A Part to Play // Hunger Games

29 // The Ninja Returns

"Well, good morning to you too, guys. I love starting my day with a decapitation!" - Free (babetteblake)

***

TW: death, emotional trauma and distress

The interview brought an unexpected turn of events on the Victors, making the Capitol trip-over, losing a slit of control over it. Each and every one of the tributes tried their best to say something that would appeal to the Capitol citizens enough to cancel the Games - Aria just continued to be her normal, blunt self, shit-talking the whole event and the organizers as well, squeezing in as much hatefulness as she possibly could. Even if she could make the Capitol cancel the death Games solely out of spite, she'd take it.

The closest they had come to succeed was during Peeta's speech, the young boy being the last tribute to be interviewed. He'd told them all about how he and Katniss had gotten married back in their home District, feeding the spectators some random, cute - and totally bullshit - story about something called a 'bread ceremony', or something like that, alleging in the end that the girl was supposedly pregnant.

The whole thing was obviously fake and the youngest tribute could easily tell, but the audience couldn't, as they protested against sending a 'pregnant' woman inside of the Arena, leading the Victors to hold hands in front of the live cameras, supporting their union, as a last resort, a last act of rebellion before being thrown out to their deaths.

It had been - for the lack of a better word - interesting, seeing all tributes united for the same cause, not even trying to trip each other up. No, the interviews were solely focused on their hate towards the Capitol, the only thing to which all of them could relate.

After that massive Capitol fail, all twenty-four Victors were rushed off to their floors of the tribute center, Snow trying to access the damage they had created, working to quickly build-up the Games' popularity once more. He'd be damned if those petty Victors were able to out-rule him and turn his own people against him and his government.

***

Way sooner than any of them had wanted, the next morning arrived, and with it, the day in which they'd be going into that dreaded place once more. None of them were ready.

Aria stepped into the elevator with Josh, Pietro and Turner - the last two being chosen as mentors for the year - making her way down to the hangar. They would go all the way to the hovercrafts where the tributes from Districts One through Six would enter the first ship and leave towards the Arena, followed suit by the second ship, hosting the tributes originated from Districts Seven through Twelve. Once they were all there, the tributes would then have twenty minutes to get dressed and say goodbye to their stylists, if they wished to do so, going into the tube that would lift them up to the Arena itself. It was a system that the Capitol had perfected throughout the whole history of the Games.

When they arrived at the hangar both tributes were given five minutes to say goodbye to their mentors and escorts before being directed into the hovercraft.

"Well, I guess that's it." The young girl called, turning to look at Turner, who'd been her mentor this time around. She took a step closer to him.

"I guess so..." He trailed off, looking down to the floor, having grown quite fond of the sarcastic girl over the time frame they had known each other for.

"Come here." She told him, pulling the man in for a hug as he immediately responded by hugging her back. "If everything goes well, I'll see you soon Tur." She added lowly, whispering in his ear. Both mentors were also in on the rebellion, knowing their parts as well as the tributes did.