Trigger warnings: Death threats, Fire, Serious burns

Cato zips the tent behind him and waits expectantly. No way out.

I incline my head towards his sword, "Is that to kill me with or to torture me?"

Cato smiles shark-like. I can tell he's enjoying this. "Depends on how forthcoming you are. There are three ways this can you. We can torture you until you give in, torture you until you die, or-"

"Let me go unharmed?" I suggest.

He nods, disgruntled, "Until we have no further need of you."

"Well," I smile tightly, "I prefer that option."

"Yes I rather thought you might."

I shuffle over to Clove. Cato follows me, his sword still held in his hand. I drop my voice, "Your father is being held in the Capitol."

"The Capitol?" Clove repeats. Then her brow lowers as she hisses, "You could have told us that before! Cato and I could have looked for him."

"You would have been caught immediately," I say calmly.

"But-"

Cato places a hand over her mouth, hissing, "The microphones."

She glares at him, and pulls his hand away.

"Think about it." I whisper, "Any tribute spotted unaccompanied away from the Tribute Centre is presumed to be escaping and is executed. You'll stand a much better chance as an honorary Capitol citizen. A Victor."

"She's right, Clove," Cato says, his voice low.

Clove drops her knife, burying her head in her hands. My eyes flicker to the knife and then to the blade in Cato's hand.

Cato's eyes meet mine. "Do you know where her father is being held hostage?"

"The President's Mansion," I whisper. It's a guess but I hope a logical one, "It's the centre of all operations in the Capitol. It's where the Gamemakers work and where they keep dangerous rebels and criminals. Should be fairly easy to get into as a Victor."

Clove raises her head and glances at Cato. They share a look, and then he nods. "She's telling the truth."

He lowers the sword.

"So," I try and keep the tremor out of my voice, "When do you plan on killing me?"

Cato shrugs, casual. But he and Clove meet each other's eyes again. This time it's her that nods.

"Whenever you've outworn your usefulness."

I sigh, "Then let's keep the sponsors happy whilst I'm still here." I raise my voice so that the Capitol microphones can pick us up, and shout, "I promise you I'm not making a move on either of you!"

Cato raises an eyebrow but mercifully joins in with the act, "Oh yeah? Explain why I saw you two with a bunch of roses then."

"I told you," Clove bellows, cupping her mouth with her hands, "They were roses Glimmer got from a sponsor."

"Romancing sponsors now, are you?" And even though he's acting, a dangerous note has crept into Cato's voice, "Are we not good enough for you?"

"Cato, darling," I trill, "Isn't this a little hypocritical of you? After all it's you who's been trying to flirt with me. I've had no part in this drama."

Cato glowers at me, but Clove grins, smirking as she yells, "Oh he flirts with anything Glimmer! And moves on just as quickly! We made promises to each other back in Two. Now look how he treats me!"

Cato blinks, suddenly looking unsure, and his voice is rough as he shouts, "Promises? What promises? Don't talk nonsense, girl. I certainly didn't promise you anything and I'm free to flirt with anyone I like."

Clove's eyes flash, looking hurt now, "Girl?" She repeats, spitting out the word, "What does that make you then, a man? A real immature one, then! 'Cos you're acting like a lovesick toddler!"

Okay, this has gone too far. But at least it will give the Capitol audience some entertainment tonight. And Cato's reputation will be blemished.

The idea seems to occur to him too because he snarls, "I'm too tired for this. We'll finish this tomorrow."

"Sure, Baby," Clove says vindictively.

He shoots us both a hateful look and storms out of the tent. That anger definitely isn't faked.

"He's like a volcano," I note.

"I'm still mad at you too, Glimmer," Clove says, but she tucks her knife back into her jacket.

"I know. But let's go into that another night, okay? Cato's got a point-it's late."

"Baby," Clove retorts, but she's smiling as she turns away and snuggles into her sleeping bag.

The next morning Cato has dark circles under his eyes as Clove and I join the others around a fire. Marina's is frying vegetables, fish and seaweed whilst something soft and white bubbles in a pot.

Peeta is slicing a loaf of bread with his knife on the other side of the fire. He has pieces of fruit and cheese beside him too. As he turns his back, I amble forward and quickly snatch some up, placing it in my pocket.

As my hand descends downwards again, Marina shouts, "Hey, Glimmer, no touching! You've gotta have room for what I'm making too."

"Fine," I gesture towards the woods, "Whilst you're waiting, I'll just go..."

