Author's Note

I do not own The Hunger Games.

The Capitol

Andreas Amandiel, 18

Andreas had believed people were listening to him.

He'd thought they were agreeing with him.

He'd thought he was making some kind of progress.

And yet this new competition had been announced, and now the entirety of the Capitol was baying for the blood of District children.

"This is barbaric! How can we ever progress?" he shouted, pacing the stage. "These kinds of competitions are the sort of thing held by savages, not by a civilised people!"

Iridescence and Emeria were wandering the crowd, attempting to hand out pamphlets.

Unlike Andreas's usual speeches, he was receiving considerable negative attention. People were booing him, and calling that they needed retribution.

Iridescence and Emeria were having it worse, being pushed and shoved around at best and dragged away for photographs and signatures at worst.

"If we continue taking an eye for an eye, how can we continue?" Andreas shouted.

A bottle shattered against the wall behind him and he hurried down from the stage.

"This isn't working."

Emeria ducked over to join him. "I thought people listened to you!"

"They did!"

"They're not listening now!"

"We'll have to try again tomorrow."

"We might not have until tomorrow!"

She was right. According to the President, the new Game was to start this week, with the grand unveiling being made tomorrow night.

They were running out of time.

Marcellina Arnoult, 16

"There must be something we can do!" Marcellina said, looking at her barely touched stack of flyers. They were simple things, with 'An eye for an eye and the whole world will die,' written across them. They'd had no time to make anything more complicated.

"I don't want these children to die in my name."

"They won't be," said Luminita. She'd passed out even less of her flyers, but that might be partly due to Zephyr following her everywhere like a creepy shadow. He'd asked Vivaldi to help paint him, but rather than Vivaldi's usual pastel or neon shades, he'd requested a skull on his face, and his hands dripped dark red. Altogether, he'd terrified Marcellina when she first saw him.

"They'll be dying in the name of the Capitol's vengeance."

"That makes it worse!" Marcellina flung her stack of flyers down and watched the papers fly off down the street in the wind. "All those children, and for what?"

"To feed the anger of the storm," said Zephyr.

Marcellina turned to him. "Must you always talk like that?"

He shrugged. "I only tell you what Celeste tells me. The blood will feed the anger of the storm, and the storm will sweep the slate clean."

"Sweep the slate clean," muttered Luminita, studying her own flyers.

"You don't… actually believe his ramblings, do you?"

Marcellina had heard stories from her dad about Victors of the Hunger Games that went insane. It was why he'd immediately insisted on medical care and therapy and anything else he could buy her. Even now he'd taken the day off and was parked at the end of the street watching her. He feared that if he let her out of his sight, she might disappear again.

"I don't think they're ramblings. Not entirely. Neither do you. You've seen what he does."

Marcellina had tried not to see those things. The way electronics died around him, the way the lights responded when they escaped the pod room.

She didn't want to see it.

"What storm?" she asked.

"It's been building for a hundred years," Zephyr replied. The light reflected from the skull painting. "But then the wolf girl gave it more power and now it feels hunger."

"Did anyone ever tell you how creepy you've become?"

Phoenix Sterling, 13

"My mother and father keep talking about how great this is," Vivaldi said as he paced Phoenix's bedroom. "They say I'm finally getting payback for what happened to me."

"I'm sorry," Phoenix said softly.

"They want me to watch! And play the violin for their friends at ours before the Game starts!"

"Do you want to stay here?"

"No! I smashed my violin!"

"No, I meant… Here at my house. Do you want to stay here tonight?"

"Oh." Vivaldi stopped, staring through her bedroom. "Yes. I would like that."

Her dad was working late today, and it was easy enough to talk her mom into letting Vivaldi stay the night. Phoenix built him a bed on the floor of her room.

"Do you think this is our fault?" he asked as they lay in the dark.

"We didn't ask for any of this," she replied.

It hadn't even been under decision to enter the simulator. He siblings had dragged her into that, chattering about how it would be good for her.

"I just keep thinking about all those kids… And that's where Thorin came from…"

"What can we do against the President?"

They'd pinned their hopes on Andreas's movement, but so far gained nothing. People listened to him when it was easy, but now there was the chance for more blood and entertainment, all in the name of retribution…

And they were starting all over again.