Author's Note: The Capitol weren't going to be able to avoid it forever, another rebel was always going to come home despite the odds being stacked against them.

….

The Seventy-Eighth Annual Hunger Games: Calico Paylor, District Eight (18)

"The female tribute for the Seventy-Eighth Annual Hunger Games is… Calico Paylor!"

"Shit!" the young woman muttered under her breath, head down as she prepared herself to take centre stage. Given her family name and the identity of her aunt, Calico was not surprised. But it had happened. She was going into the Hunger Games. The quiet popularity of the Paylor name would not lead to any volunteers.

She walked up to the stage and looked straight ahead, meeting the escort's eyes as she did. Calico was careful to ignore Cecelia but out of the corner of her eye, noticed that the victor had displayed no signs of recognition of the name. Of course, she wouldn't react. Cecelia would not give herself away like that, she was too good.

As the male tribute joined her, Calico realised that the whole set-up was deliberate. The boy was also eighteen and from a family known to collaborate with the peacekeepers. He looked shocked to find himself on stage. But Calico knew that by the time they were on their way to the Capitol, he would have been briefed on what was expected of him. He was from an honourable family in the eyes of those now in charge. This was not a punishment for their wrongdoings, this was to ensure her demise. To show that the Paylors no longer had the support of their district.

Calico knew that was not true. There were thousands of people still holding onto the hope that revolution was coming and the Paylors were not about to drop that ambition. Calico had her aunt's blood running through her veins, and she knew that she would represent a last chance for Eight's rebels. She just had to consider how she presented herself in the Capitol, to avoid giving them yet another excuse to kill her in the opening moments. Calico hoped Cecelia would be able to help with that.

Her suspicions were proven correct when they reached the train and were bound for the Capitol. Her district partner seemed calm and focused. He had a plan and was unhappy they would have to share a mentor.

"Other districts have spent years having the one mentor," Cecelia confirmed. "It does not harm your chances. It's what you do that counts, far more than any assistance I could provide."

"How can you help both of us when we have different plans? We'll be lacking in preparation."

"Boy, you're eighteen and have had a decent meal in your time. That's far more preparation than half the field will have had. You're already at an advantage. Besides, if you care so much about having more mentors, you'll want to win so things are better for the next lot. Both of you have a chance to do that. It's up to you whether you want to work with me."

….

Calico decided to leave the table as tensions increased. She needed time to think and wanted to ensure that her district partner at least had some time to talk to Cecelia to stop his complaining. She doubted he would tell her what his plans were in their entirety because he doubted Cecelia's loyalty. But at least he could say he had the chance to prepare for the Games with someone invested in the outcome.

Calico had to laugh to herself. The boy hated her family name but if only he knew how deep Cecelia's loyalties lie. Given Calico's aunt had spent months in the victor's basement whilst on the run, the boy had found himself surrounded by rebels. They were not going anywhere, and she planned to come home and join Eight's continuing efforts alongside Cecelia.

They were going to have to hide their common ground, to save Cecelia's skin and keep her cover intact. The Games may kill Calico but a lot worse could happen to Cecelia and her family if she were to be discovered.

Once she realised that she couldn't hear conversation coming from the living quarters, Calico left her room, hoping that Cecelia would still be sitting in the quiet of the train. As she moved down the corridor, Calico realised she was in luck. Cecelia was alone, watching a repeat of the Reaping in the train's darkness.

"They're going to kill me, aren't they?"

"Probably. Happens to twenty-three of you every year," Cecelia replied as she stood up and began to search through the drawers in the compartment's storage before returning with paper and pens.

'Train bugged,' Cecelia wrote. 'Safer this way. Keep talking though.'

Calico asked for Cecelia's thoughts on the Reaping, all whilst writing down what she really wanted to say.

'How do I play this?'

'You're the girl who wants to go home with the skill and courage to make it work,' came the reply.

'Family?'

'Caesar will barely mention your family name. So, say you share their experiences of losses and overcoming difficulties during the hard, turbulent times a few years ago. Now you have a rich and fulfilling job to go home to.'

Calico snorted but continued to write, 'Ruining my hands in a sweatshop!'

'You dream of being a big-name fashion designer. You were on the path to success before the Reaping and you dream of making your ambitions a reality.'

'That old stereotype. They're that gullible?'

'Unfortunately.'

'You know he wants to kill me? Might have been told to do it?'

'Yes. Keep away from him.'

'Do you think they'll target me at the start?'

'Probably. Get away. Stay on the move.'

'What have you told him?'

Cecelia paused for a moment, 'To focus on getting home. Not any distractions. Coming home should be his only strategy.'

