and may the odds be ever in your favor

[firegirl]

It's late on the day after the meteors hit. The sun is still out though it'll set in an hour or so. The destruction is still present across the city. The Rift activity has come to a slow but there are monsters out on the sidewalks still, and it is still not safe to be out on the streets more so than normal on any other day in Chicago.

Katniss Everdeen is running when she slips through a Rift into Chicago. The bow and arrow is wrapped around her back and the tiny, orange backpack that she needs is on her arm as she sprints. Blood drips from the cut over her head making her dizzy but she has one thing in mind, pushing her through the pain. Survive. Get back to Peeta with the medicine and survive.

Survive has been all she's thought about since the Hunger Games started. Win came later after her promise to Rue and Prim. It's the getting back to Peeta, helping Peeta that's new but the boy with the bread has an infuriating way of making her owe him. Again and again. With the new rules in place mid game, she can't let him die, and she knows the medicine alone isn't guarantee enough but it's the only hope he has.

She's clearly underfed, bleeding from above her forehead. Her clothes are torn, and she's dirty from head to toe. So consumed with that one purpose, vision blurred by the blood dripping in front of her face, it's not until she barrels directly into a car and lands squarely on her back on the pavement that she realizes it's changed. This is not the arena or the arena has completely shifted like it never has in past games.

What are you doing? She thinks to the Gamemakers before she forces herself up into a seated position at the sound behind her. It's a creature, something unrecognizable. Katniss pulls the bow and arrow from around her back, forces herself to a wobbly stand, and fires a shot at the monster who'd nearly attacked someone. It hits somehow considering she knows her aim is not at its best. It kills it. She leans back against the car, trying to catch her breath.

It takes her a moment to realize that there's clear sky all around her (and buildings and more that she doesn't recognize) and no camera in sight.

Comments

[toomuchheart]

The problem with Chicago is that you can never seem to catch your breath.

Not that Castiel needs to breathe, but the point still stands.

He's exhausted. He's been trying to help as many people as he can, to save as many people as he can, but he doesn't have the infinite power of heaven at his disposal anymore. He gets whatever comes through the Rift, and today he's feeling something he hasn't felt since he was human. He is very, very tired.

Regardless, he doesn't stop. There are too many monsters on the streets, and too many people still in danger. He's bouncing through Chicago, trying to identify the points where there is still trouble, and when he lands in front of Katniss, he barely realizes she's there. All he can see is the giant creature that's climbing over the top of the car she is leaning against, and he reaches up, grabbing it by the neck and slamming it to the ground in front of them. After that, all it takes his a hand to the side of the creature's head, and he burns it out of existence, a bright, pure white light streaming out of the creature's eyes.

It takes him a moment to regain himself, to not feel the way he's drained right now, but when he does finally straighten and turn to face her, his head tips to the side.

"You are hurt."

[firegirl]

Katniss is familiar with that.

She's familiar with never having the chance to catch her breath. It is always pushing forward, ignoring exhaustion and surviving. Survival is necessary.

Survival means taking care of Prim, and she has done that since she was twelve. She doesn't trust her mother to do it so she needs to survive and to get home.

It hasn't sunk in yet that that won't be possible. She practically jumps when he appears beside her, falling back and barely keeping hold of the bow in the process. He's too old to be a tribute, and there are only four of them left other than her. She knows what they all look like.

"...you don't look that great yourself," she says and then quickly after, "Who are you? Where am I?"

And she can't afford to trust anyone but she's aware she doesn't have much of a choice right now either.

[toomuchheart]

He has been in Chicago long enough to know the look of a new Wanderer when he sees one, and he sighs. This is not the easiest thing to explain, and he is more terrible at it than most.

"My name is Castiel. You are in a city called Chicago."

[firegirl]

Castiel. Chicago. Neither of these names are familiar to her, but Castiel sounds like something someone from district 1 or 2 would name one of their kids. It sounds as strange to her as Glitter or Cato.

She doesn't trust him, but she is also aware that she has no choice. She is bleeding from the head, and it's difficult to think straight. Where normally, she would stay out of sight of everyone and everything, she doesn't have that opportunity now. "...how?" She asks instead of the many other questions. "Did the Capitol do this?"

