Author's Note

I do not own The Hunger Games.

Ares Gilmore, 15

Getting Iridescence to continue on and leave her brother was possibly the hardest thing he had ever done. She was trembling – another seizure coming on – and while she moved, she also dug her heels in, glancing repeatedly over her shoulder and calling for Luminescence.

"He'll catch us up," Ares said for the dozenth time, though they both knew it to be a lie. Neither of them were never going to see Luminescence again, unless one of them got out of here and attended his funeral.

"You should have let me go back and help," she whispered.

"From what I know of Luminescence, he can hold his own."

True enough. From what Ares knew, it was the other brother, Radiance, the one whose face had shown in the sky a few nights ago, who was the fiercer fighter, but Luminescence had entered The Game enough times. He was a tough opponent. And the other girl, Luminta's sister, had hardly seemed experienced. Luminescence should have the advantage.

"But we'd stand more of a chance if it was two on one," Iridescence said.

Also true. They'd all entered The Game enough times to know that the alliance with the bigger numbers usually had the advantage.

"He wanted us to run," Ares said. He'd seen Luminescence do similar things in other Games they'd played through. He was self sacrificing. If saving his siblings meant one of them had to go down, almost every time that Ares had seen, it had Luminescence.

"So I lose him too?" she whispered.

Too.

Apollo was dead. Ares had seen his face in the sky.

Radiance was dead. Ares had seen his face in the sky.

Artemis–

He hadn't seen her face in the sky.

But Luminescence had been trying to say something about his sister, hadn't he? And he'd said he'd seen another infected player.

Had Luminescence killed Artemis before he found them?

Was that why he'd made the sacrifice he did?

"You've got me. And you've got Phoenix out here somewhere."

"And you've got all of us," said Zephyr, though from what Ares had seen, his predominant loyalty was to Celeste. But that was to be expected. Ares's predominant loyalty was to Iridescence, but it would transfer to Artemis when they found her. If they found her.

What had Luminescence wanted to tell him?

"Celeste says we're close!" Zephyr called, and something in Ares warmed at that. He hadn't been able to stop Luminescence, hadn't been able to save him, but soon enough they'd be back with Phoenix. He could help Iridescence save one of her siblings. He just hoped she could help him save one of his.

"Phoenix!" Iridescence called into the fog.

Ares kicked her. "Don't! Other players might hear you!"

"Yeah. Other players like Phoenix." Iridescence squinted through the fog, which was beginning to fade, being replaced with a thick darkness that blotted out the world as well as the fog. "Phoenix!"

Zephyr waved them onwards, into the darkness. Ares imagined that somewhere up ahead he could hear someone else. Phoenix and Artemis, both of them safe and alive–

The sky began to turn silver, and the anthem boomed through the air.

Ares's heart beat a little faster.

Your sister, Luminescence had said.

Somehow, it wasn't a surprise when Artemis's face appeared in the sky.

Iridescence gasped still, stiffening against him.

"Artemis Gilmore, age seventeen. Placed twenty third," declared the announcer.

And Ares's heart broke.

The tears burned his eyes, grief rising up inside him. Iridescence wrapped her arms around him. "Ares… I'm so sorry."

"She was still my sister," he whispered, trembling against her.

"I know." She curled her fingers into his hair and held him. "I know."

"Luminita?" called a voice from the fog.

Ares stumbled from her embrace and swung his axe from his back, positioning himself before her.

Both his siblings were dead.

Nothing was going to hurt Iridescence.

Andreas Amandiel, 18

Fuck, he'd preferred it when he was wandering aimlessly in the fog with Marquis. At least he hadn't been going from one person trying to kill him to a second person trying to kill him, to that second person trying to feed him to the mutts trying to kill him.

Although…

Were they mutts?

Andreas had assumed so, given their blank eyes and the black liquid spilling from their mouths and noses. But they were wearing player jumpsuits, still with some nodes glowing, and wielding weapons.

"Wait!" Andreas shouted, glancing around himself. Where did he run? Into the now dark graveyard, or the poison meadow? The grassland wasn't exactly an option.

"Are you players or mutts?" he asked.

"Players!" spat the smaller one, as though it should be obvious.

"Then why are you attacking me? If any of us die in here, we die for real."

He just needed them to lower their weapons. Then he could open their throats with his fans.

The smaller girl grinned, displaying teeth stained with that black liquid. "Because I'm sick and tired of playing this Game! I want to go home." She raised her sword. "And if this gets me home–"

"Heads up!" shouted a boy from somewhere. Andreas had the good sense to duck, and a moment later a spear came thrusting over him, slamming into the girl's chest and bringing her armour down to one. She shrieked, spitting black liquid.

"Don't get that stuff on you! It's some kind of contaminant!" shouted the newcomer, a tall, lithe boy with platinum blonde hair.

"Allies?" Andreas shouted. It wasn't something he'd usually do, but here was another player not trying to kill him, and Andreas would rather stay on their good side.

