Disclaimer: Glee is not mine but Fox', sadly and the Hunger games is Suzzane Collins and now I guess Lion's Gate's property.

A/N: Decided to continue this long suspended fic as a late celebration for that new promo of Catching Fire

The girl who laughed in danger's face

Chapter 2

Her mother left them after a brief trip to the Capitol, walked through their door, luggage in hand, detached the arms that Rachel encircled her with before climbing up the stairs, minutes later her luggage was much bigger.

She remembers the loud "thud" of the tatty old bags as they dropped on their wooden floor as her mother opened her arms wide and Rachel gleefully melted on them. She remembers the light touch of her lips on her forehead, the tightening of the embrace and the single tear that her mother hurriedly swiped away.

She remembers how her mother placed her palm on her father's cheek for a moment, the both of them finding it hard to smile, she remembers the "I love you two so very much" before her mother walked out the door. She never walked back in again.

Rachel was 6.

She was 8 when she sees her mother seated beside the Capitol's Minister of Finance on television, that smile that she misses everyday directed at a young boy with the same exact shade of hair as she does.

You weren't supposed to hate your brother, but a part of her does.

Her father cried the whole night her mother left then didn't cry again, and Rachel began noticing that whenever people asked him how he felt about her leaving, he'd always say that he lost his 'best friend.' At twelve, Leroy came staggering into their garden, ruining the carrot patch and trampling over the garden gnomes, her father couldn't say no when he saw the gun shot through his gut, a doctor first and foremost.

Rachel knew something was off with Leroy at first glance, the tattered white cloth he wore, the fact that he couldn't speak, the panicked and fearful look in her father's eyes.

Rachel was 14 when her father learned to love again, Leroy and him would sometimes hold hands, would hesitantly touch their lips with each other. And maybe...maybe loving again wasn't the case... maybe it was the first time her father ever loved.

Rachel was 15, and she knew then why her mother left, and she spent the first few months of that year, hating her father and Leroy. Her father begged for her forgiveness, said she never wanted to hurt her mother and Rachel, said he was sorry it was hurting her but he can't help what he feels.

"Just please tell me... just please tell me your happy... truly happy this time."

"The only time I was happier was when I first held you in my arms."

She couldn't hate them after that. How could she hate her father for trying to be happy?

At 16, Rachel raised her hand to be a tribute for the Hunger games minutes before the Capitol soldiers handcuffed Leroy, for being an Avox who ran away from serving the Capitol and serving his punishment, and her father, for aiding a fugitive for so many year.

She walked her way dazedly up the makeshift stage, and trembled and cried her way down.

She remembers her father, free from those metal bracelets, pushing through the soldiers and crying for her. She remembers the blinding lights of the T.V. crew swivelling from her to her father.

This was the only thing that she could do... and even then, she wasn't sure that giving up her life would save his.

:: ::

Something was dripping on her. The cold droplets making her shiver for a moment after its impact on her cheeks. It was slowly clearing the fog in Rachel's head, allowing sounds to slowly trickle in... the constant chirping. She could feel the breeze settling on her exposed arms, cooling the perspiration and raising goose bumps across her flesh, she vaguely wonders where her jacket had gone, moving her hand across the grass to look for it by touch.

"Oh... you are alive."

The panic was instantaneous, fear gripping her so hard that she had trouble breathing. Rachel opens her eyes, hurriedly mobilizing her aching body to scoot further away, hand gripping the knife handle stuck on her right boot. She could feel the tears streaming down her face- she couldn't believe that she'd die this pathetically.

The blonde girl from district 4 looked taken aback for a moment, slowly rising from her knees, both hands raised: one palm up and the other clutching a wet cloth.

"Calm down... dwarf. I'm not gonna hurt you."

"Don't call me that." Rachel grits out, looking from side to side for a possible route of escape, she notices Azimio and the oddly muscled girl both laying some feet away, both on their backs, their hands resting together on their stomachs like they have been arranged that way.

Did she kill them both?

"Well I don't know your name. What am I supposed to call you?"