"To the toilet?" Marina finishes, whilst Clove sniggers, "Girl, you've got a serious problem. I don't know how you survived the Interviews. We were sat in those chairs for three hours."

"Three and a half at least," Clove amends, "Don't forget those breaks in between tributes."

"Guess the Capitol audience couldn't hold it in either," Marina laughs, "How did you manage Glimmer?"

"I districted myself by glaring at Caesar Flickerman the whole time," I wink. Clove and Marina groan.

"Same," Clove says, "Hate that guy."

"Ugh, me too," Marina nods, "But you know whoever wins is going to be interviewed by him, right?"

"Don't remind me. I'll probably kill him before the night is over," Clove growls.

Peeta lifts his head from his bread, "Well that'll be some quality television."

As I disappear into the woods, I hear Clove snap, "You can't talk. You two were practically best friends."

"I'm not sure 'best friends' sniff each other, Clove," Marina drawls.

Laughing quietly, I step into the woods. It doesn't take me long to find Finch. She's leaning back against our tree, humming to herself as I approach.

"Bit risky, isn't it?" I murmur, "Singing in a forest?"

"Not as risky as waiting by this tree," She raises an eyebrow.

I ignore her, and pull out the bread, cheese and apple, "Sorry it's not hot. And it got a bit squished. But maybe you could make a sandwich or something and-"

"Don't apologise. Never apologise. Apologising isn't going to make you a Victor."

"Well, aren't you poetic today?"

She smiles and takes the food from me, "Princess?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for the food. And I don't care what it's like. Food is food. You should have seen some of the stuff I had to eat on the streets."

I pull a face, "Was it off?"

"Try alive," She grins, as she tears into the bread.

When I return to the others, Marina presents me with a seaweed roll with vegetables and the white stuff inside.

I take it gingerly, "What is it?"

"Sushi!" She says triumphantly, "We have it all the time in Four."

"What's in it?"

Her smile drops, "Uh, vegetables? Have you seriously never had any?"

"No, I mean...the other stuff?"

"Oh the rice!" Her smile returns before she frowns, "Wait, do you not have any rice in One? What do you even eat?"

"Food," I shrug and take a bite. Then another. It's soft and the seaweed has a strange texture but the blend of vegetables is incredible.

"Wow," I murmur.

She beams, "It's not as good as home, but I could only work with what I've had. Here, try a fish one!"

She pushes the roll into my hand.

"Oh, I've never had fish before."

"Yeah, I figured. Come on, you'll love it!"

I don't actually. But she looks so happy and expectant, that I force it down, humming contentedly as I do.

I eat another vegetable roll, and tuck some away for Finch later. Alvis spends most of the day making small adjustments to the mines and going through his patterns when he thinks no one is watching. As night falls, Cato announces that we'll search for other tributes. He leaves Alvis in charge of our camp, which should give Finch plenty of opportunity to observe him.

We're split into groups. To my surprise, he chooses to be with me, whilst Clove is with Marvel and Marina with Peeta. It makes sense logically- we all have different strengths and weaknesses-but one look at his distant gaze tells me he doesn't really care.

He must have another plan in motion. I move my bow onto my shoulder as I follow him into the woods, leaving my hands free. He's silent as we walk into the woods and there's purpose marked in his every step. Is he leading me away from the others so that he can kill me?

I keep an eye on the sword hanging at his belt and feel the reassuring press of the metal of my dagger up my sleeve. If he does turn on me, I'll have to fight hand-on-hand. Hopefully, my skill will surprise him enough for me to get the upper hand and then I'll be able to disarm, throw him to the ground and kill him.

Hearing the cannon, the others will only be slightly concerned, thinking it's another tribute who's dead rather than a Career, so I'll use the time to find Finch and disappear deeper into the forest. From there, we'll be able to plot the others' demise without getting caught.

"So Cato," He'll need time to swing and draw his sword. Best if I stay close. I'll be able to react quicker, "Which tribute do you think we need to kill first? For me, it's the boy from Eleven or Fire Girl."

"The boy from Eleven," He answers noncommittedly.

"Thresh is pretty strong," I concede, "Especially if he's in the other area. It'll require all of us to take him on."

Cato is silent for a while. Then he says, "Let's kill him tomorrow."

"Okay," I blink, "We'll need a proper plan then. We have no idea what the terrain is like or what his fighting style is. If he-"

"Glimmer," Cato stops, turning around to face me. His expression is blank.