"Agreed!" replied the boy, backing up against him to put them back to back.

"Watch out for arrows from the cornucopia!" Andreas yelled.

"Noted! Watch out for the third girl!"

"The third–"

Across the glade, another girl, this one with tacky dyed yellow hair, stumbled from the shadows defending over the graveyard.

"Oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me!" Andreas shouted.

"Yeah, my bad! That's the one I was after!" yelled the newcomer.

Three on two. Well, those were better odds than two on one. Though Andreas would have preferred it if the boy atop the cornucopia would at least temporarily help them out and make it three on three.

"How do we kill them?" Andreas asked.

"Same way you kill any other player, I think! That's how Artemis went down anyway."

That made the smaller one the easiest target for now. Her armour was nearly gone anyway. Andreas blocked her sword slash with one of his fans and brought the other down across her face, leaving an angry red scratch and knocking out the rest of her armour. The other boy was tackling the girl with the spear, closing her thrusts and countering with strikes of his own. He was good. If Andreas hadn't needed another ally, he would have seen him as a threat.

He folded his fan again, bringing the bladed edges together into one dagger, and gripped it between his fingers. He'd killed players with these in other Games, though only rarely. Fighting was usually the task of barbarians. A trap Andreas had found himself falling into.

But death would even worse for his long term goals.

Andreas lunged forward and plunged the blade through the girl's throat.

Her eyes went wide.

She grasped at the now gaping hole in her neck.

Black liquid spilled from her mouth, and Andreas snatched his bladed fan back before he could get the stuff on it.

The girl's corpse toppled to the ground.

There was no time to think about it and still two mutated players to deal with. Plus a third threat on top of the cornucopia. Fuck, did that boy have no survival sense?

Andreas joined the newcomer in fighting the girl with the spear, though she was harder opposition. Her weapon had a far greater reach, meaning the other boy's own weapon was of much more use against her. Still, Andreas managed to get two strikes in, knocking out her armour. The new boy lunged forward to plunge his spear through her chest. Andreas gasped for air, looking at the two corpses at his feet.

The third girl, the yellow haired one the other boy had apparently been chasing, had stayed on the outskirts of the fight, watching them with leery eyes.

"We don't have to fight," the newcomer said, holding his hands out.

The girl hissed, spitting black liquid. "Oh, don't we? After you kept my sister from me?"

"I'm sorry about that–"

"I'd bet you are!"

"But you're sick!" snapped the boy.

"I'm not–"

An arrow embedded itself in her back and erupted in an explosion of ice. Her armour dropped to zero. Confusion crossed her face. She struggled to take a step forward, but her jumpsuit had frozen. A second arrow flew from the cornucopia and buried itself in the back of her neck. Her body rocked on its feet for a moment and then collapsed forward, landing face down in the grass.

Andreas looked up at the boy on the cornucopia. "Glad you decided to do something useful!"

Phoenix Sterling, 13

"Luminita?" Marcellina called into the darkness. Vivaldi had taken out his torch, but they still didn't have any batteries for it, so it was kinda useless really.

"Don't keep shouting," Emeria hissed.

"But it sounds like Luminita," Marcellina protested.

"But it might not be," Phoenix pointed out. They knew full well that there were still other players in this Game. Seventeen of them, apparently. Including Luminescence and Iridescence, out there alone somewhere. Though not Artemis Gilmore. She was dead, the afterimage of her face in the sky still shining behind Phoenix's eyes.

"If it is Luminita, she'll find us. Keep yelling, and those District kids might well find us too," hissed Emeria.

Etheria frowned. "District kids?"

"There's a group of District kids in the arena. They attacked us," Emeria said, as though it was the most normal thing in the world.

Phoenix glanced at Vivaldi. "Those must be the players we ran into that night. The ones Artemis saved us from."

Artemis was dead now.

A beam of light sliced through the darkness, swinging back and forth. They readied their weapons. The District kids had had torches like that too.

The figures holding the torches were shapeless, faceless black blobs at the origin point. Phoenix shifted her grip on her knife.

She could turn it on herself and see her pod–

Vivaldi gave her a slight shake of his head. "Promise."

"Promise," she echoed.

She had promised she wouldn't.

But still–

"Emeria?" called a voice from the shadows.

Emeria gasped, and lowered her bow slightly. "It is you!"

"And some extras," the other girl replied.

There was a slight crunch somewhere outside the beam of light, like a foot moving in the leaves. Phoenix frowned, turning towards the sound.

"Well, it's good to hear you!" Emeria said.

And an axe came flying from the darkness, slamming into her back.

Had this been a real Hunger Games, the strike would have killed her instantly, but fortunately she had some armour nodes left. The blow brought her down to only one, and she crashed down to her knees.

"Score!" shouted a girl from behind them.

"What–" Vivaldi muttered, spinning with his sword in hand.

"Vivaldi?" asked a boy.

