"Felix?"

"Dad?"

"FELIX?!?"

Felix sat up straight, awake in a flash as Sam's voice penetrated into his consciousness.

"Here..." he muttered, too quietly for her to hear.

He splashed some riverwater into his face, and got up.

"Here Sam!" He answered, walking back into the direction of their camp.

Samantha burst out of the trees.

"Felix! Where were you?"

"Just down by the river," he gestured to the water behind him.

"How long have you been there? We were so worried that someone got you or something, or... or..."

"Calm down Samantha, I'm fine."

But she's right, his conscience told him, you could've been killed sleeping out in the open all alone.

Nonsense. My senses would've woken me up if anyone even came close.

Well, some people don't need to come close you idiot. And you still should've gone back to camp yesterday evening.

I know, I know, but I was busy being emotional and none of them have to know that okay?

What if Sam already does? She IS a mind-reader, you genius. And you're obviously having a conversation with yourself because you haven't answered the question she's already asked three times. What kind of mind-reader would be able to resist?

Well, she,— wait, did you say THREE TIMES?

Felix shook his head to snap out of his thoughts, and Samantha looked at him questioningly.

"What do you mean, no?"

Samantha was starting to get fustrated with his absentmindedness, and the casual way he dismissed her concerns. She wanted to talk to Rue with him about their strategy, their plans. And she was considering telling Rue all about their powers, so that she would't find out herself and start a trust-issue.

"Sorry, I was talking to myself," Felix smiled handsomely, "what were you asking?"

He cocked his head slightly in expectation, and for a moment he looked like a fluffy puppy. A fluffy white puppy, with big green puppy-dog eyes and...

Samantha shook her head to dispell the silly thought.

"Now you're doing exactly what I did," Felix pointed out with a smug grin.

Sam sighed.

"Whatever, let's just get back to Rue."

A shout came from the general direction of their camp, and they exchanged worried looks.

"I knew it," Felix cursed under his breath, "there was no way our luck would last."

-

Rue had reluctantly agreed to stay behind. She wanted to find Felix more than anyone; she had started taking a liking to the tall warrior, even though she wasn't sure what to believe about him. But Sam had convinced her to watch their camp.

So now she took down the parachute-tents, folding them neatly and putting them beside Felix's backpack.

Felix's backpack.

Felix's backpack.

If there was any way to find out the truth about their past...

No, she told herself sternly, that's personal stuff. He said so himself.

But that was the problem. It was personal stuff, and that was exactly what she wanted.

"I won't take anything," she promised, herself, before starting to unzip the backpack.

"Drop your weapons."

Rue froze, slowly turning around to face a young man, holding a sword. She could tell instantly that he knew how to handle it by the confidence and easyness with which he carried it.

"Didn't you hear him?" The girl behind him, a blonde holding a bow, enquired, "he said; Drop your weapons."

"I... I don't have any..." Rue stammered, trying to judge if she would be able to get into a tree before they caught her.

The blonde rolled her eyes.

"Oh please, don't expect us to believe that."

"Shut up Glimmer," the young man commanded, and she closed her mouth with a sulky expression on her face.

He turned back to Rue.

"I'll say this one more time," he spoke slowly, pronoucing each word with careful precision, "Drop... Your... WEAPONS!!"

The last word was shouted so loudly that a few birds flew up in shock.

"I don't have any," Rue repeated once more, without stammering this time.

The young man squinted, trying to judge whether she was lying or not. Then he turned around with two words.

"Kill her."

Glimmer smiled gleefully, putting an arrow to her bow while a black-haired girl unsheathed a knife. One of the boys changed his grip on a long javenlin, ready to throw it. Rue began to back away, and then turned around and dashed to hide behind a tree.

"You don't think you can hide from us, do you?" The black-haired girl sneered, taking a few steps towards the tree. As she circles around it, she muttered something incomprehensible as she realized that Rue had climbed into the tree, and was out of reach.

She threw a knife angrily into the tree, where it stuck.

"Did you get her Clove?" Glimmer asked, lowering her bow.

"No," Clove scowled, retrieving her knife, "she's in the tree,"

Glimmer raised her bow once more, aiming at a small figure near the tops of the tall trees.

"Don't try it," the boy with the javenlin advised, "she's too high up."

"Shut up Marvel," Glimmer demanded, firing an arrow at Rue.

She missed, to the amusement of Marvel.

"I told you so," he rolled his eyes.

Glimmer scowled at him, and when she looked up again, Rue was gone.

