Saving the Tributes || Demigods in the Hunger Games

.oOo. Percy .oOo.

Peeta and I struggled through the forest. His leg, which was not spouting pus at every movement, was still heavily bandaged with my shirt (though there was no way I was wearing that thing again). I pushed a particularly spiky branch away from our path with my fingertips and Peeta hobbled through it carefully. As I tried to follow, I let the branch slip and it smacked my arm.

"Ouch!" I yelped at the sting.

"Shhhh!" Peeta shushed me, stepping loudly on a dry pile of leaves.

We reached a steep slope of ground and I glanced at Peeta as we slowly made our way down, using the trees as support. The tense, feigned sense of security rang in my ears. Unless the others were fighting it out on the other side of the arena, we were about to have some exploding cotton balls rained down on us.

"Listen," I said suddenly in a hush. We both stopped. In the distance, sounds of shouts of pain rang through the forest, sounding very feminine.

My grip on Peeta's shoulder tightened and we hobbled faster towards the noises. Peeta bit back winced as I tugged him through the forest.

The trees thinned, then suddenly we burst into a clearing.

"Katniss!" Peeta yelled at the same time I screamed, "Annabeth!"

The two girls were bloodstained and swaying on their feet. Annabeth was trying to rip off her jacket, which was covered in the same long cylindrical cuts that covered her arms and legs.

"Oh god," Peeta said, his face white.

Katniss was in nowhere hear as bad of a condition as Annabeth but she was bleeding profusely as well in at least four different places.

As we watched, Annabeth swayed on her feet and collapsed to the ground.

That was our cue to move. We leapt forward, or rather I leapt forward and Peeta hobbled. I quickly reached Annabeth's side and lifted her cut arms from the ground and onto her body so that the dirt couldn't get into it.

I was in the process of wrapping my jacket around her arm when I felt it— a gust of freezing air, followed by the weight lifted off my legs as Annabeth flickered, the smallest shadow hovering above her. Then it was gone and everything was normal.

I looked back. Peeta didn't appear to notice anything different. Katniss was still delirious. Annabeth looked exactly the same, but I wasn't sure it was her anymore.

.oOo. Nico .oOo.

I was getting better at that whole shadow-travel-pickup-without-stopping thing. When Annabeth and I appeared in the tent, I only passed out for a minute.

By the time I had woken up, Piper and Jason had poured nectar on Annabeth's wounds and bandaged them tightly. Annabeth was up too, her eyes half shut as she breathed shallowly.

"I hope you're ready to go back," Waylan said gravely as he helped me to my feet.

"It's not a matter of me," I said crossly. "It's a matter of Annabeth."

Annabeth propped herself on her elbows, wincing. "I made it here, didn't I?"

"Take some ambrosia with you," Piper said, pressing a ziploc bag into Annabeth's pocket.

"Ready?"

"Yep."

"Threetwoone!" I shouted and seizing Annabeth's hand, pulled her back into the arena.

.oOo. Percy .oOo.

There it was again. A gust of freezing air, followed by the weight lifted off my legs as Annabeth flickered, the smallest shadow hovering above her. Then it was gone and everything was normal.

Then Annabeth's eyes flew open all the way. "Where's Katniss?" she murmured, her eyes coming into focus.

In response, I nodded to the side where Peeta was struggling with stanching Katniss's blood flow. Annabeth jumped up then immediately let out a yelp

"Woah!" I put my hands out and steadied Annabeth. She hobbled over to Katniss and knelt down, her hand going to her pocket. Looking up at the sky, she seemed to send an invisible signal, then in one fluid motion stuffed a wad of ambrosia in Katniss's mouth.

The effect was instantaneous. Katniss's eyes flew open, the color returned to her skin, and smoke began to hiss from her hair.

"HOLY SH—" Peeta yelped, then clasped a hand to his mouth. Katniss opened her mouth in a scream as well, but she restrained herself and the smoke stopped.

"Damn," Annabeth said, chuckling nervously. "You really are the Girl on Fire."

"What the hell was that?" Katniss asked. "Did— did you get that from a sponsor?"

I looked at Annabeth.

"Ye-es," I said slowly. "At any rate, you're healing now and that's all that matters."

Peeta looked down at where Katniss was leaning on him but he didn't try and move. "I can't believe we've found you."

"Yeah." Katniss grimaced as she moved. The wounds were pink indents, but as she strained her arms, beads of red formed on her arms. "We're allied now, I guess."

"There are eight people left," Annabeth said as she handed some ambrosia to Peeta. "Cato And Clove are definitely allied, and I guess we are too."

"Just Audrey and Thresh alone, then?" I asked.

"Audrey's the fox girl right?" Peeta clarified.

"Yep."

There was a silence. I looked at Annabeth, and she met my eyes. Neither of us wanted to continue. I was tired, hungry, dirty, and felt like trash. My skin temperature seemed constantly rising and dipping and I didn't remember what comfort was. My lips were chapped and my skin was dry and who knew how much acne I had from the stress of the arena. I had long since lost the map, despite Athena's enchantments of having it return to my pocket. Annabeth too. But we had to keep going. Because of the stupid gods.

Not for the first time, I wondered what would happen if we just... had Leo set fire to the arena while Nico swooped in and out, shadow traveling around.

"We need to move." It was Katniss who spoke first. She struggled to her feet and dusted off the dirt that clung to her ruined pants.

I sighed heavily. "You're right. Where are we going?"

Katniss's eyes gleamed. "The Cornucopia."