It seems beyond their powers. To send her to some make believe place.

[toomuchheart]

"I do not know what the Capitol is," he admits. "However, with regards to how, you fell through a Rift in time and space. You are in an alternate universe. This is a city called Chicago."

[firegirl]

Katniss does not understand what any of this means. The fear pumps through her, but she doesn't let that show on her face. Her face maintains its initial expression beyond the obvious surprise on it.

Never heard of the Capitol. They're kind of in charge, and fear and frustration mingle together. "I don't-- don't know what that means," she says, hand against her head. "Can you point me where it's safe?

[toomuchheart]

"I do not believe there are a lot of places in Chicago that are safe right now," Castiel admits reluctantly. "Between the meteor shower and the monsters, many of the buildings have been destroyed or made unstable. But I can take us somewhere slightly outside the city, if that would help."

He's trying to be as helpful as he can, but he's not so good with reading human emotions anyway. Not that he would know what to do with Katniss if she actually let her fear and concern show.

[firegirl]

Katniss is not good at reading emotions either. She would be somewhat better than him, but she has serious issues when it comes to reading others and being aware of her own feelings. With Prim, it was different, but her sister isn't here.

"You can take us?"

[inferus]

Ben, on the other hand, is paralyzed on the spot.

The monster was going to attack him and he could not bring himself to move.

As if his feet are glued to the ground and he can't move. The day took a turn for the worse the moment the bell rang at Looney, and since then, it's been chaos central. His eyes remain trained on the girl's bow and arrow as she successfully kills the monster where it stood. He doesn't let himself breath again until it crumples to the ground, and by then, he can't hear anything past the heavy thudding of his heart.

His gaze falls toward the monster's corpse and then back at the girl, who clearly does not look okay. She looks so far from okay he gulps back down his own fear, aware she's just saved his ass, saved his ass while being very much not okay.

"Hey," he says quietly. His legs feel like jello, like some distorted, detached extension of himself but he forces them to move toward the girl. His heart still thumps painfully against his chest. "You're hurt. We need to get that checked."

After making sure most of his closest friends made their way home or were on their way home, he has been trying to get back to his house, as well. So it's not too far away.

[firegirl]

Katniss is trying to work through the pain thudding through her head and in every other part of her body in an attempt to figure out what happened.

This guy is the right age for a tribute, but this is not the arena she was in before. Did the Gamemakers change the arena, throw in more tributes? If that's the case, what is he wearing? Why doesn't he have a weapon?

Did she just end up saving someone she'll have to end up killing later?

She can't afford to trust anyone, and she tries to lift her bow up again to point it at him, but her legs are unsteady. God, he doesn't look like a killer but that never matters. Rue didn't either. Peeta didn't. If anything, maybe he'll spare her for now because she saved his life.

It's about the only way she can survive because she has no idea how to get back if the arena has changed. She doesn't know., and he sounds so calm. He's approaching her without a single weapon.

"Where am I?"

Katniss brushes the blood from her face. "Who are you? Are you a tribute?" But there are only five of them left, she's so angry she could scream but she doesn't. Focus. She needs to focus.

[inferus]

Ben swallows back the palpable fear and lifts up his hands when the bow is suddenly aimed straight at him.

"Hey! Hey, easy. I'm not looking to hurt you or anything, I promise," he says, and by some miracle he manages to keep his voice steady when there's nothing but ice-cold, clammy fear streaming through his veins. He's scared, and he's tired, and the day doesn't seem to be slowing down.

"... Tribute? I don't know what that is."

His face is that of genuine confusion, and he isn't sure what to say but it's not as if he has a lot of time. There's a pressing need to get home, there's a pressing need to not be out on the streets right now, and she shouldn't be out them, either.

"You're in Chicago," Ben explains, gaze drawn to the bow. He only tears his eyes away from it to look back at her, focusing on her reaction instead. If she doesn't know where she is ... well, that can only mean several things.