"Where did she go?" She whispered in annoyance, but none of them could find the small figure again.

"Whatever," she mumbled, "she's not important anyway."

"Everyone is important you moron," Clove snapped, "you never know what a difference she could make."

Clove knew that her companion would not be pleased to know that they'd let the girl get away, and her eyes scanned the small clearing for something that would make up for their loss.

Her eyes rested on the backpack.

"At least we have her stuff," she smirked, walking up to the backpack.

"Actually, that's mine."

Felix seemed to appear out of nowhere, standing in the middle of the clearing.

"J-J-J..." Glimmer stammered as she thought to recognize the District 6 boy.

"Jason?" Felix spoke with a smirk. He watched as Sam slipped in between them unnoticed, and slowly a red wisp clouded some of their eyes.

"How interesting," he continued to distract them, "you actually recognize the people you've killed."

"I wasn't the one who killed you!" Glimmer squeaked.

Felix raised an eyebrow as the blonde fell to the ground under Sam's mind shtick.

"We don't have long," she spoke as Marvel, the last of them, collapsed to the ground.

"Long for what?" The young man with the sword enquired, and Felix turned around quickly.

A soft whirring sound came from up in the trees, and the next moment a pebble flew through the air. A reflex saved the man's life as the rock hit him in his arm instead of his head. He let out a yell of pain and Sam shoved him backwards quickly with a flurry of red energy.

He hit his head against a tree, and sunk down unconscious.

Felix sighed in relief, and as he did the illusion that was enhancing his disguise as Jason dropped.

"That should be the last of them. Now let's grab our stuff and get out of here."

Rue slipped down the tree, putting her slingshot back in it's safe hiding place.

"Where were you?" She asked Felix, "and what was that?"

She gestured to the Careers spread out over the floor around them.

"I'll explain later," Felix promised,  and he gestured to the Careers as Rue had done, "but right now, we've got to move. None of these guys are dead, and they'll wake up soon enough."

"When they're done reliving their worst nightmares..." Sam added, satisfaction clear in her voice.

"About that; why don't we kill them?" Rue asked, "I mean, not that I want to, but... This is the Hunger Games."

"That too, I will explain," Felix swung his backpack onto his shoulder, "but can we please just get out of here first?"

-

As they distanced themselves from the Careers, Felix was silent. He was extremely focused, and neither Rue nor Sam wanted to interrupt his concentration.

Eventually he spoke.

"I guess it's only fair, Rue, if you know what we can do."

Rue nodded, not sure what to say.

"To give you some background information — we come from a world full of superheroes. And," he added, almost distantly, "supervillains."

"Not everyone has... special abilities, but some do. Samantha and I are two of those."

He gestured to Samantha.

"She has the ability to mentally move things, blast things, shield things, mind-read things, mind-control things, and confuse things."

Samantha rolled her eyes at that explanation.

"And I have enhanced pretty-much-everything, which means I'm a bit better at stuff than normal people. Also, I can create illusions, and, like now, bend light."

"Wait, you can what?" Sam repeated, and Rue realized that even Sam hadn't known his abilities until now.

"I was taught by all the Avengers, Samantha," Felix answered calmly, "and that includes, in my opinion, Loki."

Rue was surprisingly calm. She would have thrown most of this off as their being delusional if she hadn't just seen Felix disguised perfectly as Jason using an illusion and Sam telekinetically shoving someone into a tree.

"So... this is normal for where you're from?" She asked, no longer doubting so strongly that they indeed were from a different planet.

Felix shook his head.

"No, not at all actually. We're part of an elite force called the Avengers, at least, our parents are. And we've inherited their special abilities, I suppose."

Rue sighed.

"Just wait until I tell my little sisters about this," she mumbled, "they'd freak."

"In a positive or a negative way?" Felix asked, ignoring the gnawing thought at the back of his mind telling him that she'd never see her family again.

"In a good way," Rue answered, her mind dwelling on her family for a moment as they walked on in silence.

I need to get her out of here, Felix told himself, she deserves better than this.

All of Panem deserves better than this you idiot. If you rewrite the book you might only make things worse. If Katniss doesn't win, the rebellion might not start. And then you'll have saved Rue, but doomed an entire generation.

Well, then I'm just going to have to get her out without her winning.

How are you going to do that?

Felix sighed, and Sam looked up. He shook his head slowly to reassure her, and she returned to her thoughts.

I don't know, he admitted to himself, but I'll find a way.