Her hands shook slightly as she twisted the rope around a branch and tied it off. Testing her weight against it, Clove began to climb. She was trying to move fast—trying to convince herself to act as though a real attacker were coming after her, but it was hard. Marvel was only steps behind, but she had already ascended higher than he could jump. He gritted his teeth and dug stubby nails into the tree bark as he headed up after her.

"Go, Clove, go!" Glimmer cheered from the sidelines, pale face almost wistful in the summer light. It took a critical eye to tell that she wasn't just another blonde idiot. Clove was slowly learning that even an apparently shallow girl like Glimmer had a few hidden talents up her sleeve, and Glimmer's might just come to save her life—that was what frightened Clove the most.

Grunting in frustration, Clove glanced down out of the corner of her eye to see Marvel with the knife between his teeth, the sharp blade mere centimeters from slicing his mouth. The act of looking back at her opponent earned her a strict yell from Cato.

"What do you think you're doing? Climb. If you look back one more time, you can do push-ups while the rest of us eat lunch."

Cato thought he was giving her a punishment, but really, Clove didn't see it as that bad. The chance to prove him wrong was more satisfying than proving to him that she could easily skip one meal. Clove would show Cato that she could look back at her enemy and still evade them with ease. It took all her will power not to turn and stick her tongue out at the blond boy on the ground.

"C'mon, Marvel," the dark-haired girl trilled as she swung herself up onto another branch up, kicking out at him as she did. He dodged reflexively, a growl emitting from the back of his throat.

A branch snapped under her weight and Clove was left to hastily scrabble for another, her ankle dipping right into Marvel's face for a split second. Her fingers brushed a thicker piece just as she felt a foreign object clamp itself around her exposed skin: Marvel's hand. The brunette gritted her teeth, a low hiss whistling through her teeth as she heard another shout echo through the trees.

"CLOVER, DAMMIT. CLIMB." She was beginning to wonder what kind of training practice they were having, and if Cato was actually just trying to alert the entire arena to their whereabouts, but she hadn't seen any suspicious movement, aside from Marvel still tugging on her leg from below.

She sucked in a deep breath and realized that the only reason she hadn't gone down yet was that Marvel didn't have enough balance to throw only her off. If he tried to pull her down over him now, he'd lose his grip and end up as her landing mat, should they make it all the way to the forest floor. They'd both come to an almost stand-still halfway up the tree—her fingers twining into a small, knotted hole as Marvel kept his hand firmly clamped around the bone of her ankle.

Tensing, Clove felt as though she was moving in slow motion, both of them finding a way out at the exact same moment in time. The problem was, their solutions were those of two different minds and two different goals, and one was going to have to overpower the other to succeed. Clove hoped—no, she knew—this would be her.

Her eyes shot to the sides to give one last calculating glance at the trees surrounding the one they were currently occupying. Next, Clove steadied herself as she felt Marvel shifting his weight from below and then she was pushing off from the tree, throwing herself into voluntary free-fall.

"What the hell are—" Marvel was cut off as the realization that he was going to hit the ground hard if he didn't do something about it first settled in. Cursing, the District 1 tribute twisted into an attempt to land without injuring himself too badly. Clove, on the other hand, reached out to the next tree over and threw her hands up to catch herself on a branch. Not having been able to test her weight against it beforehand, she realized far too late that she'd miscalculated, and the second twig to snap on her that day sent her spiraling out of control at the trunk. The impact nearly knocked the wind out of her, but at least she wasn't falling any longer; a thick branch had broken her fall and possibly one of her fingers.

Blinking back stars and shifting her gaze to the forest floor below, Clove could see Marvel in a crouch at the base of her new tree. He looked livid from the stunt she'd pulled, and a faint smirk graced her face.

"Don't have too much fun down there without me," she wiggled her fingers tauntingly, barely catching the grimace that crossed his face before it was replaced with nothing more than a neutral frown. So he was trying to keep his anger concealed—now that wouldn't do.

Craning her neck to locate Cato through the foliage, Clove was hardly worried about the movements Marvel was making below. "Hey, Chief! I knocked Marvel to the ground, does that not count for anything?"

There was a pause.

Then, "Fine. We have some new business to attend to anyway. Get your ass down here, Clove. And Marvel, stop climbing that tree before you hurt yourself."

Clove caught Glimmer's derisive snort and her eyes instantly narrowed. The other girl's abilities were finally coming to light, and with that, Clove could understand why she'd received the score she had. A nine was nothing to be ashamed of—far from it—but Glimmer wasn't that fantastic with her bow. Just that morning, Clove had nearly been shot in the head.

An arrow pierced the trunk next to Clove's head and she turned abruptly. A blushing Glimmer gave her a wide-eyed stare and her dark eyes narrowed on the blonde.

"Is this how you treat all of your allies?" Clove bit out angrily.

"I'm sorry, Clover. Cato told me I'm no good at throwing spears, so I was just trying the bow and arrow again. It must've slipped."

Or you have terrible aim, she thought wearily, knowing she had enough to worry about as it was without being shot while they were bloody practicing.

Now, though, as she scaled down the tree at a pace that was surely making Cato ground his teeth to dust, Clove detected the presence of a fifth person. There were four of them running around in and composing the Careers' group. The only thing that didn't make sense was how the newcomer was still breathing.

"You're lucky I haven't speared your head yet," came a snarl from Cato, and Clove rolled her eyes as she brushed off her pants. Funny how they thought along the same lines, except when it really wasn't funny at all.

Finally turning to get a good look at the stranger's face, Clove felt her fingers instinctively flip out a knife and point it at him.

"What is he doing here? Why haven't one of you killed him yet?"

Cato's sharp gaze alighted on her momentarily before flicking back to Peeta. "He says he wants to be our ally, and that he can offer us something we can't refuse."

"And what's that?" Glimmer's voice was cold, face hard and expression unreadable as she spoke. It was as though her entire personality had transformed in the span of two seconds. There was even a dagger half-hidden in the sleeve of her shirt, handle clutched in her clenched fist. Clove could honestly say that she liked her much more this way.

"I can lead you to Katniss. Katniss Everdeen. The one from my—"

"We know where she's from and who she is," Cato spat in response, eyes seeming to narrow further. His gaze flickered over the other three of his group and he crossed his arms over his chest as he gave Peeta an appraising look. "So what do you think team? Stay or go?"

Clove could see the nervousness flicker over Peeta's features—he was weak and expendable, but there was no doubt that he could be useful.

"We need her gone," Marvel finally spoke up, steely gaze never leaving Peeta's face. That was all he said, though. No less, no more. The unspoken words they were all thinking floated through the air and glinted in their bright eyes as they all exchanged another look.

Find the girl. Kill them both.

Author's Note: Isn't this cute? A short little filler chapter? :) Yeah, I thought so. Anywho, this is mostly to get the meeting of Peeta out of the way, and really, I'm going to deem this a little AU because deaths will kind of come when I want them too, and I might even try to clear up those vague deaths in my own little fashion. ;D More fun to come; more violence to come. (Hopefully. I realize that after reading this chapter, you have an idea of how awful my fight scenes might be.. I'm more inclined to the emotional side of it all sooo bear with me. :3

Special thank you to everyone who was followed/favorited/reviewed! You guys are the one reason I keep going, even after all this time. (... *cough* Even after all this time? Always. *sobs*)