As a supernatural, he cannot instantly know when someone's a wanderer or not, but he's intuitive.

And well, it usually only means one thing when people have no idea they're in Chicago.

[firegirl]

Katniss hesitates a moment. There's no weapon on him. His hands are up, and she lowers the bow and arrow pretty quickly. She has no idea what has happened, but she doesn't want to kill anyone that doesn't want to kill her.

"If you won't hurt me, I won't... hurt you." She won't let her guard down either, but she won't hurt him or anyone unless she feels she has to to survive.

She knows that she doesn't have much of a choice but to trust whatever he's saying is true... or true enough. If he wants to help her, she needs to take it, but she is not... good at owing people. There's just no other option when she's bleeding from the head.

It's her turn to look confused. Who doesn't know what that is? What district is she in? How did this--

"How can you not know?"

Katniss takes in a deep breath, reading the confusion on his face. She'd shake her head if that wouldn't hurt so she rests against the car instead, bow in hand but lowered. She's not going to use it against him if he doesn't try to hurt her.

"...I've never heard of that place before."

Chicago. It's completely unfamiliar to her, and it registers on her face.

But he has no reason to lie to her, it's just difficult to wrap her head around. She is in some made up place named Chicago that obviously isn't made up. Was there more to the world than the Capitol and the districts?

That doesn't make any sense to her either.

[inferus]

"Why would I want to hurt you? You just saved my life," Ben says, and the confusion is further apparent in his face, brows knotted together into the slightest frown. He doesn't lower his hands immediately, not until after she's lowered the weapon.

Ben opens his mouth and finds he doesn't have an answer to how he could not know.

Whatever being a tribute means, it's obviously important where she comes from, he just does not know. His sister will have much more knowledge than he does, and know exactly who Katniss Everdeen is, but Ben Casey is honestly at a loss.

"I'm sorry, but... this is a different world. To the world you're from. I don't know what that is."

Ben hides his utter shock well enough but he has never had to talk to someone that has no idea where Chicago is. At the very least, they're familiar with another version of it.

"Okay, look I can explain, but it's not ... safe out here. We need to get somewhere inside," Ben says, and he's glancing around like something's going to come at them at any minute. He gets she needs explanations, but this was really poor timing in the Rift's part.

Dropping her off in the middle of this disaster?

Not cool, Rift. Not. Cool.

[firegirl]

Katniss can think of about a hundred reasons for someone to answer that question whether she had saved their life or not. The fact that he can't is evidence to the fact that he's not built like she is. It's not a bad thing, just further proof that she might not die because she's decided to trust him.

No that she really has any choice, but she's glad if she doesn't have a choice that she trusts someone that can't answer that question as opposed to someone who can. "It's-" She closes her eyes. "Nevermind."

Other universes if he doesn't know what she means. But if he owes her, he'd want to help. She'd want to help in his position... whether it was owed or not, but she shoves down that thought. One really can't afford to help in the arena, she's just not in the arena anymore.

"If you really don't know, you're lucky." Is what she finally settles on saying instead.

It's for the best to not know. If she didn't know about tributes, about what life brought, she might be different. She might have looked at Gale differently from the start, and she remembers what he said about how he'd want kids, want to marry if he lived somewhere else.

They didn't live anywhere else so it was foolish to think about it.

She understand that, needing to get somewhere safe. "Different world, you know safe better than I do," Katniss says, pushing herself away from the car. "I'll watch your back."

He's her ally now. Whether this is the arena or some new arena, she knows she needs allies, and she shuts out what happened to Rue, her last ally.

She shuts that out and pushes forward, slipping a scrap of cloth against her head tho she's still bleeding.

[inferus]

The concern doesn't wipe off from his face when she tells him to Nevermind.

This girl looks like she may drop to the ground at any second, and she's holding a bow and arrow and knows how to wield it well. Not to mention, there's a look in her eye that's kind of foreboding, so he can't quite let it go.

He just also know it's important for them to get somewhere safer than the open street.

"Uh, I don't... feel so lucky right now but I have a feeling I'm better off not knowing it personally, yeah," he says, eying her curiously. He doesn't want to gape at her, he really doesn't, Ben just hasn't had the experience of greeting wanderers too frequently.

