You all knew it was coming. I can't say how sorry I am for this. Life has gotten in the way, I found myself preferring the more detailed and complex characters I got for Silver Ashes and the much more simplistic form that it's written in. Then I lost my notebook for this, my fibromyalgia resurfaced and I found myself utterly unable to continue this. However, I'm not the type of person to leave you hanging without closure. Here is the rest of the story in as detailed a summary as I can bring myself to type.

Training

Alliances were formed that would be the end of many tributes. Loners were vengeful. The Careers experienced their own inward tension. The large alliance found them with a huge target painted dead center on their backs as the clock counted down. Scores came, some expected and others incredibly innocuous without anything noteworthy about them. When the tributes began to fight amongst themselves before the games had even started it was inevitable what the arena would bring. Michelle found herself at the throat of her district partner, angered- no, enraged- with the fact he'd so casually pushed her aside.

Jupiter and Athena walked carefully around each other, and he found himself drawn into a rivalry with Wolfgang...but who won, the same or the insane?

Bug and Jek were in an uncanny almost-alliance where they were eager to face death as quickly as possible.

Belladonna found her feelings of admiration for Oak increasing...was this love? But it would only get her killed, wouldn't it?

Finch and Blaze tried to prepare themselves for the inevitable betrayal they had to use in order to beat each other.

Nisse found an ally in Delta from Eleven, the two being candid and obscene in nature, bettering their plans to strike out the competition.

Aspen found himself grieving for his family at home, and what would happen when he inevitably kicked the bucket.

Rocko manipulated Olivia into his trap with a few words and a smile, only for Lark to be standing at the other end of the room with a rope in hand.

Ford was gruesomely obsessive over his death, making a list of every single way he could die- and every way he could kill.

Eidolan felt trapped within his own involvement with his past mistakes, the soldier-like mentality he'd had as a child never having left him. He began to realize that if he ever wanted to repay Surah he was going to have to become the ghost again.

Luna and Alise fell on each other when their district partners abandoned them, waiting in silence for the time the gong would ring.

The Ones fell into an easy camaraderie around each other, but they knew it wouldn't last. And Blush knew that she'd be the survivor if it ever came to it.

Seoras began to question just how much his reckless nature would benefit him in the arena...would it be the thing that caused his cannon to fire?

The Alliances

D1 Blush Demontford, D1 Alexander Lepou, D2 Athena Slater, D2 Jupiter Cass, D4 Wolfgang Shivelbush

D3 Cable Barric, D7 Oak Kutter, D7 Belladonna Crystal, D10 Seoras Rider, D11 Aspen Carsten

D3 Bug Lumen, D9 Jek Therrin

D5 Blaze Travis, D5 Finch Calin

D6 Nisse Harvey, D11 Delta Thorne

D8 Alise Dencin, D9 Luna Winters

D10 Olivia Wood, D12 Rocko Warner

D4 Elle Dolohov

D6 Ford Cooper

D8 Eidolan Nejem

D12 Lark Amaran

The Bloodbath

The tributes weren't prepared save the Careers. In actuality, none of them were even close to expecting what their arena would hold in terms of horrors. The deadliest beauties, sickness and decaying flesh...

It was a hospital. Tributes began to murmur as the countdown began. They looked at each other. Who was their killer? Who was their prey?

ARENA LAYOUT

-Elevator 1 has access to floors B, 1, 2, 4

-Elevator 2 has access to floors 1, 2, 3, 4

1st/main floor

-Emergency room

-Registration

-Gift shop

-Cafeteria

2nd floor

-Cardiac ward

-Renal ward

3rd floor

-Mental ward

-Secure/isolated units

4th floor

-Rehabilitation ward

-Doctors' offices

Basement (B)

-Morgue

-Supply rooms

-Security office

The elevators sprung to life with a ping and the first cannon sounded from within the waiting room.

