Blood In The Water [Pisces v Daemon v Steel] Day 6

[kap]

We'll never get free
Lamb to the slaughter
What you gon' do
When there's blood in the water?

Crack! That's the sound of my weapon colliding with the boy's armor again.

Whoosh! That's the sound of the boy's weapon swinging toward me.

After that, it's just faint sounds that I'm straining to hear.

Someone caught me as I fell. I can't make out their face through my now-blurred vision, but the whispers are of a familiar tone. It's Dominic. Dominic Merluccius of District Four: the boy I know that I love, even as life escapes me.

I'm terrible for leaving him like this, I tell myself at first. At least he's still alive, though, I remind myself. That's all I wanted: for him to survive and keep on fighting. I couldn't stand to ever see him fall like I did just now. I couldn't imagine having to see him suffer- to see him go through what I just did. He didn't deserve it. He didn't choose to be here, yet I did. I volunteered to be in this mess because it felt like the right thing to do.

The thing is, I still don't regret volunteering, even as my life starts to fade out. I volunteered, and if I hadn't, I never would have met Dom. If I hadn't met Dom, I never would've met the boy I love. My life would've been so different, and even if I lived on for many, many years to come, things wouldn't feel right, because something would have been missing. Dominic would have been missing from my life, and that's not how I wanted my life to be.

Everything's fading fast as I lie there in his arms, and I know that I don't have much time left in the conscious, living world. At this moment, I thought that perhaps I'd end up like Zenia, alive once again, still in the arena to keep on fighting a couple of days later. Maybe I'd wake up, come back to them and have Jade think I was some sort of mutt, too. Honestly, if I did somehow come back to life, I'd be happy. As long as Dom didn't think I was a mutt, it didn't matter what Jade assumed.

I still cared about Jade, too, but I could ignore her craziness to an extent if it became directed at me.

As I lie there in Dom's arms, bright sunlight and the silhouette of Dom looking down at me is all I can see. All I can feel is his hand against my cheek, and then, nothing.

---

Life fades back in in a strange way. First of all, I didn't really expect it to happen. Sure, there was that small sense of hope in the back of my mind as I felt myself dying and fading away, but I didn't think that that small sense of hope was guaranteed to be any sort of reality. There was a small piece of me that thought there was a chance, but I was still quite doubtful.

The first thing I noticed as my eyes opened was a small flicker of light. I was in some sort of cramped quarters and at first I thought perhaps I'd been sent back home after being deemed dead, gotten buried, but somehow miraculously come back to life. It took me a moment or two to realize that, despite the small confines of where I was, I most certainly wasn't in a casket. There was an opening of some sort for me to get out.

I was lying on the ground of wherever I was, posed in a way that made it seem like I should have been in a casket, however. My arms were posed over my chest. What was strange, though, was that, within my hands was a dagger. It looked like the one Zenia had when she reunited with us, other than the fact that hers had been glowing.

Using my newly restored strength, I wiggle my way out of the stone pocket that I was lying within, emerging into what I could describe as nothing else but catacombs. I had to be underneath the arena. When I finally was in a big enough space to rise to my feet, I stood up and started to look around, dagger in my hand and at the ready all the while, just in case.

I then had a thought. If they'd brought me back to life and healed me up a little bit, did that mean? I reached up to where my ear was supposed to be. No- it was still gone. They'd been kind enough to return life to me, but apparently having a second fucking ear just wasn't allowed.

Oh well. There was nothing I could do about that now. I just had to hope that I didn't lose the other one.

There were some rather interesting curiosities scattered throughout the catacombs, I discovered as I did my exploring in the dim light.

The very first thing I noticed was a giant stone cross with perhaps hundreds of toy teddy bears around it. Graffiti on a nearby statue read "Did you kill Enigma Lane?" and I wondered, why did that name sound so familiar? That certainly wasn't the name of a tribute in these Games, so it likely wasn't graffiti done by anyone here, but it's possible that it was the name of a past tribute or something. I probably learned about them in my Hunger Games history class, I told myself. That's why it sounded so familiar.

A massive dragon skull was not too far from there, and I found various polaroid photos of tributes from past games scattered about. Were all these things an ode to past Hunger Games? I supposed it was quite possible that that was the case.

As I was exploring, I swore I heard movement, quickly turning around in the direction of what I'd heard.

