Trigger warnings: Death

Tomorrow brings not Thresh, but Katniss.

The sunrise that greets us as we step out of our tents is a bloody red sky, like an angry scar wound. And there, like a harbinger of doom, is Katniss, sitting half-submerged in the lake. She always did like a dramatic entrance.

Cato laughs and raises his sword. As we race towards her, she scrambles out of the lake. She grabs the branches with a practised ease and throws her backpack on, racing out of the woods.

"I'm coming for you Fire Girl," Cato snarls.

Marvel beams excited at me, and he, Clove and Marina press forward following Cato as he gives chase. Peeta hangs back gripping his spear. His eyes shift away as I glance at him. I let him go ahead of me. Just in case he plans to murder us all in a last-ditch effort to save Katniss.

We race through the woods, with me almost stumbling over tree roots. Suddenly, Cato stops and we look up to see Katniss swiftly scaling a tree. Finch was right- she thrives in woods.

Katniss glances down at us, a smirk playing at her lips, "How's everything with you?"

Okay, she's witty as well as attractive. Why didn't I choose her for an ally?

Cato glances at us, bewildered, before calling up, "Well enough, yourself?"

"It's been a bit warm for my taste," She grins. Beside me, Peeta splutters and I pat his back, "The air's better up here. Why don't you come up?"

"Think I will," Cato murmurs in that dangerously soft voice of his. Clove shoots him a warning look but he ignores her.

Cato moves forward to grab hold of the tree, and I unsling my bow and offer it to him, "Here, take this Cato."

"No," He gives me a look of revulsion, and pushes them away. As I thought, Katniss' eyes hungrily follow the movement, "I'll do better with my sword."

"Come on Cato," I yell as he begins to climb, "You can do it!"

"Bring her down!" Clove shouts.

Cato heaves himself up the tree, but of course he the branch cracks underneath him and he falls. There's an intake of breath from us all, as he lands heavily on the ground. For a moment, I think he won't get up, but then he does.

He grabs me by the arm, and pushes me towards the tree, "You go Glimmer," He snarls, "You're the lightest."

No, I'm not- it's Clove, and he knows it. And she's by far the best climber out of all of us. But he doesn't know what Katniss has got up there, and he doesn't want to risk Clove.

Fine.

The wood scrapes against me as I climb, and I heave myself onto the first branch. And then reach for the next, and then the next. I begin to think I'm pretty well when the branches start making cracking sounds. I freeze and glance up at Katniss. Somehow, she's scaled even higher. There's no way I can reach her now.

Carefully, my legs hugging the branch that I'm sitting on, I pull out an arrow and nock it onto the bow. She's stopped moving but from here, I know she'll be near impossible to hit. Especially with my aim.

I need a miracle.

I don't get one. The arrow whizzes past her, just over her head. She clambers up and grabs it, smiling as she waves it tauntingly at me.

I sigh and carefully scale down the tree to join the others.

"What do we do now?" Clove hisses, as we move into a group huddle.

"We could cut down the tree," I offer half-heartedly. But that would take hours, and we'd need Peeta to do it, which wouldn't happen.

"We haven't got an axe," Marina points out, "What if we burned it down?"

Right. And set fire to the forest in the process? No thanks. I shiver, "I've had enough of fire for one day."

"We could try shooting at her again," Marvel suggests. Because of course he does, "Could any of you hit her from this distance? At the angle I'm at, I doubt my spear could make it."

Everyone shakes their heads, and Cato stamps the ground. I back away whilst Clove shifts closer to him, trying to prevent another Cato-tantrum.

"Oh, let her stay up there," Peeta cuts in, harshly, "It's not like she's going anywhere. We'll deal with her in the morning."

Yeah, right. As if he's not going to help her down during the night and run away with her. But, unfortunately, Cato buys it, "Alright. Someone make a fire."

To top off Cato's idiocy, he leaves me with Peeta, whilst everyone else goes to collect firewood. Brilliant. Round of applause for Cato.

The moment they're gone, Peeta's eyes flicker to Katniss in her tree and back to me. I guess there's no need to be subtle when the people he's acting for are gone.

"Don't even think about it," I warn.

"About what?" He asks innocently. Forget Cato, this man trumps all actors. He's so good he's even got me convinced. Almost. "But there's no point anyway," He says casually, "Because you could take me down without a weapon, couldn't you?"

At first I think he's trying to distract me with flattery. But then I hear the hard edge in his tone, and I know he somehow knows my capabilities.

"Like you couldn't," I scoff, "You got that 8 on your strength, didn't you? Must have hurled those weights around."

There's a pause, and then he smiles. And while he's a perfect actor and has been faking grins during all the time he's spent with us, this one somehow feels genuine. "It's been nice having you around, Glimmer."

"Yeah, you too," I huff, "But no sweettalking me. Your girlfriend's going to have to hang on just a bit longer."

"Oh don't worry," He throws an adoring look at Katniss, who's busy rubbing something on her leg, "She's a survivor. She'll make it to the end."

"Well let's see if she survives Cato," I murmur, "He and Clove have it out for her."

There's a sound and we turn to see Marvel and Marina coming back with the firewood. As they place it down in front of the tree, Marina sidles up to me, "Hey Glim, can we talk?"

"Uh," I glance at Marvel who's scratching his head and playing with the wood, to Peeta who is pretending now to look at Katniss.

"Oh she won't escape," Marina assures me, "And anyone we won't go far," She tugs at my jacket, "Come on, it's important."

I follow her a couple of trees away before she turns to face me. "What's so important that we left our hostage unguarded?"

She looks at me blankly, "We left her with Peeta and Marvel."

"Exactly."

