Percy survives the Feast along with the other Career Tributes, though that day I was honestly for surprised Haymitch survived our pre-countdown bar trip. He ended up being right of course, both of his tributes were gone within the first thirty minutes of the Games. According to Haymitch, that was them lasting longer than usual. The boy made the mistake of running straight into the Bloodbath, and Percy tracked the girl down on the outskirts of the forest. The lush forest arena was a stark contrast to the ruined city I had last year, an attempt by the Gamemakers to shake things up no doubt. In total, fifteen tributes were gone by the time day three rolled around. All six of the career tributes still remained and all were still with the Pack.
I sit at my station at the Mentor Control Centre, watching Caesar's nightly show along with Finnick who sits only a few seats over from mine. We decided to get takeaway from one of the many restaurants in the Tribute Centre before making our way here; partly due to not wanting the bother of dealing with the Capitol public for longer than it would take to stand in line. Finnick, Augustus from 1 who won the year before me, and I are the only ones in the room, all the other mentors having left for the night already. I've learned that the career mentors tend to take turns monitoring in shifts, especially during the middle days where things start to slow down and the tributes are far apart in the arena. It's no wonder that even once you become a career victor, there is still a hierarchy just like there was back in the academy.
"...now, my friend, we are getting so very close to something exciting happening here. As we know, the Career Pack tends to stick together until every tribute—outside of their group of course—who scores over a 7 in their evaluation is gone." The screen Caesar is pointing at lights up with the photos of all the tributes and their scores, the ones who have died already are faded and in black and white. "There is only one tribute outside of the Pack left who got over a 7: our boy from 10, Astor, who got an 8."
"That is true, Caesar," says Claudius, "but like we saw last year, it can be advantageous to break from the Pack earlier. Make no mistake, it certainly gets you deep into the game. We've seen 1, 2, and 4 finish consistently high even when they don't win, but the question is now becoming, 'do you want to drag five other people who have eights, nines, and tens to be your final competition?'"
"Since we did our final eight interviews this afternoon with their families, out of our people left, who are our top picks?"
"Dare I say, I think 2 has an excellent chance of going back-to-back this year. Their boy, Perseus has been looking fierce." A montage of Percy fighting in the bloodbath begins to play behind Claudius as he speaks. "He's got three kills already and you can tell he's itching for that fourth. I'd say he's the one to beat right now."
"Don't forget, he told us, well, me," laughs Caesar, referencing his interview with Percy, "that he is childhood friends with Octavia, our victor from last year. They went to the same school." A unanimous scoff comes out of the mouths of the three of us in the room because by school he really means the Academy. I honestly don't know why we keep up the charade. Everyone knows the careers train. Preparing for the Games being against the rules for the sake of some sort of perceived fairness is ridiculous; the Hunger Games never has been and will never be anything close to fair. The rule is never enforced anyway.
"It's a miracle that these people buy the whole 'childhood friends' thing every time. Doesn't 2 have like, a quarter of a million people? Like, it's not even a little bit suspicious to them that all the tributes and victors always seem to know each other?" says Finnick.
I give a slight chuckle. "That's the problem. It would require them to use common sense."
Finnick grimaces. "I forgot they don't have that here."
Abruptly, Augustus pushes out from his seat in a huff. "If you guys are just going to whine, I'm going to go."
I'm too tired to resist the urge to roll my eyes. He begins to storm out of the room and Finnick calls after him. "Oh, wait, Augustus. Maybe they'll start killing each other again so you can actually enjoy yourself and feel something?"
Not to anyone's surprise, the sarcastic comment doesn't seem to make Augustus feel any better. Once he's out of earshot I turn to Finnick, "That guy is weird. And that's coming from me."
The night continues to tick on, and no matter how much Finnick and I continue to try and chat to keep each other awake, I find my eyelids growing heavier and heavier...
I instinctively wake up to the sound of a knife being unsheathed. The adrenaline courses through my system as I reach for a weapon, but find none. Within a few seconds I come to the realization of where I am and I look around the room first to see that Finnick and I have been re-joined by Augustus. There's no threat here, but the sound of the knife unsheathing was unmistakable. I then turn my attention to the screen and I see that Magenta has pulled out a knife and is heading towards a sleeping boy. Percy.
I start to fumble with the controls, trying to send a care package to wake him up from the pre-approved selection of sponsor gifts. Magenta's silently creeping closer and closer, and I'm still fumbling at the controls. In all likelihood, the Gamemakers will add a time delay to the package, but I have to try something. I manage to fill out the form for a gift and I don't even know what it is. But as soon as I hit send, Magenta slits Percy's throat.