Nothing was there. At least, not that I could see at first. I cautiously went back to my exploring for a moment and picked up a piece of parchment with some cursive writing on it.

"... if I die it'll be more honest than I've ever been. More me than I was before. This place has brought us sorrow but let me live. I only wish I'd ever been able to do that with you and mom…" it read. It made me wonder who it was from, whether it be a past tribute or someone who ended up in the same arena as myself. I couldn't think about it too much, however, as I heard movement again and readied my dagger as I turned around quickly once again.

Then, I saw him- another tribute. This one I didn't recognize by name, but I figured that he was here for the same reason as I was. He'd died in the arena up above us, and now he was being given a second chance.

"Who are you?" I said as I stood a cautious distance away from him. I waited a moment for him to say anything more and decided that I should be decent enough to tell him who I was before I did what my gut instinct was telling me to do right then.

"My name is Pisces Gem," I told him. "I'm from District Nine."

I moved a little close to him with my blade at the ready, even so carefully.

"I'm sorry, but I think I've figured out why we're here, and I can't just not try," I apologized. "I'm sorry."

I charged towards him now, blade at the ready. I was ready to strike. I couldn't be taken off-guard this time.

I just hoped that not letting myself get taken off guard gave me the edge this time. Maybe, just maybe, I could survive.

---

table by Puppy
lyics: "Blood // Water" by Grandson

[Pisces attacks Daemon with knife]
YLT56gwj0fknife
[2039 -- Deep Gash on Right Forearm -- 8.0 damage]

knife

[Kire]

d a e m o n .

They might have thought he was enjoying it, taking off limbs. He might almost have believed it too, for his blade once again cleaved flesh and bone. The thud of the half-arm that dropped to ground at his feet, the look of blank shock in the girl's eyes, the blood that spurted thickly from the end of her stump. She surprises him with her stoicism, though he may be mistaking the utter loss of thought for extreme control.

Behind him, Oberon is shouting. "It's a trap! They planned this out, they were waiting for us - watch out where you step!" The sound of a knife thudding into flesh, but the sound of pain is not human. The mutt was still alive, still fighting, just as he was. Though not for long, for either of them, as he glances down at the sticky dark wetness that coated his chest. The sound of the mutt screaming again rises as the third of the three girls once more attacks it.

"Well, at lest it's not broken anymore." He can almost share this girl's moment of wry humor at the situation that he had put her in. His throat hurts and he is slowing down gradually. Each motion feels like it is using more and more energy, each turn of the head is agonizing, but he forces himself to follow the action. "Bella, I need you to rip off a piece of my cloak and tie it around my arm. If you don't I'm going to bleed out in a matter of minutes." The words are ceasing to make sense, but he hears them. They aren't directed at him so why should they matter.

"... love of ... don't throw up..." His eyes go in and out of focus for a moment before he shakes himself more alert. This was not the time to pass out, not until the danger was over. "... it's your turn ... Frankenstein... better with two arms..." A sudden explosion of pain returns him briefly to complete consciousness, if only to acknowledge the fact that his leg was broken. Stumbling, he grips his sword and aims to swing it again at the girl, either of them, it didn't matter who really.

A large gray shape hurtles past him, swiping at him but missing by what looked like miles and yet must have surely only been an inch or two. The mutt had gone to attack him and somehow luck had intervened. It had to be luck because it surely hadn't been anything he had done. His knees locked and his teeth ground as he fought the monstrous wave of fear at the thought that the mutt could have killed him and he never would have been able to defend himself.

"Ripred- Fuck, come on!" Kahinta, somewhere. "Daemon, go! Get out of here! We'll meet you by the beach, somewhere, just go!" He looked for her, couldn't find her. Nodding at no one and nothing, he made to turn away and do what she had said. Her words made sense, and she hadn't led him astray yet.

He gets only a couple steps before a force punched him in the back. His broken leg gives out under him and he is sent sprawling on his front. All he can see is mud. Closing his eyes because they sting from the muck, he realizes that this was it. Even as he does so, the blood from his neck wound mixes into a scarlet halo around his head.

The world shudders. He is being pulled away but some voice is pulling back. "Dae-" Kahinta? "-amn it." Definitely Kahinta. "Meet us at the doors! We'll meet you at the doors! You better be there!" At the doors, got it. "We're not done, you're not done." He hadn't taken Kahinta for the believer type, but the thought of seeing her again was somehow a comfort and so he took it with him into the darkness.

