "I love you, Theo. You're my best friend," she cried before she pulled away slightly. She looked him in the eyes before rising onto her toes and kissing him. He placed his hands on her cheek and she felt him smile before he pulled away.

"Thank you," he said quietly and she nodded. "Come on. Let's go look for tributes."

Taiya and Theo had been walking the arena hand in hand in silence for most of the day. Neither of them knew what to say to each other now, but they weren't willing to release their hold on the other.

"Look at that," Taiya pointed to the top of the trees nearby.

"Smoke," Theo smiled. "I don't think anyone's died from exposure, the uniform spares people from that. They must be desperate to light a fire."

"Weakened," Taiya realized, looking up at Theo who nodded sadly. "Let's go. Need to make it quick, the others might see it."

Taiya and Theo crept their way through the trees, trying to be extra quiet when they neared the fire. As they saw the orange flicker of a flame, they stopped and crouched down behind a bush. Theo held up his finger as he carefully stuck his head out before pulling back. He nodded and held up three of his fingers, signaling the person was the girl from District 3. 'Sick' he mouthed to Taiya and she nodded. Theo then signaled for Taiya to stay put and she shook her head. They had a silent argument about it for a few moments before Taiya rolled her eyes and stood up, walking into the clearing to stand in front of the girl, Theo hurrying out after her.

"I said wait," he snapped.

"Please don't hurt me," the girl from District 3, Techna, pleaded as she leaped to her feet. She stumbled backward and clutched at her side.

"You're hurt," Taiya pointed out as she noticed blood seeping out from under her hand. "There's no point, you won't make it."

"I tried to pack it with snow, to slow the bleeding," Techna explained shakily. "But it got infected. I just need to outlast everyone else. I have a shot, please don't do this."

"How'd you get hurt?" Theo asked.

"I stumbled into a fight between 1 and 9," Techna explained as she tearfully slid down a tree, seeing no escape.

Taiya and Theo looked at each other. They'd been eager to know what happened in that fight that meant none had lost their lives.

"The girl from 1 got me with her sword and then I ran. She's coming for you both. I heard her yelling. She said she was going to make you watch as she killed each of you." Techna opened her mouth to say something else when a knife flew and was implanted into her head, immediately killing her and sending off a cannon.

"Taiya what the hell!" Theo yelled, grabbing her arm as she went to walk off. "She was giving us information!"

"No, she wasn't," Taiya snapped, pulling out of his grip and tugging him along. "We have to get out of here. She was stalling. She told us she was hit with the sword 5 days ago, that's an awfully long time to sit there in the cold when you know you're dying. The fire was a trap. She said it herself, she wanted to wait it out, but she knew she wasn't making it to the end of the day so she was trying to lure us all into one area so we'd fight each other, leaving her. As soon as we saw the fire we went straight for her, the others will do the same which means they're on their way here so we have to get out of here now!" she said taking his hand as they took off running.

They'd been running for half an hour when they stopped for a break. "How did I not see that," Theo admonished himself. "She was from District 3, they're smart she would've known to never light a fire. Of course, it was a trap. What are you looking at?" he asked as he looked up to see her staring the way they'd just come.

"It hasn't snowed today," she said quietly.

"What?" he asked.

"It's snowed every day in the afternoon," she said as she looked into the sky, judging from the sun's position it was well into the late afternoon. "It should've snowed."

"So? It didn't snow, that's a good thing. Snow sucks."

"No, no it's not," she shook her head. "Footprints," she said as she turned to look wide-eyed at Theo.

He stood up quickly and came to stand next to her, looking to see their footprints coming from the direction they'd fled from. The snow hadn't come in to cover their steps.

"Theo they're all going to go to that campsite and see our prints, all they have to do is follow them!"

"Ok. What we need to do. We need to find a spot to hide and then we need to confuse the prints and get into the spot without leaving a mark. That way we can ambush them. Let's go. Now," he tugged her as they sprinted off. "Keep an eye out for a large bush."

