chapter 12 : secret alliances

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"Tributes, mount up." A male's voice said over the PA system. 

Finnick stood onto the chariot first, holding out a hand to help me up. 

"Thanks." I mumbled, holding onto the side of the chariot. 

I stood staring straight ahead, not wanting to look at anyone. The horses began moving, bringing Finnick and I into the bright sun.

The Capitol's anthem played loudly as flowers were thrown and shouts were heard. 

I hated this. I hated how we had to participate in this again. Neither Finnick or I waved, but we did smile at the citizens.

There seemed to be more Capitol citizens at this Parade. All of them eager to see each one of us Districts dressed in our new outfits. I saw people point in awe at Finnick and I.

As soon as all of the chariots besides 12 had made it to the center of the arena, the audience began chanting Katniss' name.

- - - -

I sat on the sidelines, messing around with knots that Mags had taught me. A man in the front began throwing up as the doors opened, revealing Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark.

"So far, I'm not overwhelmed with our choices." Katniss said. I let out a quick laugh before returning back to the knots.

All of us were in different parts of the training center. Finnick was god knows where but everyone else stood around, practicing their aim or their form. Wiress and Beetee on the other hand had been working with fire. Or trying to.

I watched as Joanna began intimidating Katniss, swinging her axe in the air obnoxiously loudly.

"That's beautiful." I heard Katniss' voice say. I looked up to see her a couple feet away from me, staring down at the knot I had been working on.

I let out a small embarrassed laugh "Oh thank you."

"I saw you volunteer for that girl, it was really brave."

"No, you were brave. I don't think I would've been able to volunteer for someone at the age of 16." I said to her.

"Prim's my sister."

I noticed her emotion change suddenly. I felt bad, I must've hit a sensitive topic for her.

"Here, come with me." I said, walking her to one of the shooting rooms. "I've seen you shoot before. I watched your games last year. You're good. Let's see how good you are with me." 

The glass door opened as we came close to it. Katniss grabbed a quiver full of arrows and I grabbed a couple knives, shoving them into my belt that I attached. She grabbed a bow, and I walked in. 

An electronic pad came up, giving us levels of difficulty to select from. I pressed on the bow and dagger icon and clicked the difficulty medium. 

The room around us grew dim and the windows turned foggy, making it so we could see nothing behind us.

 A few ray's of yellow light shone around the room, creating images of humans running at us, holding weapons as they ran.

Katniss didn't seem to notice the projected person as I threw the dagger, hitting the image straight into the head.

I didn't react quick enough as Katniss began pulling back her arrow and pointing it up at one of the floors in the room.

I moved my body around as a dagger was centimeters away from my face. I threw another dagger at the image and watched it dissipate and break into blocks.

"I'll take the low ground." I shouted to Katniss as I continued to throw daggers at the images that came running at us. Katniss seemed to get the hint as she pointed at the projections that were floors above.

The projections began to come closer and faster. All of them running quickly as Katniss and I were both back to back now.

Katniss didn't notice the last body being thrown at her as I through the dagger at it's head. The body broke into a million blocks in the air as Katniss almost began to shoot at the image.

I wiped a bead of sweat from my head as I looked to Katniss. Both of us had small smiles on our faces.

The windows cleared up, revealing all of the Tributes watching us shoot. Wiress began clapping loudly and quickly, smiling widely.

"Looks like we've got a crowd." I said to Katniss as I gave her a wink.

- - - -

"C'mon you two, hurry up and wash up! You have a guest!" I heard Amarrylis shout to us from downstairs. I sighed, walking down stairs after changing.

"Wha- Haymitch?!" I exclaimed as I ran up to the man, engulfing him in a hug.

"Glad to see you too, Y/N." Haymitch said as he hugged me back.

I hadn't seen Haymitch in years. I missed him. Since the games, I had always looked up to him, missing that feeling of comfort and safeness I felt with him.

"Mr. Abernathy." Finnick said, coming out of the hallway.

"Glad to see you're still alive, pretty boy." Haymitch scoffed.

"Okay, so why are you here?" I asked.

"We have a plan. Plutarch rigged the games. This Quarter Quell wasn't supposed to be old winners being reaped." Haymitch explained.

"What? So, you guys are actually sending us on a suicide mission?" I asked, bewildered.

"Y/N/N, c'mon, sit down and let's listen to, Haymitch ." Finnick said to me.

"No. Don't tell me to sit down. Not when I'm risking my life for what?" I questioned.

"Y/N, we're trying to overthrow the Capitol. Plutarch has this idea. But we need to keep Katniss and Peeta alive. I need you to both keep them alive at any cost." Haymitch said seriously, his voice growing low.

I looked skeptically to Finnick. He seemed to have no thoughts though. "Fine, we'll keep them alive." I said.

"Who are the other members of the alliance?" Finnick asked.

"District 3, District 6, District 7, District 8, and District 11." Haymitch answered. "Oh, and Katniss and Peeta are not allowed to know about any of this."

- - - -

All of us sat down in the same small room, waiting patiently for our turns to do the individual assessment. Finnick had been messing with my hair beside me as others were being called into the room one-by-one.

"Y/N L/N" The PA System called.

I walked in slowly, making eye contact with each sponsor. I hated them. They disgusted me. I grabbed a set of daggers, hitting each target straight in the eye or heart.

I didn't even care to say anything. I bowed and walked off, knowing that these sponsors never cared.


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