Mikasa half-shrugged an arm towards her group's meeting place, using a shallow nod to acknowledge her presence to the other members of Team Mockingjay.

"And here's our table."

"Whoa, you guys have quite the setup here, don't you?" bubbled Honey. Upon hearing her voice, Alucard and Twilight halted their discussion to perform a double-take. Twilight was the first to voice her concern.

"Honey? What do you think you're doing here?"

Adam looked up from his sketch. "Excuse me, but I do not think I am familiar with this Honey."

"Yeah, what's up, Twi?" asked Holly, off-handedly scratching out a game of tic-tac-toe with Katniss. "Or is this one of those 'we-can't-talk-about-it' sort of things?"

"No, it's not that," sighed the unicorn. "My reaction was a little overblown. Honey was one of the VIWs from last round. We defeated her with Mikasa, who was seriously hurt in that fight. I just wouldn't expect them to make amends so quickly."

"She's not a bad person," said Mikasa bluntly. The girl nodded.

"Or, at least I'd like to think I'm not," she giggled. "I'd say I'm a pretty good person."

Holly drummed her fingers on the table.

"Okay, so what exactly do you do?"

"I'm a master of disguise and swordplay, and a righteous warrior of love!"

"Well, I already do the infiltration stuff," explained Holly. "And we've got two swordfighters already, and Twilight's all about friendship so I guess that covers-"

"No, I'm not trying to join your team. Just checking things out. Mikasa wanted to show me."

"Or did I make a mistake?" asked the scout accusingly.

"No, you didn't," reassured Twilight. "It's always good to make more friends. Just after the last round, we've been a little more cautious. Internal struggles and all that."

"Yeah. Internal," spat Ryuko. "'Bout as internal as… somethin' external."

Ruby hopped out of her seat and swung an arm over Honey's shoulder.

"What they're trying to say is, we cool."

"Yeah," mumbled Katniss, setting up another tic-tac-toe board. "That."

Honey laughed gingerly and removed herself from Ruby's embrace. "See you guys around, then," she smiled, darting away.

"That was abysmal," blinked Mikasa.

"Sorry about giving your friend the cold shoulder, Mikasa," Holly apologized. "But Twilight's right. Ever since she told us everything, we've all been a little… off."

"No sense getting all worked up about it if we can't do anything, though," said Katniss. "We've just got to wait it out."

Mikasa slung herself into a seat at the table, crossing her arms in annoyance.

"So we just keep doing what we were. Hooray."

"Well, we could do activities," suggested Holly. "Like those question-and-answer games."

Twilight raised a hoof. "I do love those!"

"That's not what I-"

Holly lifted an index finger. "Okay, how about, 'What would you eat for your last meal?'"

"Easy," replied Ryuko. "A plateful of mystery meat croquettes. And a lemon."

"I'd take an alfalfa sandwich and anything baked by Pinkie Pie," answered Twilight.

"Plum stew, a loaf of decent bread and five cakes," said Katniss.

"Jeez," cried Ryuko. "You've got me beat."

"My husband's cooking… can't live without it," explained the girl. "I don't figure I could die without it either."

"This is pointless," growled Mikasa. "We're not accomplishing anyth-"

"How about you?" interrupted Katniss.

"M-me?" Mikasa whimpered. "That doesn't matter, it'd just be-"

Ryuko shook her head. "Come on. Tell us!"

Soon, the others joined in chanting. "Tell us! Tell us!"

"Fine! Fine! Let me think for a moment," sighed Mikasa.

Samus Aran made the mistake of taking a break from her training. Normally, it was a good idea to stop the treadmill for a while, as things like exhaustion and dehydration still very much existed here. However, it also left her time to think, which allowed her mind to wander back onto the horrible, agonizing, ruinous thing clawing away at her.

They're talking about it. I know they are. They have been ever since. They won't stop until everyone knows. Those immature bastards.

She took a long draw from her bottle of water as she sat down on the bench nearby, scowling at everyone who passed by. A few gave her a worried look back, and she quickly placed a hand on the material around her neck, checking that her Zero Suit was entirely zipped up. It was.

Calm down, Samus. You're overreacting. Be professional.

"So is it really true?"

"Well, that's what I heard."

"Man, that is weird. What… color are they?"

"Like, purple or something."

