Lustre Audemar-Miucca, District One, Pisces

"Come on, give me a turn," Carnation said, gesturing towards the long oar. It was a strange type of boat, with just enough room for one person to row while standing up. Lustre hated the position. It was difficult to balance and he was constantly afraid of being pitched into the sea.

But despite all that, he wasn't going to give it up to Carnation.

"Just keep looking for land."

"Are you under some impression that I have better eyesight than you?"

"Kind of," He answered, "Seven is mostly forests, isn't it? Less light pollution. I thought you might be more used to this level of darkness."

Carnation frowned. "That's… a good point, actually."

Lustre grunted in a vaguely positive manner and the pair once again fell into silence.

It didn't last.

"I didn't really want to paddle anyway. You just looked tired. So… offer's always open. You know, if you change your mind." Carnation babbled.

"Carnation, can you kindly shut up?"

"Respectfully, no."

"No?" Lustre began to feel his anger rise again. In a way, it was welcome. It was easier to feel rage than the aching emptiness he currently had to deal with.

"No. Silence makes me think too hard, and I would literally rather die than be alone with my own thoughts right now."

Just as quickly as the fury came, it disappeared. He understood exactly what Carnation meant. It was the reason he wouldn't give up the oars. It was something physical to do, a way to keep his body occupied so his mind wouldn't wander. Otherwise, he couldn't help but think about Amber.

Lustre was not such a fool that he didn't prepare himself to see death inside the arena. It was part of the experience, and he had desensitized himself to violence in general since he realized that he had a real shot of going into the Games. But that was about other tributes, people he barely knew. It wasn't exactly easy to shut out their suffering, but it was doable.

Amber was far more than just another tribute. He remembered her when she first joined the Academy, second-hand clothes and skinned knees. She'd grown so much since then, and helped him grow in return. How could he turn the girl he spent a whole year training with into nothing more than a statistic? How could he pretend that she was just another step in his path to victory?

He couldn't. So he continued to row.

"Thank you for saving me." Carnation was talking again, "Contrary to popular belief, anger doesn't make you a better fighter. He would have killed me."

"Yes. He would have."

Carnation let out an exasperated sigh. "You're just like my father."

Lustre had heard many stories about Carnation's father and felt deeply offended. "I am not."

"You are. You've decided I'm weak and nothing will change that. I know the wrong Gemini died, you don't have to remind me."

Carnation fell silent, and suddenly Lustre felt uncomfortable by it. He realized that he was going to have to be genuine, and it made him very unhappy.

"Hey," he said, "I think you're annoying, not incompetent. What happened back there was just bad luck. Neither of you should have died."

Carnation turned to look at him, tears in her eyes. "That's one of the nicest things anyone's ever said to me."

"Now that's just sad."

The girl from Seven hit him on the shoulder, a friendly, familiar gesture he wasn't sure he'd earned yet. "Do you want to hear a secret?" She asked.

"Of course. I love secrets."

"I… can't really swim."

Lustre couldn't help but laugh. Of all the things to have in common.

"Me either," he confessed, "I can stay afloat, most of the time. But I'm not good at it and it never feels comfortable."

"Just our luck that this is our arena, Huh?"

"Your luck, maybe. Mine is usually better than this."

Carnation laughed, then cut off abruptly. She sat there silently, tears in her eyes, looking up at the sky. Lustre understood. There were some things that laughter couldn't fight off.

"What are we going to do without her?" she asked quietly.

Lustre looked up at the stars with his ally, realizing just how much he had taken Amber for granted. "I have absolutely no idea."

Bixby Case, District Three, Virgo

Bixby shivered, staring up at the night sky, and tried to figure out just what the Gamemakers were thinking. In the time since the Bloodbath, the moon had started to wane, and was now only about three-quarters full. Moving across the sky, the stars seemed to change as well, as if time moved faster up there in the heavens.

While Bixby was hardly the most intelligent person in District Three, he had a knack for making connections. Patterns made sense to him, and if he spent long enough with something, he could make reasonable assumptions. It was the reason he was able to escape the Bloodbath without any injuries.