- - - - -

Beeping wakes him, confused and discombobulated. A heavy hand slams down on his chest as he goes to rise and in seconds the darkness swallows him again.

- - - - -

Everything around him is blackness, stillness. He thought he would be on his face but instead he is on his back. He is stiff and unsure of how he is positioned, so it takes him some time to figure out how to move his arms again. In tightening his fist he finds the knife laid on his chest. Curious, he lifts it up to try and inspect it. Only as a faint glint is caught in the blade does he realize how little sense all of this makes. Instead of being face down in the muck, bleeding out, he is alive and clutching a weapon he didn't have before.

The memories of Kahinta's and Oberon's discussions rise lazily to his brain and it is only in a slow and deliberate fashion that he is able to grab at bits and pieces of them. The missing faces from the sky, the extra cannons, Kenji's face never appearing. Any of you die yet? Now he was beginning to understand.

In a moment of frantic realization he twisted his head desperately to search for the figure of Deimos who had been flickering on the edge of his vision for so long. Gone, without a trace. He groaned as it hit him, that hadn't been Deimos after all, it had been his own face and figure - a secondary version of himself. A second chance.

Crawling out of the cubby he had been stuffed into, he straightened to look around him. If this was his second chance, it was gloomy. Of course, his chances had been grim from the start. Not far from him sat a giant skull. Eerie, especially in its familiarity. As all of his revelations today, this one also came slowly. A name circled from the depths of his mind to the tip of his tongue. "Flemeth." His voice is a whisper, hoarse as though it had gone unused for some long period of time.

Swallowing, he looks further. There on the wall hangs a rabbit's foot, a grim mockery of luck in a luckless place. Other trinkets and memories of the past lay scattered around and he would love to look at each as he passes but something pulls him to the center where the majority of the light is cast.

His grip on the dagger never slacks. Even so, he is not prepared for the sight of two other people that emerge from the shadows with him. One is unfamiliar but the other is a face he recognized immediately. "You..." He coughs and in this moment the boy fills the silence that he had broken, "Who are you?" Daemon doesn't answer, simply staring at the girl whose leg he had cut off - the first time he had severed a limb, how far he had fallen since then.

"My name is Pisces Gem, I'm from District Nine." The introduction is as necessary feeling as it is useless. Knowing names, districts, faces, it meant nothing beyond another way to reference someone. They would be just as dead or just as involved in killing you either way. Kahinta had always gritted her teeth at names and knowledge of other tributes and he understood that more in this moment than any previously.

In his introspection, the boy - Pisces - had come closer, weapon at the ready. "I'm sorry, but I think I've figured out why we're here, and I can't just not try, I'm sorry."

Foolish him, thinking the fighting might be over now that he had died once. If anything, his struggle was only just beginning. Pain was just as potent, proven by the biting fire carved in a line up his arm by the boy's knife. The quick glimpse of the weapon showed him that it appeared to be the same style of knife that he clutched.

Brushing the boy off, he turned toward the girl. "You." His voice was more stable now, but still a little forced. "What happened to your pet?" He cared mostly because he couldn't stand the thought of the boy managing to squeak out of his grasp and then outliving him. If either of them could really be considered living at this point.

Besides, if he could have gotten back to the surface to find this girl again then maybe he really could meet Kahinta and Oberon again. Meet us at the doors. Had Kahinta figured out already what all of this meant, and what tricks the Capitol had in store for them this time? What a bittersweet surprise to know you had another chance, but only if you stole it from someone else's hands... twice.

If that was what he had to do, though, he would do it. He had done the same coming this far, and if he could steal limbs from four people then he could steal the life from two. Flicking his eyes toward her legs, he noticed with a dark twist of his lips that she had her leg back. That was okay, it wouldn't do her much good anyway.

[Daemon attacks Steel with Knife]
NqU9VU_rxzknife
Deep Gash on Left Forearm -- 8.0 damage

knife

[✨ zozo.]

s t e e l .

"i'm alone again
so what did you do
those three days you were dead?
i'm not scared to die
i'm a little bit scared
of what comes after."

I don't remember falling from the sky.

So when I wake up to a dark place, lying on my back, I gasp with fright. The sound travels, a ghost of my voice bouncing against the walls of the room. A moment ago I was in the sky and now I'm here, sitting bolt upright in the dark with an axe splintering my skull over and over and over again.