Vivaldi's expression brightened. "Thorin–"

"Run!" Phoenix snapped, wrenching on his hand.

Vivaldi seemed to remember himself then, and turned to follow her into the darkness and they ran towards the newcomers. As they grew closer, she caught sight of platinum hair and bright eyes.

But not Luminescence.

"Iridescence," she whispered, reaching out to her.

(she'd reunited with Luminescence and he'd died)

Another girl, this one smaller than Phoenix herself with hair as dark as the shadows and eerily pale eyes, darted towards her. "I've been looking for you!"

"What?"

The girl caught her hands, pressing them between her own. A axe flew dangerously close to her head. "You can get out."

"How do you know–"

The arena flickered around her, and for a brief moment she caught sight of her pod, the cool blue light filling it. Phoenix gasped and stumbled. "Are you doing that?"

"You must lead us out," replied the girl. Something caught her in the chest and she stumbled. Several of her armour nodes went out.

"I don't know how!" Phoenix protested.

"You must!" she replied.

Something struck Phoenix in the side, knocking out her remaining armour points.

"We have to leave!" she shouted.

The girl squeezed her hands tighter. "You must lead us; you must take the key!"

The glow of her pod grew brighter. Phoenix could still feel the strange girl holding her hands, but she could also feel them inside the gloves, the supple leather against her skin.

The emergency release.

She had to pull the emergency release.

Phoenix strained against the girl's hands and the gloves and the cold of her pod, reaching for lever. It felt so far away, too far away, but at last she wrapped her fingers around it.

She caught another flash of the arena, Iridescence's horrified face.

"Phoenix!" she screamed.

"Aww, poor lickle Phoenix," said a boy, looming over her.

The blade in his hand came up.

The world went white.

Zephyr Almon, 13

The world around him was alight with screams and shouts. A tall girl was swinging around an axe, which another girl was trying to fend off with the biggest hammer Zephyr had ever seen.

"Celeste!" he screamed, rushing towards where she was still holding the hand of the scarlet haired girl. They were both spitting sparks, like malfunctioning power sockets.

And behind them, one of the great towering District boys raised his spear.

"Celeste!" Zephyr screamed.

She turned to face him, and for once she actually looked happy, even as white light spilled from the nodes on her shoulders. "Don't worry."

"Don't worry–" he ducked the cracking of a whip– "Now is the best time to panic! Come on, we don't have time for this!"

She shook her head, pulling the other girl closer, as though they were friends already. "Take care. There's a storm coming, Zephyr."

"What?"

Another axe flew through the air and caught Celeste square between the shoulders. Blood exploded from the impact point. Blinding white light surrounded the pair, rippling out across the black grass. Those nearest screamed and fell back, covering their eyes with their hands. Zephyr tumbled across the black grass.

"What the–" spluttered one of the District kids.

Zephyr stumbled to his feet, staring at where Celeste had stood a moment before. All that remained was a circle of burned black ash, with a deeper crater in the centre. For a moment the arena flickered around him and the world was blue-white-blue-white-blue-white–

And his sister was gone.

"Celeste," he whispered.

Two canons rang overhead.

He'd brought her here.

He'd made her play.

He'd killed her.

The boy with the spear was still rubbing his eyes with one hand, but with the other, he swung the spear at the place where Celeste had been.

Celeste.

He'd been so confident she was right.

Celeste was always right.

Celeste was dead.

The boy rushed him with a roar. Zephyr ducked and scrambled aside.

Celeste was dead.

But she'd died for what she believed in.

Zephyr couldn't let that be in vain.

He drew his knife and struck out at the boy. His armour was at zero, he noticed only now, the explosion must have taken it out. Zephyr's blade drew blood.

"What did you idiots do?" shouted one of the girls.

"We didn't– It was Celeste–" stammered Marcellina–

Zephyr lunged at the spear boy and plunged his knife into his stomach.

The boy grunted and folded over.

And suddenly all eyes were on him.

Author's Note

Sabrina Fairbanks, 16. Placed twenty first. Killed by Andreas Amandiel.

Hestia Vanuna, 17. Placed twentieth. Killed by Luminescence Sterling.

Sorcha Summerfield, 17. Placed nineteenth. Killed by Maximillian Marcus Badondé.

Sorcha was so much fun to write, I really enjoyed her as a character! Unfortunately, once I started crunching numbers down, I couldn't see her making it much further, with or without her alliance. Thank you for her, MoonlightSalsa!

Celeste Almon, 14. Placed eighteenth. Killed by a mysterious force.

Celeste has been a big plot point in these games, and making her a non-pov was a fun way to write for me. Sadly, this was always the plan for her.

Phoenix Sterling, 13. Placed seventeenth. Killed by a mysterious force.

Much like Celeste, Phoenix's fate here is setting up future actions. Worry not, there are things in motion.

Magnus Calix, 18. Placed sixteenth. Killed by Zephyr Almon.