24th: Cable Barric, District 3: The girl was antsy, just as she always had been. She rocked back and forth on her feet, nervousness shown with her ADHD. One foot came up just a little too high and she was blown to pieces before the plates had a chance to be deactivated. She never saw the look of horror on Bella's face, never realized just what she was going to lose. At least, her parents thought, it had been quick.

23rd: Luna Winters, District 9: She wasn't used to the lights, the bright glare that was currently aimed right at her face. She let loose a little scream, the last thing she would ever do. Before she knew what was happening, Jek was on her, and he quickly turned her neck to the side, watching her fall lifeless at his feet. Now he knew that the feeling...was just as good as he'd imagined. But Luna would never have to know. She would never have to kill or fight...or breathe.

22nd: Bug Lumen, District 3: Well he hadn't been expecting it. He never had. But then again, why would he have? He was a nihilist, he was unfazed by everything this world had to offer...that's what he remembered when he found himself at the other end of Jek's rage. The games were only beginning. Bug grabbed the first thing he saw; a fire extinguisher on the wall. But by that time, Jek was already on him. And, well, a pike was clearly the better weapon.

21st: Oak Kutter, District 7: He had to keep her safe. Although only a few days, Oak had already begun to care for Belladonna. She was more than a District partner to him, she was his shot at helping someone, the only thing he'd ever been good at. And he knew it. He grabbed her hand and they started to run. They had plans to meet with everyone, but poor Bella was still shellshocked from watching the girl from Three die. And so when Athena rushed them, spear already in her hands, Oak did the first thing he thought of, the thing that he'd always been doing. He stepped in front of Bella. And then saw white.

20th: Belladonna Crystal, District 7: She was so tired of it, tired of doing nothing but hurt the people around her. And she knew that her compassion for Oak, her admiration for him was going to be what killed her. But she knew she had been right, for the first time in her life. He was the kind of person that she could trust. Why was it that she'd only found that in the games? She stared down at his unmoving body. "I never meant to hurt you." And then Jupiter's sword went through her back.

19th: Alise Dencin, District 8: She knew she never had a chance, didn't she? Not in the least bit memorable, with only her incompetent mother and elderly grandmother to grieve for her. She held her hands to her chest and cried. Oh, how she cried. Some people draw the short end of the stick as soon as they enter the world, and unfortunately for Alise, she had been one of those people. But she also knew something. District Eight would have a victor this year. Then Alexander's sword ran straight through her throat and she choked.

18th: Olivia Wood, District 10: Well, somewhere in Olivia's mind she'd always known that Rocko Warner was too good to be true. He was attractive, very much so, the type of guy she wouldn't have garnered attention from back in Ten. She had foolishly let herself believe that he liked her...when in all actuality she knew that barely anyone ever had. She thought of her friends when he did it, closed her eyes tightly and remembered home.

17th: Alexander Lepou, District 1: Alexander had always been the one to figure things out quickly; that's what had made him such a good Career. And he knew from the first minute he saw Jupiter that he was going to be stabbed right in the back between his shoulderblades. His sword was no match for that of Jupiter's, not the one of a trained killer. Blush sat beside him when he breathed out his last breath. "I really was more stunning, in the end, now wasn't I, sweetheart?"

16th: Rocko Warner, District 12: Rocko should've been more careful, more wary about the biggest threat to him. Lark knew what he was; seeing him kill Olivia, the girl he had supposedly cared for, only proved it. He was a womanizer...well, how ironic that the girl had finally caught him? She took him by surprise, a quick knife to his chest and the backpack out of his hands. The girl ran off, stunned. Rocko died even more stunned.

Day One

The Careers had just regrouped after the bloodbath, everyone in shock over Alex's death, save Jupiter with his smug little grin, subtle enough that the only one to see it was Wolfgang. Athena was sorting through the supplies, Blush primping herself for the Capitol in efforts to keep herself from thinking of her District partner.

Blaze and Finch had been wandering for too long; it had been a long night with little rest. They hid out in an old storage supply closet in the basement, slammed the door shut behind them and covered it from the inside.

Jek had a weapon. He had the forming of a plan. All he needed was shelter, and he found some inside a room in the cardiac ward on the second floor. Not as good as a supply closet, but a perfect place to lie in wait.