The world tips, disoriented and frightening. With a groan I grip my head in my hands and feel cool metal trapped between my fingers, spinning one of my knives in my hand as I pull it away from my forehead. My eyes travel from the knife to my shoulder, instinctively feeling for the rough tug if my satchel strap - but it's gone. 

My things are gone. My sword is gone. Kenji-

"Kenji?!"

- is gone, nothing but the sound of his name echoing through the room left of him.

My cry for him is followed by great gasps of air, panic taking hold of my chest. In the dull light of this place I can barely see where I am, fumbling as I reach to switch on my boots with my knife clutched tightly between clammy fingers.

They whir to life with a start - but something about them is different. They feel different, not just the fact they're white as clouds instead of the black of night from earlier. None of this makes sense. None of it makes any sense. Where's Kenji? Where's the monster? Did Callum kill me like he swore he would? Why do my boots feel... my boots... my feet...

My fingers trail up from the switch to the edge of the boot and gently brush the fabric of my trousers - but it's not the soft texture of the garment that makes me weep. At the feeling of my nail pressed into skin I sob with relief, digging each finger into the flesh I swore I'd lost days prior. It hurts, white-hot knuckles and little crescent imprints, and I've never been happier to feel pain in this place than right now.

My leg, somehow, has returned. The walls crack with my sobs and my head pounds with each impossible thought. That I'd dreamed it all up. That I'd lived. That I'd died. That the mutt had swallowed me whole. That what Kenji had told me really happened to me. Three go in, one comes out. But which two have joined me here?

I pray it's not Kenji. Not again. I can't let him die here, not when he fought so hard to get out.

With a deep breath I gather up my knife and slowly lower both boot-clad feet to the floor of this place, wary of the impossible and the blank space in my memory. Left foot first, it carries my weight just fine - the boots whirring to standby. Exhale, my right foot follows suit and in one terrified motion I stand.

And feel nothing.

"Okay," I breathe out, air in my lungs as shaky as my words. "Okay." One step, and another, and another, I step out of the pocketed room and feel around for a wall. My head screams, a thud above my eyebrow, pounding its fists against my skull and begging to get out. Every step clears my head, my thoughts and breathing returning to normal, wiping tears and grime out of my eyes. 

Maybe I died in here. Maybe the walls caved in and it collapsed around me and I died just like Dad.

Except they gave me a second chance, and they didn't him.

That thought makes me freeze, a second wave of panic sweeping me into chaos. My hands shake as they reach up to feel the side of my head - really feel it - and the skin below my fingertips feels raw and bumpy. Like my skull had cracked and caved in.

Like Dad's in the coffin-

My back hits the wall. They couldn't let me go peacefully. They wouldn't let me die, really die, and be with Dad again. My death wasn't enough to satisfy them the first time around - and now they want me to fight again. I wasn't expendable. My life was worth a reset. But Dad's wasn't.

But Dad's wasn't.

I don't get another moment to process how little his life meant to this place before there's a slash of metal and my forearm lights on fire, blood spilling onto the white fabric of my cloak. I scream and fall back on impact, hitting the dusty floor with a thud, and look up to see scarlet on the blade of the boy who killed Kenji.

The boy who I swear had cut off my leg.

Just the mere sight of him makes me freeze, my leg muscles twitching from placebo agony.

"You," he spits as I clutch at the gash on my arm. "What happened to your pet?" 

I snarl and lunge, swiping at the air in front of him as a rage builds in my chest. The screaming heat from the wound in my arm subsides the constant hammering in my head and without its distraction I can see clearly, glancing at another boy behind him. An ally, no less. I wonder what happened to the girl and the boy before - probably dead, I think bitterly, rising to my feet as I eye the two of them.

"Alive and well, no thanks to you!" 

Half out of fear of him, half out of spite, I hurl my good arm toward his friends' own arm as my scream bounces against the cavernous walls.

table by elegant !

steel attacks pisces, knife
|h61Fe3dJpknife
Severed Thumb on Right Hand -- 8.5 damage

knife

[kap]

We'll never get free
Lamb to the slaughter
What you gon' do
When there's blood in the water?

The boy ignores my words as another tribute comes into view: a girl about my own age, holding a knife just like this boy and myself. He even ignored the gash I put into his arm, as if it's nothing. Perhaps it's due to his displeasure upon seeing this girl. His greeting to her was definitely far from 'it's great to see you'.