"There!" Taiya yelled as she spotted a bush after running for 15 minutes.

"Ok, perfect, now we've got to run in circles. Run all over the place, confuse the prints," he instructed her and she nodded as they both frantically began running around in the snow.

"Do you see any way to get behind the bush without leaving evidence?" she asked.

"I do, and I don't think you're going to like it," he nodded his head in the direction of a tree next to them.

"You want me to climb a tree?" she asked incredulously. "I can climb ropes I can't climb trees."

"It's what we need to do, there's not a lot of options," he pointed out. "We climb this tree and you see how those two branches are close?" he asked as he pointed at branches from two separate trees that came within the same vicinity of each other. "We climb our way across and lower ourselves behind the bush. With any luck, they'll see the tracks go to this tree and be facing the other way and we can surprise them," he said proudly.

"It's a good plan," Taiya admitted. "I hate it. Let's give it a go," she nodded as she made her way to the tree.

"You go first, I'll spot you."

"Ok," she agreed nervously as she grabbed a branch sticking out low on the tree and pulled herself up.

"Good just keep going, it's just like climbing the nets."

"No, it's not. I'm good at climbing nets, I'm not good at climbing trees," she protested.

"Just think of it as a giant wooden net," he joked as she reached the branch they needed to make their way across with.

She grabbed onto it firmly and went to swing her leg over it when she slipped. Theo reached up and grabbed her behind to steady her. "Hey!" she protested as she regained her footing.

"What did you want me to let you fall?" he smiled.

"Stop smiling," she laughed as she looked down at his face.

"Come on stop mucking around, make your way across," he jerked his head, a smile still plastered on his face.

Taiya and Theo made it to the other side and shimmied their way down the tree, into their hiding spot behind the bush.

"Now what?" she asked.

"Now we wait for either tributes or snow," he said quietly. "We sprinted a fairly decent way today, relax for a bit I'll take first watch."

Taiya and Theo had been waiting behind the bush in silence for a few hours and no tributes had followed their tracks yet. They'd been taking it in turns keeping watch. Taiya had her head resting on Theo's shoulder when they heard whispers that made her blood run cold. Someone was coming, and they weren't alone.

She immediately spun around and sat up straight, pulling two knives out of her belt and peering out of the gaps in the bush.

"We've been following those tracks for 2 hours now!" Mazie from District 9 complained. "What if it's like the campsite and doesn't lead anywhere? This is getting ridiculous now Bran. We haven't run into any tributes since the pair from 1 escaped us, this is probably just another red herring."

"Would you shut up Mazie?" Bran snapped. "There are only five other tributes left after that cannon earlier and there are two sets of tracks. If we can hunt them down that leaves only three others and there's two of us. District 9 might finally have a winner."

"Please Bran, the only way we took out the pair from 2 was through luck. We can't beat Careers with talent. As soon as the pair from 1 got angry we had to flee. Following these tracks could be a trap, and I'm sorry, but I don't think we can win a trap set up by Careers."

"Stop," Bran commanded and Mazie froze. "They're onto the tracks. Look, they've run all over the place." He looked up and studied the area. "They're around here somewhere."

"Bran," Mazie stuttered, terrified at the idea of another confrontation.

"Split up, search around this area. Call for me if you find them."

"I don't like this!" Mazie protested again.

"Just do it. Please!"

Mazie stepped in the direction of the bush Taiya and Theo were hiding in whilst Bran went the opposite way. Taiya looked over at Theo and he signaled for her to take on Mazie and he'd run after Bran. Taiya nodded, and seeing this movement, Mazie had spotted them and screamed out for Bran.

Taiya lunged out of the bush, tackling Mazie to the ground. The two girls groaned as they rolled around.

"Get off me," Mazie spat, as she desperately held back Taiya's knives.

Taiya groaned as she desperately tried to pin Mazie down to the ground. Taiya flung her elbow down, smacking it into Mazie's face, letting a loud crunch ring out as the girl's nose was broken. This stunned Mazie long enough that she froze, allowing Taiya to bring down her knife into the girl's chest and a cannon rang out in the air.