Seoras and Aspen were separated and wandering the halls alone. Every place seemed to be a trick of the eye; was there even one safe room within the entire hospital? They'd find out sooner than later.

Elle had managed to stock up with some food from the cafeteria- too bad there was someone else watching her.

15th: Michelle "Elle" Dolohov, District 4: They were loud, but so was she. Despite her fear, Elle taunted her district partner blatantly, mocked the Careers- and that was something Jupiter just couldn't have. Wolfgang slid out his rapier. Elle stood her ground, ready to fire back an insult at any given moment. She slung her new knapsack over her shoulder and aimed to run. But Wolfgang was faster, trained even. She didn't manage to make it more than a few steps before the rapier pierced her heart.

"I'm sorry, Elle, but in the Games, it's every man for themselves. You were blind. It's for the best if we take care of this now."

"Save it, Wolfgang."

Day Two

Taken with Elle's death and a restful night of sleep, the Careers were more than happy to be on the move again. They left Blush to guard the supplies before moving off, taking the elevator up to the third floor.

Blaze and Finch had barely made it through the night; there was something out there, something very very deadly.

Nisse and Delta had made themselves a perch in the basement, high enough that nobody would see them easily. In one of the storage closets and with a pack snagged from the bloodbath, the girls were in for a pretty good day, unlike a few other unfortunate souls.

Seoras had been the first to find them, hidden in the depths of the basement. It was a morgue, a room that had scared much more hardened souls than his own.

14th: Seoras Rider, District 10: Before he knew it he'd been grabbed, pulled into the darkened room where the fumes from the crematorium still hit his nose. He fought back, but he was all but blind. The room was pitch, Seoras a rather lanky and small form in comparison to the large man now holding him. There was a mask on the face...was that a mortician? Never mind the fact he was in death's chokehold, the boy burst out laughing. What a way to go! The irony that the very same figure for preparing the dead was making them? When he realized the situation, he bit the arm of the mutt, hard, but not before his machete cracked down. The body would be discovered charred, only ashes as remains.

And with the arrival of a cannon, Aspen Carsten was startled. He wondered if it was the ally he'd been trying to regroup with- or if the careers were on the move. But no, he thought. I'm not dealin' with that shit. And so he stood, propping himself against the wall with a brief look done at the leg that had been wounded when a door had broken off it's hinges.

And then came the chatter.

13th: Aspen Carsten, District 11: He was blindsided and with a leg injury, never the less, he resisted. It took two of them to wrestle him down, but his well aimed blow to Athena's chest sent her scuttering backwards. He ran. Down the hallway, unnerved by the jeers behind him. He slammed the door of the isolation room shut, but the door, like the last one, flew inward regardless. Jupiter slammed it shut behind him, marching over as Aspen fell backwards onto the cold, metal gurney, staring up at the ceiling and remembering the days where he'd been so casual about his words. If he wanted to go, he wasn't holding his mouth shut. He spit, right in Jupiter's face. The older boy forced his head back.

"Well here we go. Looks as if I'm your new roommate." Jupiter aimed a look back at the closed door.

"Pretty shitty to have a narcissist as a roommate," came the response.

"Narcissist? Come on, kid, we both know. I'm a victor and you are simply a bloody casualty."

"You'll never-"

The day ended with the boom of a cannon, same way as it had started.

Day Three

Nisse and Delta were rudely awakened by the noise of someone rummaging through their supplies before the lights had even been rekindled.

12th: Lark Amaran, District 12: Lark's head shot up to find the girl from Six staring at her. Her instincts as a thief were telling her to flee, but Lark had never truly been that kind of girl. She stared evenly at Nisse before shaking her head and pulling the newly looted supplies over her the second her back was turned, Nisse had jumped onto her shoulders, throwing her to the floor and her head hit with a sharp crack. She looked up, and then around. Nisse had a needle. Lark had...nothing.

"You wouldn't kill me. You're just a pathetic, sniveling little girl, Six."