"Yeah?"

"I didn't take you out here to talk about the other tributes."

His voice is vulnerable, unsure. An act for the audience, then, and I have no choice but to play along.

"Really? I thought we were hunting them down?"

"Well, that's what I told the others," He smirks, before looking down at the ground, probably at an attempt at bashfulness. It looks completely wrong, and I wonder if he's actually ever been shy in his life. Well, they'll be lapping this up in the Capitol, "But I actually wanted to speak to you alone."

Yeah, no shit. Where is this performance going?

"Oh?"

He raises his head and his cold blue eyes bore into mine, as he stammers the words, "C-can you kiss me?"

"What?"

"Please, Glimmer," His voice and charming smile are so at odds with those menacing eyes that it's really unnerving, "I want to see what it's like."

"Cato, I really don't think we should be-"

He lunges forward and grabs me, pinning my arms against my body as he slams his mouth against mine. The kiss is brief but rough and disgusting and I resist the urge to throw up as he releases me.

"What the hell?" Raw rage breaks through my mask, "You can't just kiss people without their permission."

Somehow, Cato looks just as stunned, mumbling, "I thought when you kissed someone you liked, it was meant to be magical."

I raise an eyebrow, "Actually that's not how love works, you creep."

But Cato's not finished with his act. He claps his hands to his mouth, whispering loudly, "So I never loved you in the first place, which means...poor Clove! She will be so upset! I have been distracted, blind..."

So this is it. Publicly cutting any romantic ties with me so the audience can't blame this poor, deceived boy when he kills me. My only chance is to get the audience on my side.

"You're a witch! A siren!" Cato thunders. Are those tears in his eyes? Did he pre-write this speech last night or is he making it up in the spur of the moment? It must be pre-written. There's no way he would use words like 'siren' naturally, "You turned me against poor Clover! A sweet, beautiful girl who's always been there for me!"

Yep, definitely pre-written. How much did he act out in his tent last night? Is that why he got no sleep, muttering it all to himself until it was committed to memory?

"This was your own doing, Cato," I snap, "I told you I wasn't interested, and I didn't lead you on."

What will they call me in the Capitol after this? A cold-hearted bitch? I can only hope that reason holds more swap, than this rampant idiocy of emotion.

"Yes you did!" He's openly sobbing now. If there's ever a prize given to the best acting, then give it to this boy. He deserves it.

"No I didn't," I retort, "You decided Clove wasn't good enough for you and now you think I'm not either. You're selfish and heartless and you don't deserve love."

Let's see how that goes down in the Capitol.

Ok, now he's angry. I can see it in his eyes. This isn't going the way he planned. His hand goes to his sword and I raise my hands. This is it. He plans to kill me and rewrite history later.

And then we feel it. The wave of heat. We turn puzzled, and a burning win blows towards us, blinding us, choking our mouths and noses with smoke.

It's a wall of fire coming straight towards us.

Cato reacts first. He shoves me to the side and runs through the forest. I stumble after him, blind from the smoke stinging at my eyes and only vaguely aware of the animals streaming past us and the trees in my way.

"Clove!" I hear Cato scream, and up ahead, I can make out the figures of Clove and Marvel, "Run!"

They look up startled as he races past them, and Clove swiftly follows behind him. Marvel's eyes widen, and as I open my mouth to scream at him to move, my foot trips on something and I fall to the ground.

Pain arcs through my foot. I look back at it, the fire lighting up the forest floor. A root is twisted around it, and as I struggle to get it free, I glance at Marvel. He hasn't moved, staring at me with indecision. Then something in him seems to shift. He runs-the idiot- towards the fire, grabbing me by my shoulders and wrenching me free.

He's muttering something, but I can't make it out, and he pushes me in front of him.

"Marvel!" It's Marina, up ahead. Her arm is outstretched, reaching for us, "Come on!"

Together, Marvel and I stumble towards her, and the three of us race towards the Cornucopia. The wall of fire stops just as we reach our camp. We all sink to the ground exhausted and relieved, whilst Cato and Clove stand gazing down at us.

"Well it's clear the Gamemakers don't want us hunting there," Clove laughs.

"I say we all get some sleep," Cato says loudly, "It's been a long night and I want us all ready to fight."

"What for?" Peeta asks.

"Tomorrow, I want to take down Thresh."

The others stare at him as if he's crazy.

"Are you serious?" Marina breaks the silence.

