MARLEY ASTERO- Malcolm Royden

I felt a wave of relief. She'd creeped me out then and she creeped me out now.

MATI BERLIN- Flint Kenyte

I did all I could for her in the time I knew her. They had something special, that alliance of hers. From what I'd known of her, they deserved it.

STEVIE PAGETT- Lily White

Two Elevens left, and I was one of them. Some people would say that was something worth bragging about. Those of us who'd been there knew only first place mattered.

PALOMA BENNETT- Yttria Noxus

We were beyond science. All my life I'd been told science was the answer to everything. I thought it would keep me and her safe. That wasn't true anymore.

JYNX SUSURRUS- Arielle Ermin

Another of the old breed. I wondered if he felt the same deteriorating sensation as me. Time kept going on, and we were always the same. Even the ones in the normal Games couldn't understand us.

LYON CARTIER- Artemis Jager

I had the feeling it was bad luck. He must have been loaded with supplies from the feast. From that same feast I knew he was both clever and willing to accept his limits. It must have been nothing but bad luck.

Amazon Stonn- District Two mentor

There was a yearning thrill in watching my mentees fight. I wished I could see them as their own people and be proud of them making their way in life. I was proud of them, and happy for them, but I could never stop inserting myself into their image on the screen. When I saw them walking through an arena, I wished it was me walking through an arena. When I saw their hands tighten on their swords, I felt my own fingers curl. We all knew there would only be one Games for us. We didn't learn until afterwards how empty we felt when we'd gotten through it, when we'd reached the goal we'd trained for our whole lives, and knew that moment was over when the crown hit our heads. We'd done it- past tense. No more doing. When Joseph ran his sword through the boy from Five, I wished it was me watching him die.

Wit Castiglione- The Poseidon Adventure D5M

Death will be an awfully big adventure. Even in my last moments, I was thinking of what Study would have said. A younger me might have felt guilty for the mix of emotions I felt about her, but I'd come to see I deserved my reservations. I'd been so confused when Study's face hadn't been in the sky after the feast. It had been so hard to admit that she'd left me. I knew she was in one of her moods again. It happened so often, that she seemed to want to force me to give up on her, but then just as quickly she'd say it was all her fault and beg me for another chance. It was just her way- not a healthy way, but clearly the best she had, because it couldn't have been easy for her either. I'd been hoping she would come back this time, but I'd also been wondering how peaceful life would be if she didn't. There was enough friendship left in me to hope she took my death well.

Charybdis Kincaid- No Way Down D4F

Non-Careers always asked us how we could kill people so easily. It always struck as ignorant at best and loaded at worst. How could we kill so easily? The same way a fisherman could, or a butcher, or an executioner. Death is part of life. People die, whether or not we kill them. It's not something we do all the time. It's just a small part of our lives. It was easier during a Res Games. These people had all died before, and they'd likely be back again. I was hardly ending their chances. I was just sending them back to the start. The longer I lived, the more I thought our lives weren't entirely up to us anyway. I felt in my soul that I had a call to help other people like myself. Other people felt other stirrings in their own lives. If we lived, clearly we were right. If not, we must have had some other purpose and our death meant we must have already accomplished it. I wondered sometimes about the purposes of others. I wondered it as I threw the axe.

Study Furado- The Poseidon Adventure

The cannon had come hours ago, around noon, judging from the skylight. There had been more lately. The Careers must have been learning the lay of the land better. When the anthem was about to sound, I snuck out to refill the water bottle I'd found. If I was lucky, people would be distracted checking to see who died. On the way back to the room I was hiding in, I looked up at the ceiling. The anthem was almost over, and the face was about to appear.

Maybe tomorrow Wit will find me, I thought. Probably he never wanted to see me again, but maybe there was a glimmer of friendship left. If he found me, and I knew he cared about me, I thought I owed him an apology. I never saw who it was on the ceiling.

Emma Wolfe- In Your Hands D1F

It wasn't out of malice or some dark sense of irony that I did it. Dominique was just so fast. We'd found her while clearing out yet another hallway of patient examination rooms. She'd been tucked into a corner, hidden by a tall filing cabinet. She's moved so quickly, and the tightness of the rooms had been so hard to shoot in, that she'd evaded all three of us and fled down the hall. She'd been running so quickly, like a deer from a wolf, and I'd just wanted to make sure I didn't miss. So I aimed for center mass, and the arrow hit her in the calf. She fell, her leg already dead from the poison, but she was still so fast. She was already pulling herself up another door to lock herself in when we reached her.

Dominique Rindelle- Over and Over D9F

I wasn't sure if the poison was spreading through me or if it was just the life leaking out of me. The Careers looked down at me, their eyes strangely sad. I looked more closely and saw it was the bandanna they were looking at- at the square of fabric I'd cut from a black apron and tied around my hair. It was what widows did, wasn't it? They put on their mourning clothes.

Arielle looked down at the ring on my finger. I covered it with my other hand with a strange feeling of protectiveness. "I always thought I'd get married," she said.

Olivine Martinez- Back to Normal D1F

There was a eerie sense of past and future seeing Logan again. His face, as young as mine, was another reminder of how frozen in time we all were. Thirty years had passed, and here I was, trying once again to kill Logan Quinn. He'd done very well for himself. He pulled a dagger as soon as he saw us. It made no difference for him. All it got him was broken fingers when Lottie grabbed his wrist and smashed his hand against the table in the center of the conference room. He had body armor. It made no difference when Lottie and I pinned him down so Marley could bury her axe in his face. In his last moment I saw the rage in his eyes. He had so much, and still the Careers always had more. But then, here we were again. So many advantages, and it made no difference.