Taiya immediately sprung up and looked over at Theo. Bran had a sickle as his weapon, which was significantly longer than the sword Theo had to fight with. Taiya wound back her arm, prepared to throw the knife when Theo thrust his sword through Bran's stomach. The boy immediately collapsed as the cannon sounded.

"We did it!" Taiya cheered, throwing her hands in the air. "Theo we got them both. There are only three others left now. Only one other district pair left, our odds are looking pretty good now," she smiled excitedly. "Theo?" she asked. He'd been ignoring everything she said as he walked over to a boulder to sit down. "Is everything ok?" she asked as she took a few steps towards him before freezing, all the air around her coming to a stop as her heart lept into her throat. As he'd lowered himself onto the seat, the red bloodstains over his abdomen became visible to her. "Theo?" she stuttered, looking at his pale face. "NO!" she roared as she sprinted towards him. "No, no, no, you have to lie down. Lie down," she tugged his arm. "I can try to stop the bleeding. The girl from 3, she said… she said snow helps stem bleeding," Taiya cried as she tried to pull him down.

Theo let out a sob as he moved to lie down. Taiya tried to move his arm away from the wound so she could see it, but he held firm against her. "You don't need to see that," he said quietly, shaking his head.

"What?" Taiya choked. "No, no, no, we can fix this ok. We can fix this. SEND SOMETHING!" she screamed at the sky, pleading with Tyler or Finnick to send medical supplies. Nothing came, which was a change from usual. "Send something!" she screamed again before breaking down into sobs. "Please." Nothing came.

"Tay," Theo cried. "I know what's coming, it's ok. He got me good with the sickle. I don't have long," he cried and she looked down at his face to see it growing paler by the second as blood pooled around them. "You're going to go home ok? You're going to go home and you're going to get a nice house in Victor's Village, you're going to have your own dock and you're going to be happy alright? I promise."

"No," Taiya shook her head. "Not without you."

"You're not going to get a choice," he smiled weakly as he tucked a loose piece of hair behind her ear before his hand weakly fell to the ground. Taiya reached down and took hold of his hand as she sobbed. "You can't shut people out when you go home alright? I know you. I saw what you tried to do when your parents died. You tried to lock yourself away and you can't do that again alright? I won't be there to drag you out," he said and she cried louder. "Hey, hey, come on. You need to be brave ok? There's only three left and then you'll be on your way home."

Taiya looked over at the amount of blood he had lost. She knew now that there was absolutely nothing she could do. "Does it hurt?" she asked and he shook his head.

"It kind of feels like I'm floating."

"Can I do anything?" she asked, trying to be brave.

"Just don't leave me," he asked.

"I'll never leave you," she promised.

"Take my ring," he said, looking down at the hand she was holding. "Keep it." She nodded and slid the ring off his finger and onto hers. "You gave it to me," he smiled and she nodded, trying hard to keep her face calm.

"For your birthday this year."

"I loved it," Theo nodded, a few tears slipping out of his eyes as his breaths slowed.

Taiya lowered herself down and pressed her lips to his cold ones one last time before pulling back up. Theo smiled at her and nodded before he finally stopped breathing.

Taiya didn't even hear the sound of the cannon as she sat there numbly, unable to comprehend anything going on around her. She sat frozen in her spot for 5 minutes, staring at Theo's vacant face when something hit her foot. She looked down to see a sponsor gift.

She stood up and wiped her tears, she knew she had to leave the area for the hovercraft to come. She leaned down and kissed Theo's cheek one last time before she walked away, leaving the gift ignored on the ground. She was heartbroken and angry. Heads would roll.

Sorry, sorry, sorry. Hope you guys liked the chapter, please leave a review with your thoughts, I'd love to know what you're all thinking, your ideas, and what you'd like to see!

Sparky She-Demon: Rip Cooper