Especially not one that looks like they've seen much better days. She doesn't even seem that surprised by the state of Chicago, and he finds that telling to the kind of life she comes from. He takes a deep breath, and pauses for a bit.

"Chicago isn't exactly safe... in general, but there are places we can hide in until this blows over, and I'll answer any questions you have in the meantime, okay?" Ben asks, and he has a handkerchief so he hands that over to her as well for the wound in her head.

He wishes there was more he could do, wishes that he knew what to do in situations like these.

That he were braver, more sure of himself, that this girl who is so clearly in need of help did not feel she had to watch his back. Ben moves closer to her and shakes his head. "Nah, that's okay. Tougher than I look," he says with a weak smile.

Lies.

Ben points toward the safehouse and glances left and right down the street. "Coast is clear, we should make a run for it now," he says, placing a hand on her arm so they can quickly move along. The closer they're somewhere that's not outside, the better he'll feel.

[firegirl]

It is important, and it is what she focuses on beyond the need to get out, beyond the desire to know if Peeta is okay or not, if she can get home or not, if she can really win if she's in some make believe place.

They have to get somewhere safe. She has to fix her head so she can think straight again, because she's no good to herself when she's-- when she can't think.

"You're better off," she say in agreement, wincing and pressing the cloth against her head to try to stem more of the bleeding. Nothing makes sense!

It is what is so infuriating. She hates it. Chicago is not a district. it is not a country. It is not Panem. She doesn't recognize it at all, and she's- there's fear under her determination and bravado and refusal to show weakness.

"Okay, I can... hide as long as we need to. I need answers," Katniss says, and she looks over him again to be certain he has no weapon, but he looks-- looks pretty defenseless at the moment.

She pushes herself away from the car.

She narrows his gaze when he says he is tougher than he looks. Yeah, she doesn't believe that for a moment, Ben, sorry. She prides herself on reading people well, on knowing who is competition or who is not. She was surprised at what Peeta could do, against her, but Katniss has doubts about him being tougher than he looks.

"Either way, I can watch your back."

And she will. She doesn't trust her life or her safety in anyone's hands other than her own.

Katniss looks at him before she nods. "I'm ready," she says though she's bleeding and obviously shaky. Like hell, she'll show that for even a second. "C'mon."

And she pushes forward, somehow. Always moving ahead, always surviving. Nothing else is acceptable because anything else leaves Prue alone and defenseless back in District 12. She doesn't trust her mother to take care of her either.

It's not like that mattered to her enough to snap her out of it before.

[warwizard]

Richard is still a woodsman.

And as such, he's still incredibly aware of his surroundings. From across the way, he can spot someone who looks out of place, confused. It takes less than that to get his feet moving. As he nears the girl, he notices that she's hurt, which causes his steps to increase.

"Miss?" He calls out as he approaches. His sword swings at his hip, sheathed but still noticeable in its casing. He doesn't belong here at all- not in this modern city.

"You're bleeding. Are you alright?" There's a gentleness to his tone, a sincerity that pours from him. Even with all the his stature and title, he can still return to being Richard Cypher, the woods guide.

[firegirl]

Katniss was in flight mode before being uncermoniously dropped into this city, and she switched quickly to fight to take the monster down. Now the blood loss is catching up to her, and she presses her hand against her head until she hears the footsteps.

Only one of her ears works a it should. She lost the other in the blast but he can still hear.

She tries to aim her bow and arrow again, because she sees that sword even if it is sheathed. If this is the gamemakers round about way of trying to kill her, she was not going to go down without a fight.

"Don't-" Katniss breathes out. "Don't come any closer. Who-" No, that's less important. "Where am I? How do I get back?"

She has to get back.

Since I just dropped who I tagged into this, you get a new tag <3

[daredtobelieve]

Seconds after Katniss' arrow strikes true, Helen's bullet lands a mark as well. In all the chaos, she didn't notice someone else nearby. The arrow makes her think that Jeremy's back, which she wouldn't be opposed to, but her eyes instead find a young girl with a head wound who looks more confused than afraid. Helen may not know every Wanderer, but she has an inkling that something isn't quite right here.