His eyes flit open in panic as blood spills from his neck. I see that he tries to scream, but his vocal cords have been too badly damaged for him to squeak out more than a sad whine. Knowing she's finished the job, Magenta gathers the supplies she's managed to steal from the pack and slinks into the forest. The blood sputters out of Percy's mouth in a fit of tiny coughs and I watch on as the light and the panic slowly disappear off of his face, giving way to the cold nothingness.
Boom.
A few seconds later, an automatic notice comes on my screen, telling me that my gift was cancelled and a short explanation that reads, Reason: Tribute Deceased.
I don't know what or how to feel. I know I want to be sad, I want to cry, but for some reason, I just can't. I can't feel anything. I think Finnick is speaking to me, but I'm not really sure what he's saying. I push out of my chair and immediately go off in search of the one place I know that no one is going to try and talk to me or talk about Percy: Haymitch's bar.
I begin to walk on autopilot to the small, victor-only hole-in-the-wall that Haymitch introduced Finnick and I to a few days prior until I collide with a wall. I look up to see that it was indeed not a wall, and in my shocked stupor, ran right into my former mentor, Brutus.
My ears ring for a moment before they're pulled back into focus and I hear Brutus say, "I'm sorry about Percy."
I try to move around him. "I really don't want to talk about it."
He scoffs, causing me to turn whip back around to face him. What right does he have to scoff at me? I think to myself.
"You can't be angry with her Octavia. She simply did what you did. Followed in your footsteps. I told her to do what she needed to do to win. Just like I'm sure you told Percy. I didn't think that would be taking out Percy like that, but these things never turn out—"
My eyes narrow. "You told her to do that?"
Brutus crosses his arms defensively. "Look, they both knew the risk of going in there, just like you—"
"You know what? No. No, they didn't know the risk of going in there. I sure as hell didn't. I don't think you can understand the risk of something when you're brainwashed to think it's the best thing that's ever going to happen to you." I storm away from Brutus, not wanting to be around him any longer.
"You should be grateful for the time and money that was spent training you—"
"Don't hold your breath because I will never, ever be grateful for what you did to me. I wish everyone in that Academy was dead and we were too. Maybe we'd actually end up saving some kids that way. One day I'm going to tear that place to the ground, even if I have to do it brick by brick."
Brutus is utterly stunned at my words and their vulgarity, but I couldn't care less about it. He's the one who taught me to be violent, so he really shouldn't be that surprised by how extreme I'm willing to take my words. These are words he needs to hear. These are words I need to say. And he needs to hear them from me.
To put the cherry on top of pissing him off, I throw a classic District 2 insult back at him before he can say another word to me. "Go dive in an empty quarry, Brutus," I say to him over my shoulder, the implication being that one would break their neck diving in one of the quarries that hadn't been filled in with water.
I finally make it to the tiny bar where Haymitch sits alone and a few of the Morphlings from 6 sit in the back at a booth. I walk up to Haymitch who doesn't even shoot me an eyebrow of confusion or a look of question, but just pours me a glass of something and motions for me to sit down next to him in silence.
~~~
About a day passes and I've still refused to talk to anyone. Finnick joined Haymitch and I in the bar after his tributes got out, but he was soon whisked off to go and meet with his suitors. I've tried to avoid watching the Games at all costs as well, but from the snippets I've heard while walking through the halls, apparently one of the girls is on a kill streak—probably Magenta. Drowning in the sorrows of knowing I'm about to be stuck with that woman forever, I eventually find myself alone in Haymitch's favourite bar with a bottle of something that Haymitch had promised was "the good stuff".
That is until less than twelve hours after Percy's death Finnick comes running into the bar with an excited look on his face. "You're going to want to see this."
"I guarantee you I do not."
"Everyone is watching, even Haymitch."
My curiosity gets the better of me so I begin to follow Finnick through the hallways—that and the splitting headache can't handle Finnick's persistence right now. We walk into the Control Centre where all the mentors seem to have gathered; the room seems to be tense yet there's a small undercurrent of, dare I say, excitement. Augustus, Cashmere, and Brutus are huddled in one group near their stations at the back of the room while the rest of the mentors are all bunched up at the front of the room. Finnick leads me past the Career mentors and to the front of the room where Haymitch stands attentively drinking a bottle I know he must've 'borrowed' from somewhere.