While everyone else scrambled to claim a boat, Bixby took his time, and actually observed them. They were delicate things, long and thin and easy to tip over. Further, steering required someone to stand. They were not the kind of vessel that could survive on rough waters. Although he could hear the tide hitting the shore, Bixby inferred that the water would most likely be calm. Or mostly calm, at least.

He remembered watching the 75th Games and seeing the floatation devices on the Tributes' clothes. His own uniform was purely cotton, with no hidden compartments as far as he could tell. Therefore, unless the Capitolites suddenly decided they liked to watch Tributes trying futilely to stay afloat, the water was either fairly shallow, or else land was nearby. He had the feeling it might be both.

Perhaps it was risky, making such a bold decision based on a hunch and the design of a boat. But when the countdown reached zero, Bixby ran to the beach, grabbed a small messenger bag as well as a few loose items that fit inside it, and threw himself into the water.

His gamble had paid off. A short swim later, Bixby found himself on a long, narrow island with some sort of tower. That was the thing about Gamemakers. They designed an arena for the Capitol's entertainment. Once you knew that, they became extremely predictable.

At least, that was what he'd thought. But as he sat with his back against the tower, looking up at the stars above, he had no idea why they would make them move so quickly. If they meant for the Tributes to move around primarily by boat, why make it so difficult to navigate by the stars? If you couldn't figure out where the other tributes went, how could you attack them? The point was to maximize bloodshed, wasn't it?

He pulled out a plastic-covered disc that only deepened his confusion. It was a laminated star chart. He was thankful that the Gamemakers waterproofed it, as some of his other supplies were quite wet from the swim. Unfortunately it looked like a piece of bread, a blanket, and a spare set of clothes were rendered completely unusable. But there was also an empty water bottle within the messenger bag, which he could fill with water once he found a safe supply. Overall, a successful Bloodbath, particularly since he was alive.

Yet the mystery continued as Bixby looked at the final item in his messenger bag: a small, rounded mirror. Bixby only knew of a handful of uses for such a thing, most of them cosmetic. He looked at it and waved his right hand, only for his reflection to wave with the hand to Bixby's left. Odd. What was the point of a mirror that didn't mirror?

Bixby's stomach growled and he placed the items back into his bag. There would be time to figure things out. For now, survival was more important. He needed to find food and water.

Millie Oatbratton, District Twelve, Cancer

Millie was attempting to understand death.

It was something she'd heard about before, mostly from her mother's stories. But all she really knew was that it was bad. For a while she thought it might not even exist, like the witches and dragons that a brave knight always managed to defeat. Except she discovered that death was not just real, but the entire point of the strange contest she found herself in. Her mentor, David, was helpful in explaining the rules of the Games to her. So one day after training, she'd asked him what death actually was.

"Death? Well… I guess it's when a person or animal stops working." he said

"Stops working?"

"Yes. Our bodies are complicated machines. And like machines, they can break. Sometimes it's a gradual thing, getting worn out from use. Sometimes it's more forceful, like a dish being smashed on the ground. But eventually, everything stops working. At some point, all of our bodies get to a state where they can't sustain themselves anymore. The heart stops beating, the brain doesn't give out any more messages. We call that death."

Millie crinkled her nose, confused, "If the body stops working, where do we go?"

"No one knows. There are some theories. But without their body, no one's able to tell us."

He gave her a grim smile, tousled her hair, then left the room.

Millie knew that David had truly tried to answer her, but mostly his explanation left her with more questions. Her body was one of the few things she knew in the world. It was familiar and present and overall hers. Possession was nebulous in the basement, living with her mother. There were things she played with. Food she ate. But her body was the only thing that felt like it truly belonged to her. She wasn't sure what it would be like if she couldn't see out of her own eyes or feel the pain of light on her skin. If her body stopped, would her mind break as well? Would anything be left of her if she lost the Games?

Most of these questions were still unanswered, but after the Bloodbath, there was one thing that Millie knew for certain:

What death looked like.

Her thoughts drifted to Woodrow in his final moments. How his breathing slowed down until he stopped entirely. Like a toy that no longer wound up properly. Broken, just like David had said.