Samus instantly exploded out of her seat, drove her arms forward, and clamped her hands down over the necks of the gossiping pair. One was a teenaged boy with particularly green eyes and a slight build. The other was clearly a peer of his, donning a flight suit with black and white markings.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"Oh, shi-agh!" croaked the flight-suited boy.

"You mean- nyeh! This is her?" strained the other.

"We didn't know you were- ack- there!"

Samus lifted the two off the ground, squeezing her fingers shut ever tighter.

"Does it matter that you didn't know I was there? No!"

"We- we'll never talk about- oogh!- it again!" squeaked the first.

"Lies! You're going to, no matter what you tell me! So I've just put you two on the list!"

"The… list?" moaned the second.

"The list of people I kill on sight," snarled Samus. "So why don't you help me out with that? Names, both of you."

"Why- why would we-" the first boy was cut off by Samus squeezing his airway shut. She slowly opened her hand to allow him to speak again. "Percy!" he gasped. "Percy Jackson!"

"Wonderful," hissed the bounty hunter. She clenched her hand closed, snapping Percy's neck instantly. She let go, and his body fell to the floor with a dull thump, turning to the other boy. "You next."

"H-H-Hikaru Ichijo! D-Don't kill-" With another crunch, his body joined the growing pile.

Samus had now attracted the horrified stares of nearly everyone around her in the training area.

"You scared?" she screamed out into the crowds. "You should be! I'll kill anybody who says anything about me behind my back! I'm Samus Aran! The Ghost of the Chozo! Nobody talks dirt about me and lives!"

"Samus, you need to calm down," said a familiarly grave voice from behind.

"Quiet, you," she snapped. "This is all your fault anyway."

The SPARTAN attempted to place a hand on her shoulder, and was rewarded with a punch to the helmet.

"I told you- it's not entirely my fault," growled John 117, stumbling backwards.

"Bullshit!" called out Samus. "You were the only one who knew, John! You told somebody!"

"What exactly is going on, here?" asked the Master of Games, appearing in their midst. Samus stamped her foot, pointing at the power-armored man.

"I was about to settle things with him," fumed the bounty hunter.

"Well, in case you were not aware, physical conflict outside of the arena is against the rules," noted the Master of Games, walking over to the bodies of the boys Samus had killed. He knelt beside them and placed a hand on each, causing them to sink into the floor the same way fighters normally exited the completed rounds. "Why don't you two work things out when it's okay to murder each other?"

"Because it's not that easy," whined Samus. "There are always other objectives, and the arenas are so big it's a miracle I was able to pin him down once, till the brat with the scissor showed up."

"Well, I can't have you slaughtering my warriors all willy-nilly. Can I cut you a deal?"

"Just make her happy," pleaded John. "I can't deal with this anymore."

"Fine. How about I arrange a round for just you two to duke it out?"

"It might make me feel better," considered Samus.

"Good. I'll get right to that. You have forty-five minutes to prepare."

With that, the Master of Games disappeared back into the crowd.

"What are you trying to pull?" asked John. "It's not like fighting me is going to do anything for you. We all come back, or don't you remember?"

"I don't need you to stay dead," grunted Samus with a smile. "I just need to humiliate you in front of everyone here. Like what you did to me."

"I swear I didn't mean for this to happen."

"But it happened. You betrayed my trust. And I'm going to make sure you suffer for it."

Samus spun on her heel and walked toward the exit, with a final "Hmph!" John shook his head slowly, and began to move back toward the table his team was using as a home base. Shuya and Tris were arguing, as they usually were, and a familiar face seemed to be moderating.

"Well, if it isn't Harry Potter," waved John. "What are you up to? Things going well for you in Gandalf's team?"

"Well enough," replied the boy, crossing over to the SPARTAN and shaking his hand. "Hopefully I'll be seeing you guys in the next round."

"Well, not all of us," said the solider. "The next round's just going to be me against Samus."

Tris seemed surprised. "You against her? Is this because of that thing?"

"Yes. And I'm not going to explain it."

"What a cop-out," sighed the girl.

"Well, I wish you well, Chief," said Harry, giving the soldier a salute. "I look forward to seeing you win this."

"Yeah. You bet I will, kid."

The wizard walked back toward his new team, and John found himself shaking his head slowly.

I'm not so sure I can pull this off. Samus's capabilities are on even footing with mine… and she's gone off the deep end. I can't say that I'm that motivated, especially when I have to fight her.