Logan Quinn- Back to Normal D5M

Jay thought the good guys would win. Look where it got him. I thought the strong survived. Look where it got me. I was starting to think we were both right. The strongest did win. I'd just proven to never be the strongest. Maybe the good guys did win, and there just weren't any good guys. Maybe the best we could do was choose how we went out. Jay went out believing the best of others. I went out fighting. Maybe neither of us were wrong.

Chrome Cabello- Heart of Darkness D2F

She fought so hard. I hadn't thought it was possible for someone not trained to fight so hard. I could see the muscles straining on Jayden's arm as she struggled to hold the girl still. Jessie, holding her bleeding nose, had actually gone for her gun before I yelled for her to stop. We could do this without using one of our bullets. We just had to go far harder than I'd thought we would. Did she find steroids? It was like she was possessed.

Rachel Larson- Let the Good Times Roll D5F

If I could get one arm free I could get away. The girls on either side of me gripped me with both hands, pinning my arms to my sides. The one on the left grunted when I head-butted her, the angle reducing but not eliminating the impact. A third girl, blood pouring from her nose from where she'd already underestimated me, was recovering herself to rejoin the fight. And the fourth- the fourth! How was that fair?- came at me with a sword. The girls loosened their grip as the sword sank into my stomach and came out the other side. I yanked a hand loose and grabbed the blade. I had the sword halfway out when I fell.

Juniper Triton- Wandering Souls D4M

Christobal and I horsed around as we walked to the vending machine for a supply run, wrestling and roasting each other as we both kept an eye out. I heard the thunk of food hitting the bottom of the chute a split second before we rounded the corner. I tensed, throwing out an arm to protect Chris, but it wasn't at all what I expected. Standing in front of the machine was Soren, the weird untrained Four. He was bending over to retrieve his food. He didn't notice us until he stood back up. In that instant, as Chris registered his presence, I started the agonizing process of analyzing what to do. Soren wasn't one of us, not really. He was an untrained kid. What do I do? Kill a kid, and live with what Chris thought of me? Let him go, and put my life on the line for someone I'd barely met?

Soren jerked up in alarm as he saw us in the corner of his eye. "Stay back!" he yelled, as I put my hands up uncertainly. I saw the gun in his hand just before three bullets split the air.

Christobal Chanel- Wandering Souls D8M

Now he knows how it feels. It was a strangely remote thought, as I felt my lifeblood warming my stomach. A red streak lined the side of Juni's face as he knelt over me. Just a scratch, I thought with relief. The third bullet was buried somewhere in the wall behind us. Soren was gone, fled down the hall in the opposite direction. It would have been easy for Juni to catch him, if he hadn't been looking at me.

"Don't die." I almost smiled when I remembered how quickly a calamity could reduce you to asinine platitudes. I'd said the same when I held him.

"We just can't get away from guns, can we?" I asked, tasting blood in the back of my mouth. Juni leaned up from where he'd been trying to put pressure on the wound. From his face I could see he'd accepted what I already knew. I didn't have energy for much more. I wasn't ready. I wasn't ready at all. But there had to be something good in this.

"There has to be music there."

With my struggle to get everyone a POV, the Careers kind of sat around a lot not doing much. Now that I've gotten most people covered I can let them loose to do a lot more hunting.

65th place: Wit Castiglione- stabbed by Joseph

Willuna wanted an Amazon POV so that's why Joseph wasn't featured. Wit and Study are complex enough for a story all their own. This time Wit was starting to learn that toxic people don't change unless they choose it for themselves, and that he deserved respect. The Games wait for no man, so he didn't have time to see that all the way through. It's a shame he and Study didn't find out what would happen if they'd reunited.

64th place: Study Furado- axed by Charybdis

I don't intend to be rude or pessimistic about Study's difficulties. The arena is a really, really bad place to work through mood swings and emotional regulation. If she'd been in a conducive environment, she would have had a fair chance. We're seeing Study in the worst possible conditions and I hope people bear that in mind.

63rd place: Dominique Rindelle- stabbed by Arielle (Emma's poison wasn't fatal)

Sometimes I have to write sad endings. Dominique and Wyatt never got to enjoy their married lives. They had a few days and they made the most of them. Maybe someday they'll come back and enjoy more.

62nd place: Logan Quinn- Axed by Marley

Logan sacrificed so much and got himself so much. The Games are rigged, though, and they always will be. This wasn't punishment for Logan betraying the Jaymen. That was bad, but it wasn't out of malice or cruelty. It was just cold equations. If we see Logan and the Jaymen again we'll see how everyone reacts to this.

61st place: Rachel Larson- stabbed by Fable

I'm pretty sure Tinks is gone and prefers Akari and Des anyway, so I gave Rachel some cool Switch scenes and cut her loose. There's not exactly enough to her to win without a lot of development, and I don't have time to develop everyone with such a large cast.

60th place: Christobal Chanel- shot by Soren

My initial thought was to have Soren be the last victim. I'd already given him the gun, though (I forgot if I wrote about it but it's in the list I made to keep track). Then I thought wouldn't it be messed up if he got spooked and shot someone who wasn't attacking him? Since I was aiming for a large Career/outlier ratio, the short stick went to Chris. It IS poetically fitting that they've both held each other as they died, though.