"Wanna bet, bitch?"

Day Four

Blaze and Finch had been waiting scared since the first night, huddled in the storage closet with the extra bedsheets pulled to their chests. They would have to open the door eventually...and neither of them were looking forward to that moment.

Nisse and Delta had their supplies back, and were now keeping a heavy watch over them. Delta seemed surprised that Nisse had killed, especially that she'd killed so easily- she was only fourteen! Delta began to wonder if her chances were better alone...the last thing she wanted was a betrayal.

The Careers had slept peacefully. Nothing seemed eventful. Everything was going as planned, but they'd have to split soon. Athena was left with the supplies, not expecting anyone to be so blatant as to attack directly.

And then he came.

11th: Ford Cooper, District 6: Ford quickly subdued Athena with a blitz attack from a crate near her head. He brough his dagger down, ready to plunge it through her chest, but Athena's hand found it's way to his face and she pushed. Ford bit. She shielded herself, feeling the dagger enter her arm and using it to pull him closer. He spat at her, mumbling nonsense. He knew every ploy, every rule that had made a tribute a victor...but Ford was still too opportunistic. And Athena managed to get her sword through his chest...right when his knife entered hers.

10th: Athena Slater, District 2: She thought of home, of her brother Styx, of his wife and daughter. She thought of the victor her father had always wanted her to be...and Athena realized. She realized that she was never meant to be a victor. She realized that she wouldn't even be remembered. And a tear, for the first time in years, escaped her eye. She blinked rapidly, and then she pulled Ford's dagger from her chest, shoving his body away from her with only a few mumbled words to him as she breathed her last breath.

"You are so like me," Athena said, placing her hand against the skin of Ford's shoulder. "So similar yet so different. Neither of us were meant to be victors. I signed up for my death. You were just a circumstance."

Day Five

Eidolan resurfaced after escaping the gamemakers' radar for the first four days. How he possibly managed to do it astounded them- he had silently cut the camera cords, built his own shelter in the filing room in the renal ward. He knew Jek was with him, despite never checking, but Eidolan was confident, practiced- Jek was another casualty. This was a war. But he wouldn't strike yet...not yet.

Nisse and Delta left the basement. Something sinister was lurking there, something neither of them had any interest in encountering. They spoke of their lives back in Six and Eleven, of families lost and families hated...and of times past that were good and times passed that were painful. Nisse told her about her best friends; Delta told the younger girl about her father. But one of them would have to die soon...and they couldn't kill each other now, surely? So during the night, Nisse took half the supplies and quietly slipped away. She was loyal...and she couldn't kill Delta.

But somebody could.

9th: Delta Thorne, District 11: At the very time between night and morning, Delta found herself lying awake. She knew that Nisse had left...what she didn't know was that someone was waiting there with her in the darkness of the patient room. Before she had a chance to shout, he was on her, and as the cloth was dragged across her face, she found herself fading to black, she remembered her father...the way he'd killed those people, the way he'd lost his shit. At least that wouldn't happen to her. All this time she'd been an outcast in Eleven, just because of her father, just because her skin was a few shades lighter than those other children...she looked into the face of her attacker and thanked him for the fact that he made it quick.

Wolfgang looked up. Killing should not feel so easy...but he had been perfectly groomed for it since he was a child, destined to volunteer. He was born and raised as a killer. Perhaps it was supposed to be easy.

Day Six

They unbolted the door. Finch and Blaze had been expecting something, but not this...not this silence, this unending, vast silence.

And then the lights went out and the mutts struck. They were twisted, grotesque corpses in all different forms, and they were so lifelike. So human...so sickening. Finch ran, but Blaze fell. The mutts dragged her under their swarm, pulled her into the morgue.

8th: Blaze Travis, District 5: She had fought to keep herself controlled, and now she was fighting for her life. And it hurt. Everything hurt. After awhile she realized what they were doing...what they had done. Missing her legs from the knees down, being torn to pieces in a frenzy of blood-lusting mutts, she made her choice. She remembered the parallel lines she'd thought of, how they related to her and Blaze...and Edison. And Five. And so Blaze took the cyanide capsule from her pocket, raised it to her mouth. Of all the ways it could have ended, she thought. And then she swallowed.