"Nice shot." She says at first, then steps closer. "I can take care of that, if you'd like." She touches her own forehead to indicate that she means where the girl is bleeding. Then she adds with a raised eyebrow. "They can smell blood. Neither of us are safe until you're fixed up and cleaned off."

BAW that was so nice of you, thanks!! ilur tags ;; <3

[firegirl]

Katniss tries to catch her breath once the monster falls down. She had been running, and she may have built up her abilities to run, to sprint when her life depends on it, but she's worn. Katniss looks over at the woman, noticing the gun immediately and pressing

She stares at her warily. It's true. Katniss knows she needs to get that taken care of, but she still-- can't trust anyone and can't do anything without putting some trust in someone. It's infuriating.

But she reminds herself that there are other monsters, this would be really bad timing to kill her when she can help. "Okay," Katniss says, and she doesn't take her hands off of the bow and arrow but she lowers both. "Where am I?" There's a pause, because nothing about her clothes are familiar. Nothing is familiar. "Are you with the Capitol?"

She can't imagine they would want to kill her, certainly not like this. They have to have their victor after all.

[daredtobelieve]

"There's no time to explain, unfortunately. What I can tell you is that wherever you were, you're far from there. I'm not certain which Capitol you mean, but this is Chicago, though even that is oversimplifying it." She takes a quick look around, then gestures for the girl to follow her.

"I'm Helen, by the way. This way we aren't strangers any longer." She smiles and steps closer to the girl to get a better look at the head wound. "I'd really prefer we get you to the Sanctuary. I can have you stitched up properly there."

[firegirl]

Katniss grimaces. She wants answers, but how can she trust answers? How can she trust anything? The answer is simply that she can't. There's no other choice at the moment though to put her faith into someone else, to owe this woman if she does indeed want to help her.

"Katniss Everdeen. ...Knowing someone's name doesn't exactly make you well acquainted," she says but the smile on her face is genuine, and she knows that she has to trust. If she's going to trust, she needs to stop coming off... so abrasive. How ever Haymitch would call it. Sanctuary. She doesn't know what that is. "...okay. I'll go. It's not safe to stay here."

She knows that much, and she knows she'll have to trust that this woman wants to genuinely help her. Katniss can worry about all the debts she won't be able to pay once her head isn't bleeding.

[daredtobelieve]

"No, but it certainly is a start." Helen can appreciate the girl's hesitation, seeing as she's just arrived in the middle of all this mess. At Katniss' agreement, Helen smiles and gently takes her by the arm, leading her down the sidewalk towards her Sanctuary. She's already assessed that the state of the wound and the distance to her home are of a fair enough ratio to put off treating Katniss until they arrive in a safer environment.

In the meantime, she'll have to keep the girl talking and hopefully keep her calm- which shouldn't be so hard, since she seems to have a good head on her shoulders.

"Katniss is an unusual name. Lovely but not incredibly common. Another name for Sagittaria, yes?"

[firegirl]

There is not a lot of people that Katniss trusts. She can count them on one hand, and Peeta is only someone she has trusted off and on. Katniss doesn't know that it ever became trust until she found him, lying in the mud. Maybe he got into her heart much sooner than that.

It would explain why she rushed to his side once the rules had changed though she told herself that it was because she could not come home alone.

"...the plant in the water." She nods, keeping her bow and arrows tight against her back. Her hand is wrapped around it. "It's another... name for that."

[daredtobelieve]

Helen notes the girl's posture and behavior. She knows that coming through the Rift can be traumatizing for any young soul, and there's so much going on in Chicago that it certainly can't help. The girl's manner of dress and the weapon in her hand were a bit odd, but Helen knows that all types of people fall through into Chicago, so it isn't really anything so strange that she thinks it's worth bringing up while they're in transit.

"This way, dear." She guides Katniss around a corner, happy to see her Sanctuary sitting at the end of the block. "See that one just there?" She points, "That's where we're headed."