The blonde tribute flashes a sarcastic smirk her way, taking a step back and taking a hold of the long spear lying against a tree bark. Well, that's better Rachel! She's armed now!

Well, bluff! Bluff your pants off!

"I—I pr-promptly executed them, I can do it again... so—"

The blonde girl laughs, once again finding the humour in their fantastic situation, she raises the hand currently holding the spear and then one by one she straightens her fingers, staring straight at her probably terrorized eyes. Rachel's only indication that the girl was no longer holding the spear is the dull thud it makes as it hits the ground, she couldn't take her eyes off the girl.

"Please, you didn't kill Cynthia, don't make me laugh. You only survived that buffoon Azimio by a hair's breadth."

Rachel processes this, shakily rising to her feet and freeing the knife from her boots, she holds it out in front of her. She felt dishonourable though, raising a weapon when the other girl had just dropped hers. The girl just rolled her eyes and leaned against a tree, eyeing her with barely concealed wariness.

"So...if you killed her, you... saved me?"

The blonde girl rolled her eyes again, pushing away from the tree with some kind of graceful agility that Rachel attributes to dance and walks over without preamble towards her. Rachel immediately raises her knife, she tries to stop her hands from shaking but her body had completely betrayed her.

"Yes. Obviously." The girl takes the blade between two fingers, trying to force it down as Rachel shakily holds it aloft. "Put it down, dwarf." Her eyes were terribly commanding, the hazel shining with an intensity that demanded Rachel to obey her. Her arms fall down her body like dead weight.

"Don't call me that..." she breathes out weakly as the other girl stepped away once again, inspecting her.

"Listen, Dwa—"

"Must you insist?! It's Rachel, Rachel Berry."

The girl sighs opening her mouth to say something more when they both heard voices coming closer.

"Seriously, Karofsky, can't you just kill them cleanly? I can't stomach you playing with them."

"I never thought that you were such a pussy, St. James..."

Panic flashes so immediately on the blonde's eyes that Rachel's own heart lurches and then starts to beat out of her chest. A hand ceases her right wrist. "Listen to me... I want you to stab me in my right arm when Karofsky and Jesse steps into view... then you run... okay. You run the hell away from here dwa—Rachel. You don't stop until you're sure okay... not even to take a breath."

"I—don't—"

"I don't have time to walk you through this." the blonde hisses releasing her hand and taking a step back from her, she flashes Rachel a shaky sarcastic smile then shouts:

"What the-! Azimio! Cynthia!"

Rachel startles, raising her knife again as the blonde girl walks backwards towards her, from her peripheral she spots Karofsky's leather black jacket amidst the green around them. Rachel grits her teeth and stabs at the blonde girl, fear driving all her actions.

She whirls away to the sound of the girl's pain and takes off to the cover of the forest, running without direction.

"Quinn! What happened?"

"I don't know... ahh!.. she came out of nowhere!"

The low hanging branches scratch at her face as she runs maniacally away, the buzzing of unknown insects blending together and making her dizzy, the wind cold on her sweat soaked face. She was still holding the knife and it glints off the rays of sunshine managing to break through the thick foliage, it makes her panic more and she hurriedly places it in her boots.

She ran for awhile just like that, fear and panic driving her further, hunching forward as everything started to get heavy and as needles pricked at her legs and her lungs begged for air, until her legs finally gave and she staggered down the forest floor, leaves sticking to her cheeks. She rolled unto her back staring up at the darkening sky, apathetic to the carnage going on beneath it, then crawled on all fours to the thick cluster of bushes beside her. Shakily she stuck leaves in her hair and gathered herself into a ball, reaching in her bag to retrieve the blanket.

Her fingers touched the plastic bottle and she closed her eyes tight and snapped her jaw shut to try to stave off the tears when she took it out to find it filled to the brim.

She lost the battle as she took her first greedy gulp.

: : : :

To those who had been tempted by the movie and is contemplating reading the book. Do yourself a favour and please read it, it's not just a copycat of battle royale if that's the problem.

Thank you for reading.