'Will he listen?'

'Doubt it. I don't think he has the bottle to do it though. He'll try but he doesn't understand the game. I know you do. You know what you need to do.'

'Be likeable and interesting.'

'Yes. From the moment you get off this train. You need to be charming and elegant.'

'I'm not sure that's me.'

'Make it you.'

'How?'

'Stand tall at the Parade. Confident but not over-confident. Listen to the escort on interview prep. Sit straight, walk properly in your heels, and remember your manners.'

'Only that?'

'No. People associate Eight and the Paylor name with violence. There's only so much you can do in the arena when you want to come home. But talk to Caesar about nice things, community, and working together at home. When do you have to kill, make it quick and clean.'

'Will it work?'

'Just get them to like you. Act like their friend, like you're on their side.'

With that, Cecelia stood up, tore the paper and threw it into the fire burning in front of them.

"Time for bed. You have a lot ahead of you."

….

The interview went well. As Cecelia predicted, Caesar introduced her and then never spoke of her family or the family name. In turn, Calico was the model young citizen of Panem. She worked hard in the district and loved seeing the materials people worked with on show in the Capitol. It had only inspired her further to make her dreams of becoming a fashion designer come true.

It was so stereotypical and so shallow that Calico could barely hide her laughter. But she kept herself in check and tried to remember what their escort had told them about manners. She sat straight, smiled at Caesar and the audience, pointed out some of her favourite outfits to get people on her side and complimented Caesar's own attire.

She knew he was toying with her. Caesar knew exactly who her aunt was. It was as if he were trying to throw the prospect of success in her face, only to draw it away, leaving Calico dead in an arena and her aunt still in hiding.

It was over before she knew it and Calico soon found herself back on Eight's floor, having a final, private chat with Cecelia. Her district partner had spoken to their mentor whilst Calico deliberately took a long time to remove the traces of makeup and take a shower. She was determined that Cecelia would not come out of this episode looking like the villain, the one to pick favourites. A little bit of decency, after all the victor had done for her aunt would go a long way in helping protect her image and the façade of reinvigorated loyalty she had built back up.

But once she knew Cecelia was alone, Calico emerged and sat opposite her.

"I'm torn. Do I go tomorrow or get away from there?"

"Depends on the environment. If it's harsh, so very cold, or very hot with little sign of shelter or water sources then you'll have to. If not, it's your choice."

"I don't want to be without a weapon."

"Unless you think you can fashion one, then there's your answer. Statistically, in the original arenas from the Fourteenth Games onwards, more victors have gone to the Cornucopia than not. But you know what the risk is."

"I need to do something interesting."

"You do. So, unless half the volunteers charge you at once, I think you have your answer."

Cecelia brought out the paper once more and started talking about the impressions the other tributes made at the interviews.

'The boy's going. He told me. Watch out for him.'

'You know I will. Should I turn on him?'

'Not unless you have to.'

'Have you told him that?'

'I've told him to pick his kills carefully. It's a dishonourable thing in Eight to go for a district partner right at the start.'

'Will you help him?'

'Where it would be wrong not to. He's still Eight.'

'You do need a mentoring partner.'

Cecelia laughed as she saw Calico's words, 'Would be nice. But I want you home. I'm not the only one either.'

Calico looked at Cecelia as if to question her words, but the victor simply continued writing, 'You'll see what I mean when you get out of there.'

….

The arena was large. A mansion with sprawling gardens that went on further than Calico could see. The Cornucopia was in the centre of a sunken garden with fountains and a flight of steps down to the supplies.

Calico did not believe that food, water or hiding places would be a problem given her surroundings. But she did not think she could create anything too effective with tree branches so as soon as the gong sounded and the countdown finished, she hurtled down the steps and towards the weapons, picking up a backpack and sword as she ran past.

Calico noticed the girl from District Four who was positioned next to her following her, but she tripped on the steps and was skewered by the boy from Two who shouted that he was not about to ally with someone who could not navigate stairs. Two's boy then turned and found Calico's district partner. Eight's boy tried running in her direction but found Two's spear in his back. Noticing the volunteer's back was turned, Calico picked up the spear and ran.

As she turned away from the Cornucopia, she ran into the boy from Five. He startled, froze and Calico drove her sword up into his stomach and towards his chest. It was messy and the boy fell to the ground immediately. Disgusted with herself, Calico removed the sword and carried on running, hoping she had done what she needed to for a quiet time over the coming days.

She made her way into the house, listening for footsteps approaching on the wooden floors which echoed around the building. She knew there were other tributes around, but she could not tell where their footsteps were coming from.

