Rain came before dawn.
Not a natural storm, but something colder. Engineered. The kind of rain that didn't just soak you — it moved you. Rivers that hadn't existed before surged through the Arena. Ground that was dry one day turned to swamp the next.
The Capitol wasn't hiding it anymore.
They were herding him.
Goo crouched beneath the branches of a split-fig tree, watching the water lap higher and higher. The stream he and Rue had camped beside the day before had swallowed its banks.
He didn't blink.
Didn't move.
Yet.
When he woke, Rue was gone.
No signs of struggle. No blood. Just absence — sudden and total.
He didn't panic.
She wouldn't abandon their territory unless—
Unless they moved her.
By midday, the terrain was unfamiliar.
Jungle became stone. Stone became crag. Goo moved between it all like a ghost, navigating the shifting world while the Capitol adjusted the maze around him. Trees crashed in the distance. Birds no longer sang. The air carried the artificial taste of electricity.
Then, something new:
A wall of fire.
Thin. Bright. Not meant to kill.
Meant to push.
He turned. Another fire, closer.
Goo clicked his tongue.
"You're late."
He didn't run.
He walked.
Straight into the bottleneck the Gamemakers had so carefully designed: a ravine choked with rock and narrow trails. Only one way forward. No cover. No exits.
He knew what this was.
A kill zone.
The hovercams multiplied.
More than ten now. Circling like vultures.
Somewhere in the Capitol, an audience leaned forward in their seats.
Finally.The rebel dies.The threat ends.
He stepped into the mouth of the ravine.
And stopped.
One tribute stood at the other end, silhouetted against a blood-orange sky.
Cassia.
Her blade was back in her hand. Her face was clean. Her limp, gone.
The Capitol had restored her.
No burns. No bruises. Just power. They wanted a duel. Wanted to clean their hands with a tribute-on-tribute execution.
She didn't smile.
Didn't speak.
Neither did he.
They moved at the same time.
Her swings were faster this time. Smoother. The Capitol had done more than heal her — they'd enhanced her.
A spark danced across her blade. Electric. Engineered.
Goo ducked a strike, narrowly avoiding the jolt that cracked the stone behind him.
He didn't counter. Not yet.
He was studying.
Her stance. Her timing. Her eyes.
She was angry.
But also… afraid.
Because he wasn't.
They traded blows across jagged stone.
Cassia's blade cut into his arm — shallow. A warning.
He slammed her into a boulder. She kicked him away.
Back and forth. Precise. Brutal.
She screamed, "WHY DIDN'T YOU KILL ME?"
And he answered:
"Because you weren't useful yet."
Then he dropped his knife.
On purpose.
Cassia hesitated — just a flicker.
And Goo was inside her guard before she could recover.
He didn't go for the kill.
He drove her down. Pinned her. Knife now at her throat.
She was panting. Shaking.
He whispered:"They gave you power. Gave you new skin. New tools. All so you could be the knife that ends me."
"Then do it," she hissed.
Goo leaned close.
"No."
He let her go.
Again.
He turned and walked through the ravine.
Behind him, Cassia didn't follow.
Again.
That night, only one face appeared in the sky.
The boy from District 10.
The Capitol was running out of pieces.
So was Goo.
But he still had the most dangerous one left.
Rue.