When his words meet the girl's ears, she retorts, and to be entirely honest, I have no idea what it is that they're talking about right then. I have no better guess than to assume that they fought each other in the arena prior to now, and this is a bit of an unwelcome reunion.

Despite her apparent anger toward this guy, however, she decides to strike me, and before I can react, she'd cut my thumb clean off.

"Son of a-" I yell, then cursing in a chain of words I'd rather not repeat.

Now isn't the time for this, Pisces, I had to remind myself. I needed to be fighting, not acting like a wimp. I mean, I suppose it's not really acting like a wimp if someone just severed part of your body from you, but I still needed to focus. I had to remember why I was fighting. I was fighting so that I could go back out in that arena and continue to protect Dominic.

The reason that I was here was to protect him, and only that reason, but right now, that meant protecting myself, too. I wasn't used to defending myself. In the past, I'd always stood up for those around me, and just let any bullying aimed at me gloss off my shoulders. I typically didn't stand up for myself, but in here, I had to, or I was dead for good this time.

Luckily, losing my right thumb didn't affect my dominant hand. I still held a firm grip on my knife at that moment, and I was going to keep on fighting, despite the pain.

"Alright, ignore me, that's fine, dude, really," I said to the guy. Then I spoke to the girl. "If you're gonna cut my thumb off, though, maybe a name would be nice to share? I'd like to know who to remember for it later."

---

table by Puppy
lyics: "Blood // Water" by Grandson

[Pisces attacks Daemon with knife]
EKGFzFcFPhknife
[2198 -- Shallow Cut on Back -- 4.0 damage]

knife

[Kire]

d a e m o n .

Despite switching to a smaller blade, he feels just a comfortable with the knife as opposed to his sword. While he might be unable to sever limbs with the weapon, he was still able to leave a sizeable wound behind on the girl's arm. If anything, it mirrored the one the boy had given him. Pisces, he had said his name was Pisces. And he hadn't said anything in response, he had deemed the name useless to himself - yet he was insisting to himself that he now use it.

The girl is hissing at him, angry as he was unreasonably angry. Funny how easily he was able to turn a terrifying situation into one that fueled his own anger. "Alive and well, no thanks to you!" So the boy he had killed was still living, and he was fighting for his life. Perhaps he would be able to return as that boy had, rejoin his allies and maybe even take the lives - first, or second - of those still existing past those walls.

He watched the arc of her blade, expecting it to swing for him, and yet she almost seemed to twist at the last moment and attack the b- Pisces instead. He watched as blood spurted and the small shape of the boy's thumb was lost to the darkness of the floor. She had shown him that she was a capable fighter, and there was a prickle of irony in her severing flesh from the boy after he had severed her own. Only this time, Pisces would not be able to regain his lost digit.

That didn't stop the other boy from... well anything really. Daemon listened as he cursed, the sound echoing mournfully through the chamber. "Alright, ignore me, that's fine, dude, really," Though it didn't sound very fine. A quick turn of the boy's head toward the girl, "If you're gonna cut my thumb off, though, maybe a name would be nice to share? I'd like to know who to remember for it later." Was he trying to be cutesy, or was he really that interested in the names of people he would either kill or die to in moments. He watched as the boy steadied himself and then as he came forward for another slash. This attack was aimed at him as the girl's hadn't been. While not unprepared for it, he was unprepared for how fast the boy was moving. The blade ripped through cloth and scored a shallow ruby line across his torso.

Grimacing at his own carelessness - Pisces had shown he was willing to attack, why hadn't he been expecting it enough to avoid it - he went to put distance between himself and his assailant. "Did you jump in the way, this time? Protect your little buddy?" He was much more concerned with this girl than he was with Pisces. The boy was annoying, but this girl had caused him problems before. At any moment, she could turn against him and then he would be in a difficult situation. As he spoke, he also went to make his way where the girl couldn't see him well. Hoping this advantage would serve him, he went for his own strike. Best to get rid of a threat as soon as he could.

[Daemon attacks Steel with Knife]
BxYJRGGye5knife
Shallow Cut on Forehead -- 4.5 damage

knife

[✨ zozo.]

s t e e l .

"i'm alone again
so what did you do
those three days you were dead?
i'm not scared to die
i'm a little bit scared
of what comes after."