Her weapons were covered in blood, and she was desperate to wash them, so she did not have to face up to what had happened. Her district partner was going to try to kill her, but collaborator or not, he was from her district, and he had died in front of her. The boy from Five was her fault and she could not get the image of him dying from her mind. But she found the kitchen and turned the taps at the sink, relieved when clear water started running. She washed the sword, then the spear and thought about taking a drink before stopping herself.

She picked up her backpack and searched its contents. Luckily there was a small bottle and iodine to purify the water. It may be running clean but that did not mean it was not contaminated or vulnerable to being tampered with by the Gamemakers. She was not about to die from drinking poisoned water on the first morning.

So, she filled her bottle and drank the lot before filling it up again. She searched the cupboards to find food and picked out the scraps before deciding there must be somewhere else where the food was stored.

Running out of the kitchen and into the dining room, Calico was proven correct. There was an entire meal set out in front of them at a table, fully laid out and set with twelve chairs. She carefully moved around the table, checking for anyone already hiding underneath before tentatively reaching towards foods that looked the least likely to spoil. She took a small supply, enough to last someone who had been as underfed as she had for a couple of days and ran. She knew she could not stop for long. The volunteer alliance would be sure to seek the cover of the mansion rather than remain outside on lower ground.

But on her way out, the door shut, blocking her exit and she found the boy from District Twelve who had been waiting and watching from behind the door. He stepped out in front of Calico who immediately tried to move around him. But the boy followed her again.

Calico launched herself towards the fireplace and the boy followed her and took hold of her arm. But Calico was older than the boy and she had had a few more meals in her time than the skinny child from Twelve. She was able to release his grip and reach for one of the ornaments. She took hold of it and swung it violently and rapidly towards the boy's temple. He was knocked off balance and Calico used the opportunity to strike him again. The boy fell and seconds later a cannon fired.

Calico took this as her cue to leave, cautiously opening the door and running in the direction of the gardens. Thankfully, nobody was in her way this time and she was able to leave physically unharmed. Her mind was in a different place altogether. She was trying to find a place of relative safety whilst processing what she had been forced to do. She was not a killer in ordinary circumstances, but here she had been pushed towards it and she did not shy away from it. But she had no time to question whether that was a moral failing on her part or not because she wanted to come home and she knew she would have to kill again for that to happen.

The people who mattered to her would not question it. She knew her aunt had killed before and would do so again if it kept her alive. Her father would do the same in her position, he told her to do whatever it took to come home. Her mother, injured in rebel skirmishes in Seventy-Five would do the same too. Cecelia, her mentor, by definition, had done the same. She would not judge Calico for what had happened within the past hour.

But an hour was all it had taken for her to become a killer. It would take a lot longer to truly process that. But she did not have the time. She needed to find somewhere quiet where she could hide for the time being but escape quickly if required.

Calico used the path hidden by a row of trees to move through the gardens. By now, she must have placed some distance between herself and the Cornucopia on the other side of the mansion and she was hoping that the volunteers would not venture far just yet. But so far, only seven cannons had sounded. She was responsible for two of them, so it was a pretty poor showing from the volunteers in comparison to other years. The girl from Four was dead, her district partner too, so there were three unknowns she would find out about later.

The low kill count of the bloodbath made it more likely that the volunteers would go out hunting before the day was over so Calico tried to put more distance between herself and their likely path over the coming hours. She carried on running through the gardens, setting a steady pace before she noticed a large outhouse.

She checked around the windows for signs it was already occupied before cautiously stepping over the threshold and taking in her surroundings. She stopped to listen for signs of other tributes before deciding she was alone, shutting the door and barricading it with the supplies that were already inside.

….

Four more tributes died before Calico decided she needed to move into action again on the afternoon of the third day. From the window of the outhouse, she had seen a small alliance of two tributes leave their hiding place and run through the trees towards the mansion. Calico knew this was her time to act once more.

In the outhouse, she had found various chemicals and liquids, one of which she knew to be poisonous from working in the textile factories. The trees were also lined with fruit which Calico had taken to snacking on, trying to preserve the supplies she had taken from the mansion for as long as she could. She had also kept a small reserve back and had tried her best to signal to Cecelia that she had a plan.

It must have worked because Cecelia had managed to send her a bundle of bags which Calico was able to use both to hold over her hands whilst coating some of the fruit in the poison and for storing the contaminated items without the chemicals getting onto her hands.

Whilst the two unsuspecting tributes were out, Calico took her chances, deciding that they would be likely to return. She put some of the fruit closer to the door of the greenhouse they had been hiding in and near one of the trees she had seen them pick fruit from before hurrying back to her hiding place.