I finally get a good view of the television just in time for an axe to lob off the head of the girl. The camera pans up to the girl from 7, clutching her axe with her two bloodied hands and a murderous look on her face. "And you brought me here to see this because..."
"Johanna Mason. Turns out she was faking the whole time, didn't even tell her mentors. Brilliant strategy though," Finnick says, crossing his arms staring intently at the screen. Johanna whips around to see Magenta coming out of the treeline and towards the Cornucopia.
I finally understand what the buzz is all about. For the first time in years, the outer districts actually have a very good chance of bringing someone home. I stare intently at the screen, finding myself joining the crowd of people here rooting for Johanna to win this showdown. Magenta throws a knife that goes too wide, and instead goes in for a stab with a dagger. She manages to nick Johanna in the side, but in retaliation, the girl from 7 swings wildly, which forces Magenta to take a few steps back for fear of losing her head like the girl from 1.
They circle each other for what feels like forever until Magenta throws a knife at Johanna, who swiftly dodges it with a spin, and in the same rotation, lifts her axe over her head and releases it. It flies through the air, and in the blink of an eye finds itself lodged in Magenta's chest, causing her to ricochet backward into a tree from the force with a crack.
Boom.
The brutal manner of Magenta's death makes it hard to tell if it was the axe or the impact of her head slamming against the tree that killed her—or some fatal combination of both. Blight from 7 erupts into a small cheer, giving handshakes and pats on the back to all those gathered around him.
It takes a moment for everything to click for me. "She won?" There had been so many tributes left when I'd went to drown my sorrows with Haymitch just a few hours ago, but now there all gone. Johanna Mason won.
"She won," Finnick nods. "Johanna Mason is going home."
For some reason, I feel a swell of pride for Johanna. She provided me with closure for my tribute's death, and she got revenge for him too. Now that Magenta won't be coming home, I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders, and as terrible as it sounds, I don't feel guilty about it at all.
As Blight makes his rounds, he even gives me a small pat on the back in appreciation which takes me by surprise. I didn't think I'd be welcome, being from 2 and all. The thought of my home district causes me to look to the back of the room for the career mentors, only to find them nowhere in sight. They had already left.
It finally clicks into place why the outer district mentors were so happy: it's because they're a rag-tag family. Meanwhile the career mentors are good friends at best, co-workers at worst—ironic considering many mentors practically raised the some of their younger protégées while at the academies. Sure, the outer districts seem to have different groups, older ones, younger ones, alcoholic ones, but this was a bunch that knew how horrible the Games were and acknowledged it. Lived it. And somehow, they all make commiseration seem like a much better alternative to the cold and unfeeling way of the Careers.
Finnick sees me staring back at the room and decides to shift my attention to something more pleasant. "So what do you want to do tonight?"
I frown. "Like go out? In the Capitol?"
"Well, the Games are over now so we're not confined to this building anymore. I know you like games of strategy right?" Finnick asks intently.
"Yeah, I guess..."
"Good. Meet me in an hour in the lobby. Wear something nice. We're going to the casino."
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Since I've gotten some (read: a lot) questions about it in the OG fic, I figured I'd also put the answer here where it's more visible. In regards to Johanna Mason, there's actually nothing within canon material (the books, movies, or official Tribute guide, although I could do a whole essay on the contradictions between some of the canon, especially when it came to the old Paramount marketing material "Panem PR") that states which Games she won or how old she is. The best we get is Katniss telling us both in The Hunger Games and Catching Fire that Johanna Mason won "a few years ago".
I know the wiki says 71st but there's nothing available currently within the canon material to support that; the wiki does not have a source cited for that claim. There is a Time Magazine article that states that "...the next youngest is probably Johanna and she's 21," but once again that doesn't give us a year. Way back when I began this story and published the OG version of this chapter, the very same wiki used to have a range of years "68th, 69th, or 71st" in place for the year of her win, likely based on the Time Magazine article, so I had just picked one at random. Since Octavia won the 68th, that eliminated that option, and I wanted Octavia to have more years to bond with Johanna so I picked 69 instead of 71.
But even if that wasn't the case, writers are allowed to make tweaks to things to better suit the story! Movie-to-book adaptations do it all the time; I mean look at what the screenwriters did in the movies with not making 4 a Career District, adding Effie to Mockingjay, having Cato be 18 in the film but 16 in the Tribute guide, Thresh being killed by the Mutts in the final encounter instead of the presumed duel between him and Cato, etc.
Anywho, enough of me exposing I know entirely too much about the Hunger Games material, here are the chapterly memes. Take them.