"Doubting Cato's ability?" I murmur.

She turns and meets my gaze. I wonder if she's thinking the same thing as I am- it'll be perfect if Cato dies along with Thresh.

"No," She says carefully, "just..."

"We don't know what's in that section of the arena," Clove says cautiously, "There could be all sorts of traps?"

"Scared?" I ask. I'm about to add the word 'Darling' but suddenly there's a knife at my throat and Clove's brown eyes fill my vision.

"Never call me scared." She whispers dangerously.

But I can see the fear in her eyes.

"Okay," Marvel cuts in nervously, "It's dawn. Why don't we all get some sleep and discuss this in the morning?"

Clove removes her knife glowering at me. She glares at Cato and marches off towards her tent. As the others follow, there's a tingling sound and a parachute falls down. Peeta pauses and moves to open it.

"What is it?" I ask.

He holds up a couple of bottles, turning them over in his hands. "Burn medicine," He says, puzzled, "Did any of us get hurt?"

I reach forward and pick one up, heart hammering. I know exactly who this is for.

"Finch?" I murmur as loud as I dare. She's not by our tree. I glance around for footprints, but, of course, I see none. I turn and move back the way I came, retracing my steps. As I pass a bush, a hand reaches out and grabs me by my ankle. It's pale and small.

"Princess," The bush croaks.

Crouching down, I see Finch spread beneath the bush. She's badly burned and twigs dig into her hair and skin.

"Can you move?" I whisper.

"Good to see you too," She mutters, before dissolving into a coughing fit. She tries to crawl towards me, but winces, "Hurts."

"Here," I reach over and press the bottle into her hands, "This should help."

She takes it and slowly applies it around her legs and arms. "Oooh that stings. Is this stuff actually going to help?"

"I hope so," I huff, "I got it from a sponsor."

"Of course you did."

She lies there for some minutes, and then she drags herself out of the bush. Up close, her burns look even worse. Her clothes are frayed and her hair is shorter and uneven.

"The fire was too close for my liking," She says, coughing again, "Had to cut some of my hair off."

"With what?"

She draws a piece of metal from her pocket, "Didn't leave the Cornucopia completely empty handed."

I pass her a decanter, bread and a sushi roll.

"Please tell me that's water," She says, making a grab for it.

"Soup, sorry. I did promise you a hot meal."

"Eh, it's a liquid. Though," She winces, "I think I've gone off hot things for a while."

I pull a face, murmuring, "I think we all have."

I watch as she glugs the soup, placing the bread and sushi into her pocket.

"I don't suppose you had a chance to watch Alvis, did you?"

"Yes, actually. He was so bored that he ran through his seven routines multiple times," She laughs, but then coughs again and drinks more soup, "I reckon I've got most of them learnt. And besides in all of them, the first few steps are the same so I can actually get supplies on the outside of the pyramid."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously," She grins.

"Wow. For a genius, Alvis is actually-"

"An idiot?" Finch huffs, "Aren't most geniuses though? I'm pretty sure none of them have common sense."

"You may be right."

She drinks some more and then lowers the decanter, "You don't need this back, do you?"

"No, there's so much stuff at the pyramid that they won't notice things going missing."

"Noted," She smirks. The decanter disappears into the bush, followed by the bread and the sushi roll.

"Cato wants us to hunt Thresh tomorrow," I say.

Her smile vanishes, "Whose bright idea was that?"

"Mine, actually. But I didn't expect him to want us all to saunter into Thresh's territory without a plan. Here's hoping Cato dies with him."

She chews her bottom lip, "Get out of there, Princess. At the first sign of danger, run."

"Where to? Cato could kill me for cowardice."

"Then run tonight," She moves closer, "You and I. Into the woods."

I shake my head, "That wasn't the plan. Katniss needs to be taken out, and so do Cato, Clove and Marina."

"Plans change."

"I'll do it tomorrow night. Once Thresh is dead."

She glares at me but I hold her gaze. Then she relents, "Fine."

I turn to go, but then she says, "Glimmer. Take care."

I pause. She stands uncertain beside her bush, eyes glistening.

I owe this girl so much. In another life, in another world, maybe we could have been good friends. I don't know what tomorrow will bring. I don't know if I'll survive. But is it really goodbye if I don't say the words?

"You too, Finch," I murmur, "Take care of yourself."

I'm rewarded with one last smile before I turn my back and walk out of the woods.