Athena stood with every other victor, standing behind Coin as Katniss walked towards them.
Coin was on the elevated platform with Snow standing between a pillar, the victor's behind her, oddly enough forced to line up in the district numbers which didn't please Athena, being far from Johanna.
Athena could still imagine the cheers and the applauds as she stood twice in gladiator outfits on chariots pulling them around, once happily and confident in waving back and the other time fueled by hate and grief, both times sent too her death and to kill others.... She would not miss this place.
The spectator area that previously held Capitol citizen was now filled with thousands of district people, pushing in even little place there was, even many standing on the runway and following Katniss as she walked, all dressed up once again as the mockinjay.
"Welcome too the new Panem." Coin spoke in a mic, her voice ringing out everywhere around them, hands held up by her sides but slowly lifting them. "Today, on the avenue of the tributes, all of Panem, a free Panem, will watch more than a mere spectacle."
Heavy drums played, almost sounding like a heartbeat.
"We are gathered to witness an historic moment of justice. Today, the greatest friend to the revolution will fire the shot to end all wars. May her arrow signify the end of tyranny and the beginning of a new era. Mockingjay, may your aim be as true as your heart is pure."
Katniss slowly pulled an arrow out and nocked it, pulling back and aiming at Snow.
Athena intensely looked, exchanging Snow against Coin was not a good idea.
She stared at Katniss until the moment she titled her bow back and up, releasing the arrow.
There was a moment of silence before Coin crumbled and fell over and off the podium.
Athena's mouth went agape before a smile came over her face, watching the crowd rush in, they will kill Snow well enough but Coin needed to be gone.
Athena suspected Katniss wanted a yes vote to earn Coin's total trust in her, she knew she had a good reason in trusting her this time.
The crowd roared up in anger, rushing past the archer and toward Snow, mobbing the whole avenue in pent up anger as Snow laughed.
"I think this is our signal to skip town." Heymitch said, as he walked away hurriedly, the rest of the victors looking at each other but soon hurrying after the older man to be away from view.
They quickly made their way out of the avenue and stood in the empty streets, wondering about what to do.
"What now?" Ares almost angrily voiced the thought.
"Our war is over, let the big shots deal with this, it is time for us to lay back and enjoy our lives." Heymitch said. "It is time to go home."
Athena breathed out, looking at the sky.
It felt like a huge weight of her shoulders.
It was over.... All of this, it was over.
They were free.
She was free.
------------------------------------------------
It was odd.
Previously this train ride spelled out almost certain death but now?
It was not cruel anymore, it was calm.
Ares and Athena sat in silence, both watching the view out of the window in a deep silence.
They were going home.
Home too 2.
"It is weird." Ares broke the silence. "Isn't it? Who thought our lives would have lead this way?"
She looked at him, all was almost too quiet, she still have a hard time believing it was all over, even Cinnamon was quiet, sleeping in her lap as she tapped her claws on the soft armrest.
"I have no idea what to do with my life." He told her, looking away from outside and at her. "You?"
She grabbed her new dry erase marker and wrote on the window itself.
"Make a bucket list of things you want to do or feel need to do, mark your goals down and work towards attaining them."
"What are your goals?"
"I don't wish to tell really anything too personal." She stopped writing, a personal one was a good example tho, so she erased her previous sentence before writing on. "For example, Cato and I always wanted to go see the ocean but we never got the time, so I want too go see it once, that's a goal of mine, something I can do off my life."
"Hmm.... All I am good at is fighting, that's true for all of 2."
"You'll find a hobby or something you like to do soon enough, we have all of our lives to do anything now."
"I suppose you are correct."
----------------------------------------------------
Athena walked through the mostly empty streets of 2 alone, having let ares go one ahead and to his home, not wanting him around for a bit.
It all felt so weird.
She pets Cinnamon as it meowed at her and kept on walking, the kitten sitting in her palm.
She was still in pain of losing her friends, of losing everyone.... And yet it was all over.
She wished she could celebrate with them and yet no, it was not possible because many were gone, so many.
Only nine victors were alive, only nine people that know the agony of being a victor.
She looked up at her home, a pang in the heart.
She slowly walked up the steps and opened the door, it creaked open as she stared in.
Stepping in, she kicked up clouds of dust but she couldn't care, locking the door behind.
She looked at the old home, it felt alien, fake, a mirage.... and yet she was standing here and it was real.
This was home.
She was home.
But it didn't feel like home.
She walked too the empty kitchen, looking in, before walking too the living room and sitting down on her dusty cough.
She put the kitten on her lap and it looked around but didn't leave to explore.
She looked around, spotting a pack of cigarettes and taking it in her hands.
With all that went down she hadn't had one in quite a long time.
She opened it and pulled it out and the lighter, putting the smoke in her mouth and flicking the lighter on.
And then she didn't move.
Watching the flame dance in front of her eyes.
She smoked to forget, to have control over something, to make the days livable, to run herself into her grave.
She stared into the flame until she let go and it went out.
She pulled the unlit smoke out and looked at it.
She smoked against Capitol, she did it to numb her pain, she was still in pain, in agony, but the Capitol was no more, it would no longer hurt her, it would no longer drag her too parties to show her off, it would no longer touch her.
She looked at the smoke just that bit more before flicking it away and watching it fall on the ground.
She's home.
Athena's home.
And she needs to move on.
Not be weighed down.
She put the kitten on the couch and she stood.
She doesn't need to strength of the smoke anymore.
She crushed it under her foot.
She is strong enough on her own.
(Yeah this is the end of the fic, the actually end but I will do the same as Forest Fire aka put this as a completed story but keep posting epilogues for ideas I still have and can write about but with them taking place after the end of the official story.
It is not the happiest of endings but doesn't it feel right? For me it does, it feels like how it should have always ended, you'll get your happier scenes in the epilogues tho hehe I am not taking them from you.
So thanks for reading, stick around for the epilogues and see yah in another book of mine if you will, bye!)