7th: Finch Calin, District 5: Finch barely made it from the basement when his head was smashed into a glass door. It was that quick. It took seconds, and Jupiter seemed to have no qualms about smearing the little boy's blood all over his hands. The body lay limp at his feet, but there was somebody watching. Just like there had been the first time.

Eidolan kept himself prepared. After two cannons fired, he knew he would be next if he were to stay in one place any longer. He took his weapon and set out.

Day Seven

Blush escaped narrowly from the ensuing fight at the Career camp. She took what she needed- a sword. Granted, she'd never used one before, but if it was anything like she'd used her body, it shouldn't be a problem at all to make do with it. She left a note on the ground. Have fun boys.

6th: Jupiter Cass, District 2: Jupiter always knew. Oh, how he knew. Wolfgang was the largest threat to him. He'd thought he could play Blush against him, but by that time she'd vanished. When he looked at Wolfgang, rapier out and ready to strike, the duel began. Insane versus sane. Well, insane loses every time in that field. Wolfgang managed to disarm him, quite literally. After Jupiter watched his wrist break, he thrashed, kicking out, but it was too late. Wolfgang was the better fighter. And Jupiter's chest had a rapier protruding from it.

"You are dishonorable."

"Why, because of what I've done? Look at you, Wolfgang, you've spent your entire life training for the games. To what avail? To become a murderer? You are exactly like me. Like me!" Jupiter shouted, shaking the other boy's shoulders with his remaining hand.

"I am nothing like you. You are a brute. I am fallen in my own way, but at least the manner is one of grace. Grace descending onto the bloodied forms of those who have painted my hands red."

"You are nothing. You have nothing. You are dead inside. A robot, perfectly groomed for murder."

"Maybe I am dead. Yet right now, I don't see how that's a problem."

The Careers were dead. The tributes were scattered. And now... it was anyone's game. Would it be the prostitute, Blush, with her charm and cunning? Would it be Wolfgang, so perfectly mannered that arrogance never seemed truly arrogant? Would it be Nisse, who albeit her age, was strong and fought for what she believed in? Would it be the volunteer Eidolan, whose childhood had groomed him to be a perfectly cold killer? Would it be the psychotic Jek, his father and role model a raging schizophrenic?

Day Eight

He had been planning it. And now that Jek was only feet away from him, Eidolan seized his opportunity. He jammed the syringe into the other boy's neck, right when Jek's arm latched onto his throat. But Jek was fading, and he was fading fast.

5th: Jek Therrin, District 9: He had always loved his father. He had always admired him. Everyone had always called him crazy, but Jek never thought he was crazy. Nobody was truly crazy. And he had known the boy was there...hadn't he? No, he would never have gone blindsided...but he had. And he grieved. And he passed into the ranks of fallen tributes slowly from the ketamine running through his system, freezing everything.

Eidolan moved and he moved quickly. There were only a few of them left and he needed to make an impression. But what impression was there to make? Best he become a ghost again, silent and inconspicuous. He took his leave, and went down to meet his enemies.

Meanwhile, Blush had quickly come across another tribute. She had been the only one in the Career pack not to make a kill...and she wasn't going to screw up on it now. She had to take the opportunity...in the morning, that was.

Day Nine

Blush awoke ready to fight. Nisse awoke ready for anything. Nisse had always been ready for anything; ever since she'd started living on the streets. And Blush was an opportunist. She was willing to break anything in her way of becoming a victor. And she chased Nisse, the younger girl throwing obscenities back in her direction as she ran. Slut! Whore! Strumpet! She wasn't expecting to fall on the trip wire that Eidolan had cautiously sat out the night before in case someone tried to attack him in his sleep.