"Steel," I hiss at the boy as his thumb hits the floor. I can't bear to look at it, remembering the way my leg lay lifeless in front of me in the petal storm - or maybe I'm just thinking of a false memory. Something they planted in my head. Something I was made to believe was real.

For whatever reason, truth or otherwise, it feels real. Too real to look at, so I keep my eyes steady and look this boy in the eyes instead.

"My name is Steel."

Dad fills me up in that moment, the mere thought of him like a hot knife twisted into my chest. He named me Steel to stand tall among my peers. To find strength in myself when I had nobody else to lean on. To carry me through this terrible world in the hopes I'd come out alive. For the first time in my life, when I say my name I mean it. I feel it. What he gifted me the day I was born: strength, even as my life pools out of me.

I'm not running away anymore. I'm not fighting for Niko or Kenji or anyone else. I'm fighting for me, for my life. Because it's enough, I understand that now. I'm enough.

Tears prick at the corners of my eyes. It might be too late now, but at least I figured it out before I died again.

WIPWIPWIP notes:

Daemon speaks, she whips her head around to point her knife at him. "Shut up!" she snarls, eyeing up his knife and remembering how he plunged his sword into Kenji and the last thing she wants is for him to kill her like that too.

Looks back to Pisces, sways a little with the blood loss. She's dying, only this time she can feel her body shutting down. It's a hard choice, but one she must make, and she's not as scared to attack him. Feels a little guilty, but she knows what she has to do. "Don't trust him," she warns. "He's a monster."

Swings, thinking a little worringly about how she's going to have to be a monster to get out of here alive.

table by elegant !

steel attacks pisces, knife
uNTcnvZOOwknife
Deep Gash on Left Thigh -- 8.0 damage

knife

[kap]

We'll never get free
Lamb to the slaughter
What you gon' do
When there's blood in the water?

"Steel," she says. "My name is Steel."

She had answered my question, and I could respect that to an extent, but I knew that wouldn't change the fact that she was trying to kill me. All three of us were fighting for survival. There was no way that any one of us was going to just stop right now. At least, I wasn't going to.

I nod in response. Rather than thank her for her answer, though, I keep myself quiet. I don't want to focus on things that aren't important and end up dying because of it. That's not what my family back home would want. That's not what Zenia or Jade or Dominic would want. They'd want me to come out of this alive, and if that was going to happen, I had to keep my focus on the important things.

No more words surface from me. There are important people I need to get out of here and see. No distractions. No distractions. No distractions. Not a single one allowed.

I keep my grip on my weapon firm, and wait for the opportune time to strike the boy again. He's a threat. Although, Steel is a threat, too, as she's certainly shown me. I don't want to change targets, though. No, not yet. I need to finish what I'd started, no matter how badly I felt it was wrong.

I felt bad enough about killing Kestrel. Or, I should say, sending Kestrel here. I'm sure she went through the same things as I did. Confusion and then fighting for her life. It makes me wonder who her final killer was, in the end. That doesn't matter right now, though. I can't lose focus over anything. Maybe I'd find out later, but now, I didn't have time to waste on the thoughts.

My blade was ready to meet flesh again, so I aimed at the boy who'd refused to give me him name. If he died at my blade, he'd be a nameless corpse lying in front of me, but I suppose it's to be seen if that's what happens. I just had to be ready if that was the case.

Besides, I didn't want to be the one dead.

---

table by Puppy
lyics: "Blood // Water" by Grandson

[Pisces attacks Daemon with knife]
DYHuMQ4gSsknife
[2181 -- Shallow Cut on Left Hip -- 3.5 damage]

knife

[Kire]

d a e m o n .

She is faced away from him when he attacks. Even so, something seems to warn her and she moves at the last possible moment to lessen the blow. The carve of his knife across the back of her head cuts some locks from her scalp and opens a red line behind it. She hisses but doesn't acknowledge him yet. Instead, she looks toward Pisces.

"Steel, my name is Steel." Now he had another name, another curse to whisper to himself in whatever end he met. Either of these people could end him now, or he might kill either or both. He hoped that when he died for real he wouldn't see any of the people he had helped to kill, or actually killed, again. Only as he held that hope he also felt a tinge of sadness that he might not see Kahinta or Oberon again. They had started simply as additional weapons at his side and turned into something so much more. Might he dare to call them friends? No, that was too much even now.