She frowns, "Glimmer," She says patiently as though explaining things to a small child, "I know Katniss getting an 11 in training is scary. But she doesn't have superstrength. She can't take out both Peeta and Marvel."

"Right," I say, "But her and Peeta could take out Marvel."

She looks even more puzzled, "That's not going to happen. Peeta hates Katniss. He's told me so multiple times."

I raise an eyebrow, "And you seriously believe him?" When she doesn't respond, I sigh, "Okay, what's really important?"

"It's Cato," She drops her voice, "I don't think he's in love with you anymore."

I blink. Right. That. "How do you mean?"

"I saw him and Clove kissing," She says dramatically, "He's moved on from you. Whatever power or influence you thought you had over him, you don't. So...It's Time."

"Time for what?"

"My revenge," She says sombrely, "I know you wanted to wait until Thresh and Katniss were dead to kill him, but I can't. Sooner or later, he and Clove are going to turn on us. We need to kill them both now before they kill us."

I nod. I promised Finch that I would strike tonight anyway. But if Marina has seen Cato and Clove kissing then that means they have no interest in keeping me around for the audience. The love triangle is resolved. And the extra player is forgotten.

"Alright," I tell Marina, "If you're sure."

"I'm sure," She murmurs, "And I want to do it. I want to see the look in his eyes right before I kill him. So that he remembers the pain that he put Murdoch through. The pain he caused Ariel."

"Okay. Then I'll take a watch and wake you, and you kill Cato..."

"And you kill Clove," Marina finishes. Then she frowns, sighing, "I really like Clove. She's a good friend."

"I know," I say and squeeze her shoulder, "But if she wakes up to find Cato dead, she'll kill us all. You know that right?"

She sighs, and then nods, resigned, and the two of us head back to the others. Marvel and Peeta are still struggling with the fire, but the four of us are able to figure it out, and by the time Cato and Clove, we have a roaring fire going.

They stroll in hand-in-hand with no firewood, making it blatantly obvious what they've been up to. Yeah, I'll have no hard feelings killing Cato tonight. Part of me will regret killing Marina, Clove and Peeta though. In some way, I've connected with them and understood them. It will be like killing part of me.

And Marvel... Maybe I don't kill Marvel. Maybe I'll just run the moment I give the others the berries, and hope that he doesn't wake and come after me. Leave him and Katniss to fight amongst themselves.

I want to kill Katniss. I have to eliminate her. But I can't do it alone, and I can't afford to wait any longer before killing the others. It's okay. I'll join up with Finch as planned, and the two of us will come up with a strategy. Surely with our minds combined, we'll find a way to outlive the others?

The mood around the fire is subdued, and Marina and Marvel drift off pretty quickly. So does Peeta, but he's clearly still awake, positioned at an angle so that he can watch both Katniss and us.

"I'll take first watch," Cato announces.

Clove shuffles into him, resting her head on his shoulder. She doesn't even look apologetic; only triumphant, "I'll take second."

"I'll take the last one then," I say. They don't even look my way, and I turn away and close my eyes, pretending to fall asleep so I don't have to endure their intimacy any longer.

I must fall asleep, because Clove wakes me. I rub my eyes and climb to my feet, "Anything from our guest?"

Her eyes dart to Katniss, who's somehow asleep in the tree, "Nothing."

"Huh, interesting strategy. I guess she didn't get that 11 for her brains."

Clove doesn't respond, not even a flicker of a smile. Then she says softly, "Glimmer-"

I know then that she's about to apologise. That she's going to say something like, "I'm sorry but Cato's mine. I told you so from the beginning." And I can't let her. This girl has already wormed her way into my heart. I've seen her vulnerability, but also her strength, and I can't let her get to me anymore otherwise it really is going to be impossible to kill her.

"It's okay," I tell her, "Get some sleep."

She smiles, and moves away to join Cato besides the fire. I notice though that she has one knife in her hand has she rolls over to sleep. She always was smart.

I rest against Katniss' tree, taking a moment to gaze at them all. Cato and Clove side by side- for all their bravado, they're really just scared teens trying to protect Clove's family from harm. And Marina- the girl who fought so hard to protect her girlfriend's brother. So quick to love, anger, compassion. I wish I could have got to know her more. Under different circumstances, of course. And Peeta, well, I think he and I are pretty similar. There's a hardness to him within all that friendliness and pretence.

And Marvel...How I wish things had been different with Marvel. If I'd had the guts, we could have spent some proper time together, I could have asked him on a few dates... But then maybe we'd end up here anyway, and what would be the point? Still, it's nice to imagine a different future. A future where we could have grown old and experienced life's adventures together...

All of them are asleep now, I'm sure of it. Except maybe Peeta, but it's really hard to tell with that guy. He can't seriously be planning to stay up the whole night, is he? I have no choice. Dawn is coming and I have to risk it.

I reach a hand into my pocket and draw out Finch's Byronx Berries. They're wrapped safely in fabric, and I quietly unravel them. Who first? Definitely Cato and Clove. If they others wake up whilst I'm killing them, I might stand a chance. Up close, I can fight off Marvel. Peeta and Marina will be difficult, but Marina will think it's all part of our plan.

I step forward, and move slowly towards Cato, the berry outstretched, watching and listening carefully for any sign of movement. Then suddenly, there's a sound. A buzzing. At first I think its's coming from Cato, but then I glance up and see it's true source: Katniss.

She's sawing a branch. Something's falling. The buzzing's getting louder. A large sphere lands directly in front of me and explodes. The buzzing is insects, I realise. They fly out and cover me, crawling into my eyes, nose and mouth.

There's screaming.

Then pain.

And then nothing.