4th: Nisse Harvey, District 6: Blush grabbed her hair, dragging her back into the hallways and over to the therapy room. She pulled back the cover of the hydrobath. Nisse thrashed about, knowing what was coming, but Blush shoved her head under, just like her stepmother used to. She pulled her up, shoved her under again. Nisse choked and spluttered. And Blush only laughed.

"Upbringing, darling, that's all there is to it. You may be Cinderella, but me, I am no princess. I am a witch, dark and powerful, razing the people around me to the ground. I am a whore, but that no longer bothers me. Jeers, taunting…you'll never get me with that. Try harder, sweetheart. If it's good, maybe I won't kill you." Blush smiled, turning to give a wink to the camera before she pulled the girl's head back by her hair.

"I hope..." Nisse coughed. "I h-hope someone puts a scalpel in your n-neck! Maybe they'll slice off the skin and mess up that frustratingly pretty face that you seem to flaunt!"

"Doesn't that just make my heart flutter? Nisse, darling, really. We all knew that you would die. But me, it's not my turn yet."

Day Ten

The boy from Four woke the next day to the sounds of growling. He stumbled to his feet, rapier held defensively, when the first mutt pounced. This one wore glasses. It help a scalpel in its hand, a mask on its face. And it...no, she smiled. He stabbed, but her partner was faster. The two dragged the boy to the floor. Wolfgang fought bravely but the incisions were too much. He'd had surgery...very crude surgery.

3rd: Wolfgang Shivelbush, District 4: His chest was flayed, body torn asunder by the mutts just as the girl from his district last year. He could feel it, but he couldn't move. It burned...the pain was searing, building up inside, but he didn't have the strength to scream. Luckily, he wasn't alone. Eidolan stood by his side, knife clutched in one of his frail hands. Eidolan's never been a fan of suffering. Maybe there was a point where he had wanted it...now he wouldn't even wish it on a Career.

"I never…thought that I… would die like this. Euthanized…where is the honor in that?"

"The honor is the fact that you have put your life into my hands. It's selfless, something nobody ever would have expected."

"Ferris would be proud." Wolfgang coughed. "And perhaps I…can also…be proud."

"Rest," Eidolan said.

Another cannon sounded, leaving two contestants to vy for the crown. And when they met...the clash would be deadly.

Day Eleven

It ended where it had all began- the cornucopia. Eidolan was returning from the basement, Blush making her way down from the mental ward. There was a single weapon left in the room- right on the edge of the cornucopia. Blush wanted it. Eidolan wanted it.

She sprung first, but Eidolan was quick to catch her. He shoved her back toward the wall, but a blow from Blush's elbow hit his head and they fell- right into the empty shaft of an elevator. The doors clicked. And then they were open again. Blush could stand. Eidolan couldn't. He pulled himself back on his arms, lying against the wall and aiming his foot into her stomach. He wouldn't give up. Neither would she. She grasped the handle of the door behind her and fell in, Eidolan now on top of her. He grabbed for a scalpel off one of the shelves, but Blush grabbed something else, and flung it right into his face.

Acid.

Eidolan began to go blind, but not before he caught a glimpse of Blush's hands rotting away to the bone. She was screaming. Maybe he was too.

2nd: Blush DeMontford, District 1: Blush's life had never been idyllic. She'd always been mocked, ridiculed based from the simple fact that she was a prostitute. But she was talented. Clever. And she had all the drive of a victor. But she just...wasn't that type. There has always been something about blush that wasn't harsh, wasn't callous. At the end of the day, she was just another a kid. The same way the other twenty-three had.

Victor: Eidolan Nejem, District 8

Sometimes people make themselves. Eidolan's past shaped him. He was a child soldier, one who was taken in off the streets by a stranger. And through that he learned what it meant to care for someone other than himself. He knew the right balance between self and others. That's what made him stronger. That's what made him a victor.

And there you have it. Paranoid Sylph, I found it wise to crown Eidolan because of his resilience and his character flaws. He was my choice for victor since I received him. Anti-heroes with heroic quality buried in them...well, isn't that something?

Thank you to all for your tributes. Thank you for your time.