Pisces had fallen silent as well, and aside from their heavy breathing there was only the quiet ambiance of the crypt around them. Seemingly, the boy had realized that questions would not bring any peace to any of them, especially the survivor. The less they knew about one another, the easier they would be able to continue after the terrors of this burial chamber. They were fighting for one last shot at life - or at least, one last shot at one last shot - and none of them were willing to give up. Even after this they would still not necessarily have any hope tomorrow, let alone the next few days. At this point, trapped down here and weakened as they all were, surely none of them had any hope of making it home.

Being truthful with himself, he wasn't sure he wanted to go home. If by some miracle - or perhaps curse - he made it out of here alive, he would opt as some victors have to remain within the Capitol because the thought of seeing District six and his family again was not a pleasant one. More than likely, he would end up face down in the mud once more, a bloody halo around his head. He felt a sense of calm at that thought. When it came to it, he wouldn't be afraid of his own death, but he would still fight until the bitter end. He owed it to Kahinta and Oberon. If he could take out a competitor of theirs, he would. Of any of them, Kahinta should go home to her sister.

First he would have to make it out of here, out of the dark mausoleum and into the light of the main arena again. Meet us at the doors! He would try to do that. The only way to the doors and outside was through the two people who were in here with him.

Pisces came at him again, apparently of the same mind. He moved at him faster than he expected and though he should have known better, he had inadvertently left himself open to the boy's attack. With a hiss and a grimace, he felt the boy's knife bite into his hip. He pushed himself away, pressing a couple fingers to his newest wound and glaring back at Pisces.

Steel had wounded the boy quite severely, showing that she was as much of a threat of either of them. They were all bleeding rather freely and each felt the tug of death on their cloak tails. There was the bleak certainty that at least one of them would be claimed soon, and the second would be sure to follow. There was also an understanding that only one would get out alive.

For Kahinta's sake, it had to be him.

"I'll tell your pet you tried to come back for him."

[Daemon attacks Steel with Knife]
oS3pWVqF7fknife
Stabbed in Bicep -- 8.5 damage

knife

[kap]

We'll never get free
Lamb to the slaughter
What you gon' do
When there's blood in the water?

When I cut into the boy's hip, it wasn't quite enough. The attack that the boy made on Steel, however was enough. As the boy's blade cut into Steel's arm, I saw her collapse to the ground. It's not like when I fell during that fight up on the arena's surface. There was no one here to catch her like there was for me. Now I just had to hope that I wouldn't fall down here like she did. I was fighting for Dominic. I needed to see him again.

I suppose I was fighting for myself, too.

With the amount of people I knew were watching my every move all throughout Panem as our fight was broadcast on every screen, I felt a bit nervous, but I wouldn't let it get to me. I was strong and I knew it. Before, I'd stayed quiet because I didn't know what else to say, but I felt now that that may have made me seem weak.

I couldn't keep silent this time. I was focused as sharply as I could be, but words still came from my lips.

"Goodbye, Steel," I whisper. Steel may have hurt me more than I liked, but I never laid my blade upon her flesh. Instead, I watched her life slowly dwindle away at the end of someone else's weapon. For some reason, I didn't feel guilty watching her die. There had to be something fucked up inside of me for me to feel that way, right? It wasn't normal to not feel immovably terrified or at least a little bad about someone being killed right in front of you.

Then, I looked at the boy who'd killed her. How did he feel after what he'd done? Was the guilt I'd felt upon thinking I'd killed Kestrel present in him after killing Steel?

It didn't matter what he thought or felt, I reminded myself.

He was older than me, from what I could tell. It was likely by about a year or so, meaning he was on the older end of the tributes. His hair was dark like mine, but that's about where the similarities ended. There was something I felt when I looked at him. A sense of determination and perhaps even anger. I didn't like what I sensed from him.

If people or things made me uncomfortable in the past, I would have ignored them. Now, however, in this arena, things were different. There was no running away or ignoring things. The only option was to stand up for myself and fight whatever it was until it died.

Despite the slight pang of guilt I felt knowing I'd have to kill this boy to get out of here, I knew I had to do it. At first, I didn't think I could, but after coming so far and our fight being so close, I finally felt as if I was capable of ending this.

"Are you ready?" I ask of him. I don't wait for an answer before I strike with my blade.