It reminded her of the day the Peacekeepers came to take her out of the basement. Her mother was laying on the floor, and no matter what she did, she wouldn't wake up.

If Millie made it through these Games, would there be anyone waiting for her?

There was a sudden pressure on her shoulder, and Millie jolted back in alarm. She lost her balance and slipped off of the top of the Cornucopia where she was standing. Was this how she died? Did she survive the Bloodbath only to trip and fall?

The fear was intense, but brief, as someone grabbed her by the arm and jerked her back up to the top of the Cornucopia.

"Sorry." Hades said, "I didn't mean to startle you. Just wanted to check in on you. Tell you how things were going."

"Oh." Millie said, "That makes sense."

She was fairly new at social interaction, but she understood enough to realize that her response was quite awkward. She didn't know Hades very well, or any of the other allies she now found herself with. They had recruited Woodrow to their team, not her. He was the only reason they hadn't targeted her the first moment they could. Even now, Millie suspected Woodrow's final words were protecting her. What was she supposed to say to someone who only ever looked at her out of obligation?

"We've sorted out the supplies. The boats were kind of buried in the sand, but we're taking shifts. They should be free in an hour or so."

"What is Nixie muttering about?"

"You can hear that?"

Millie nodded.

"I think she had it built up in her head. Killing. Thought since she's seen death before, it wouldn't bother her to see more. But death's not like that."

Death was still very new to her, but Millie understood instantly. She'd seen death twice now and she wasn't prepared for it either time.

"Should we help her?" she asked.

"It's hard to say," Hades said, "Or more accurately, it's hard to say if we can. As grim as it is, these Lady M situations usually sort themselves out."

"Lady who?"

"It's a book. Kind of."

"How can something be kind of a book?"

"Well, when it's a play."

"You play with it?"

"No… a play is…" Hades stopped, rubbing his temples in frustration. Millie could see him clearly in the darkness, attempting to hold back a deep anger at her.

Millie shrank herself down, something that came easy to her, and took a few steps away from both the ledge of the Cornucopia and the Career boy. She watched as his eyes stopped focusing and he lost her to the darkness. It was simple for her to disappear, hide away where no one noticed. Although Millie suspected that most folks just weren't used to truly looking.

"I'm sorry. I don't know a lot of things. My life is different than other people, I think."

"It's fine." Hades said dismissively, "A lot of people in the Districts don't read either."

"And I know what Woodrow said, but you don't actually have to protect me."

"You heard that too?"

Millie nodded.

"Your hearing is amazing."

"Yes." She agreed, "But also I was right next to you."

Hades laughed, which Millie found alarming. She shrank into herself even more.

"I honor the dead." he said after his laughter died down somewhat, "Besides. You're my ally, just the same as Woodrow."

Millie knew that she wasn't anywhere near the same, but she appreciated the lie.

"So what are you going to do once the boats are free?" She asked.

"Hunt."

"Do you have to?"

"We could wait it out, I suppose. But a sword is a better way to go than an infection. A quick death is the sweetest mercy we can give them." Hades paused and looked up at the sky, "If we can find anyone, at least. North is staying consistent, but the rest of these stars are moving too quickly to be reliable."

"You could use the other stars. They aren't moving."

Hades looked at her, or the general area he thought she was in. He was a good six feet off but she could tell he meant to address her. "What other stars?"

"The ones in the water." She explained, "There's little lights at the bottom, in the shape of constellations."

"You're astounding, Millie." He said.

"I am?"

"Yes." Hades paused, as if listening for something. Then he turned his head. For the first time, he and Millie made eye contact.

He'd found her.

"I mean it, Millie. We're allies. Equals. Through and through."

AN: I do not have a lot to say about this chapter, but I get super used to author's notes. So here I am. Maybe I should apologize to Bixby for having such a short POV. But there's not much to be done about that, since I didn't actually mention him in the bloodbath chapter and I wanted people to know I didn't just forget him. Thank you everybody who's still with me on this. I appreciate the support. I hope you enjoy!