They returned a short while later and much to Calico's irritation, walked straight past the fruit she had put out. However, as the light started to fade, marking the end of the third day, one of them stopped at the tree nearest their hiding place and picked up the fruit Calico had set out. It was now a waiting game to see whether her trap had been effective.

…

Whilst watching the recap of the Seventy-Eighth Hunger Games on stage with Ceasar Flickerman, it became obvious to Calico that that was the moment she took control. The two tributes died from the poisoning, but Calico had to wait until the following night to see their faces illuminated in the arena's sky before she realised her plan had worked.

But that knowledge spurred her into action. She had killed a total of four tributes, putting her on a par with the District Two male before she targeted the volunteer alliance's food supply. They were careless and their guard had fallen asleep as she replaced some of their fruit with the ones she had poisoned and helped herself to some extra supplies.

Calico only found out what happened afterwards as she was watching on the stage. She was alive and the twenty-three other children she entered the arena alongside were not. But as soon as they returned, Two's girl realised that someone had stolen from their supplies and killed the boy from One who had fallen asleep on guard. None of the three remaining careers had realised that any of the remaining supplies had been contaminated and were dead by morning. They had not realised that their mentors parachuting in a meal each along with energy bars meant that their supply was unsafe. Brutus and Lyme were furious but were not going to hold it against Calico who had won the Games in a fashion they had admired. The volunteers had been careless, and she was surprised at the wholescale success of her plan. That was the line she delivered to Flickerman when he wanted to know more about her approach.

The finale soon followed but not before a final unsuspecting tribute stumbled upon the remains of the poisoned food in the mansion's dining room. Calico added a surprise eighth kill to her list before she had to draw her sword once more.

It was a District Eight versus District Nine finale, and it was obvious that Nine's boy had received more sponsors than her. His mentors had managed to send him a shield whilst Cecelia had managed a meal and a bottle of water the night before followed by a dagger as Calico was drawn back to the Cornucopia.

But Calico arrived in better condition. The boy had been inside the mansion as its walls started to crumble. Calico's outhouse left less damage as it too began to collapse. Some of the chemicals had begun to spill and they had damaged her shoes, leaving her barefoot with her feet burnt but she desperately tried to ignore the pain and kept stumbling towards the Cornucopia where she found her final opponent bruised and bleeding.

Ceasar Flickerman was eager to comment on the unexpected finale. District Nine had not reached these stages of the Games for many a year and nobody liked to dwell on Cotton for too long. Calico spent a lot of time discussing her feelings about that final fight and her surprise opponent who had managed to hide successfully for most of the Games.

But she won. A Paylor girl won. Sponsors and a nondescript family name could not save the boy. Calico could simply wield a sword better than he could and when they were grappling on the floor to put an end to the Games, Calico found the dagger Cecelia had given her. It was all over.

Whilst Flickerman had only introduced her as 'Calico', not once mentioning her surname or drawing attention to her family origins, President Snow's voice was dripping in anger as he spoke to her, using her full name as if it were a threat. He knew exactly who she was and could barely hide his anger that she had won. Cecelia had seen a rather frazzled Plutarch Heavensbee leaving the President's office before she also received a dressing down from their enraged President. Calico was a victor that should not have been.

But a victor she was and when they were alone, Cecelia could hardly hide her relief and joy. Calico was alive and the Paylor girl would return to Eight. She had recovered from her injuries quickly and she seemed more equipped to deal with the mental scars than Cotton. Cecelia would not have a decade of babysitting her newest victor.

Calico took to her new status with ease. She was an elegant, charming young woman as she was being crowned victor, friendly and sympathetic to the concerns of Capitol audiences. She was completely unsurprised when Cecelia told her what often happened to the victors from their Victory Tour onwards. Calico had no doubt she would join the ranks of victors to be sold to Capitol buyers. She knew they would never see her in the same light as they did Cecelia and certainly not Cashmere, but they would try to punish her for survival, to try to break her and the Paylor name.

But they would fail because Calico kept the rebel hope alive in Eight. The rebels in hiding across Panem had been sent a message too. They were still there, and they would rebuild. If a Paylor could come home, they could win.

Calico had Cecelia by her side too and she felt more certain than ever of their ultimate victory. She did not know how long it would take, but they saw eye to eye on almost everything. District Eight had united victors at the helm of their ranks.

"I could kill each and every one of them for what they've done," Calico said one night in the garden of her new home.

"You and me both. We're going to be great friends, Calico Paylor."