---

table by Puppy
lyics: "Blood // Water" by Grandson

[Pisces attacks Daemon with knife]
jXsCwnaeSGknife
[2180 -- Shallow Cut on Left Forearm -- 3.5 damage]

knife

[Kire]

d a e m o n .

She doesn't have the chance to respond, either to his words or to his attack. He moves too fast for her to stop him and so he sinks the blade deep into the flesh of her arm. The wound is bad, one of the worst he had wrought, and the blood flows much too fast from it. He hit something vital, some major blood vessel that was now spewing blood forth like a small jet. It splattered over his face and he briskly wiped it away.

She sank before him, dropping as the life ebbed out of her. He knew that she was bound to die now and so he could finally turn his attention to the only other person standing between him and his allies. Pisces, aware of this shift and the position he was now in, had taken his moments of distraction at watching Steel fade away to come in close. "Goodbye, Steel." The words came from just behind him, making him jump. He hadn't expected the boy to be so near.

Of course, he had been underestimating this boy from the start and now, facing a final battle with him, he really needed to learn to not do that.

Facing off with his final opponent, the two boys squared themselves up. Each carried a knife, each knew how to use it. This last moment would come down to skill and not a little luck. Daemon felt ready, ready to fight and ready to die should he lose. Still, he clung to the thought that he might just be able to best this boy and get himself out of here, claw his way back to the surface and to the sunlight - false as it might be.

Out there, beyond the doors, Kahinta and Oberon waited for him. He knew that beyond a doubt. For the briefest moment he wondered if anyone was waiting for Pisces, and who they might be. No matter what, some of the waiting people would be disappointed.

"Are you ready?" The question is posed as though checking to make sure they were on fair ground. A courtesy offered in a duel that gave a sense of honour to both who partook. Instead, it was a guise and a false start. The boy came forward, slashing with all of the desperation he could muster, but it wasn't enough to end him. The blow connected, but weakly, skittering off his hip and drawing a red line that barely wept. Even so, in his weakened state the impact sent him somewhat off balance and he had to take a step back to keep standing.

They were both on the edge of this, both waiting for the final moment to fall. It came down to every attack, every stroke of the blade. This would end soon, but how it would end was still very much in question.

"I am, but are you?"

Now was the time to accept the end was coming.

[Daemon attacks Pisces with Knife]
OfXAubNQxJknife
Shallow Cut on Back of Head -- 4.5 damage

knife

[kap]

We'll never get free
Lamb to the slaughter
What you gon' do
When there's blood in the water?

My remaining opponent jumped when he heard my whispers to Steel as she fell. About half a second later, we were facing each other, knives in hands. For once, he wasn't ignoring me. Perhaps he now saw me as a threat, even if I didn't typically see myself as one. My blade slashed into him, cutting slightly into his arm, but he was still alive.

He answered my question.

"I am, but are you?"

I nodded.

"I am."

His knife slashes at me and I try to evade his blade, only for it to catch me in the back of the head. I'm not done yet, though. I'm still standing. I'm standing because I have to be. If I want to live, I can't just fall to the ground and give up.

I may have lost various parts of me, physical and emotional, while in this arena, but I wasn't losing my life yet. I wasn't ready for that. Giving up wasn't an option. Anyone who I had that cared about me, whether that be here in the arena or back home wouldn't want me to give up. I didn't want to give up. I wanted to show them all that the final stroke hadn't yet been made for me.

I may have felt weak right then, but I wasn't done. I may have been weak right then, but I wasn't done. This wasn't all over. No, not yet. I was going to fight through all the pain that I was feeling right now. I wasn't going to fall this time. It wasn't my turn.

I was named after stars, and I was going to shine like it.

The blade that the Capitol had provided me with was readied in my hand as I faced the tribute before me. We were both so close to gone, but I wasn't the one going. I had to assure myself of that. If I told myself I'd survive, rather than that I was going to die, maybe things would go the way I wanted them to. The previous day in the arena, I told myself that I was going to die and I did. This time, I told myself that I was going to live. I will.

---

table by Puppy
lyics: "Blood // Water" by Grandson

[Pisces attacks Daemon with knife]
GXaOYKB2FIknife
[2042 -- Miss -- 0.0 damage]

accuracy

knife
[2054 -- Shallow Cut on Right Bicep -- 3.5 damage]

knife·knife