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GOD COMPLEX
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ONTARI WAKES TO the melodic sound of a parachute's descent onto the beach. She stirs, eyelids feeling heavy despite her dreamless sleep, and pushes herself up blearily. It takes a moment for her to assess her surroundings. Peeta and Johanna are already awake. The short-haired girl catches the parachute mid-air, quickly twisting the metal container open to reveal a gift identical to the one they'd received from last night: twenty-four rolls from District Three, which leaves them with over thirty rolls in total.
She accepts one with a muted nod of thanks when Johanna hands her a portion of bread. Cassian is just starting to wake as well. Halfway through the night, he and Finnick must have swapped positions, giving the younger Nightfall a chance to sleep as well. Ontari wishes Finnick would have let Cassian wake her to take watch instead— he hasn't had much rest during these Games and could use more shut-eye.
Ontari smirks at the sight of speckles of sand in her brother's black hair. Reaching over before he can protest, she flattens her palm on his head and aggressively musses the locks up as he gives a yelp of surprise. Her grin fades once she remembers Hestia's attempt to tame his hair the day of their reaping. The bread begins to feel like a rock in her stomach. Suddenly sobered, she lowers her hand and places her two leftover rolls back into the container from the parachute.
The rest of the tributes seem to be in no hurry to get moving. Katniss tugs Peeta over to the sea with the promise to teach him how to swim, Johanna is busy swinging one of her axes around in a fake sparring session with the air, Beetee is still silently clutching the coil of wire, and Finnick looks like he's preparing to fish. He's currently sharpening a spear that someone had picked up from the weapons pile in the Cornucopia. Although his face is set in grim determination, Ontari can tell that his mind is elsewhere from the glassy look in his green eyes.
Cassian takes his share of breakfast over to Beetee. Together, they start conversing so quietly that she wonders if even the powerful microphones hidden throughout the arena are capable of picking up their voices. Ontari can only hope that Katniss and Peeta's splashing in the water will distract the cameras long enough for the men to properly scheme.
Ontari is anxious for the reveal of Beetee's plan. She knows that they're close to the endgame— a time when they must be ready to confuse the Capitol enough for Plutarch to sneak in with a hovercraft and break the remaining tributes out of the arena. But she'd expected to have at least a little more knowledge by now.
The rock in her stomach solidifies even more as doubt seeps into her gut and twists it until nausea rises. Plutarch hadn't even come to her personally to speak with her about the plan. Rather, he'd told Finnick and had him convey the incredibly vague details to her, which she had to pass onto Cassian. She hasn't even seen the new Gamemaker in person, only on the Capitol Report. How is she supposed to trust someone who hasn't given her much to work with?
"Ontari," Johanna says, her sharp voice yanking the woman back into the present. Her face is stony, eyes bright and knowing. "You were spacing. Try to stay alert in the event of an attack."
Her expression reads otherwise, her words a mere cover-up of her true meaning. Don't lose faith. Remember who the real enemy is.
This is the second day in a row that Ontari has started to doubt their contact in the Capitol. If she goes on like this, her performance may be slacking. There isn't room for anything other than perfection. Johanna is right: she needs to remember that, although she isn't best friends with Plutarch, Snow is the real enemy.
"Sorry," Ontari replies, then further explains, "I'm just tired."
Johanna's lip twitches. "Aren't we all?"
Finnick, satisfied with the sharpness of his spear, walks to the water and wades up to his knees several meters away from where Katniss is still trying to teach Peeta how to swim. He stays there for a good ten minutes, poised to strike, but either there aren't any fish or he's too distracted to grab one, because he returns to the sand empty-handed and stony-faced.
It seems they're all on edge, now.
Beetee finally calls them in for an alliance meeting. Cassian sits beside him, face deliberately unreadable so he doesn't give any extra details away. Ontari can't help but wonder if her brother plays a bigger part in this alliance than she realizes.
"I think we'll all agree our next job is to kill Brutus and Enobaria," Beetee begins, pushing his glasses further up on his nose. "I doubt they'll attack us openly again now that they're so outnumbered. We could track them down, I suppose, but it's dangerous, exhausting work."
Katniss considers this for a moment. She tucks her knees toward her chest and rests her elbows on them before asking, "Do you think they've figured out about the clock?"
"If not, they will," Cassian answers, "and soon. Which is why we need to move while we still have the upper hand."
Beetee nods. He sticks a hand out and draws a circle in an area of damp sand, dividing it into twelve wedges to represent the arena. "If you were Brutus and Enobaria, knowing what you do now about the jungle, where would you feel safest?"
"Where we are now. On the beach," Peeta replies. "It's the safest place."
"Then why aren't they on the beach?"
Ontari answers this. "Because we're here."
"Exactly. We're here, claiming the beach. Now where would you go?" Beetee flickers his eyes between each of them, clearly having already thought about each of the questions he's asking, but he wants the team to figure them out for themselves.
"I'd just hide at the edge of the jungle," Katniss says. "So I could escape if an attack came. And so I could spy on us."
Finnick adds, "Also to eat. The jungle's full of strange creatures and plants. But by watching us, I'd know the seafood's safe."
The older man smiles, pleased at their critical thinking that seems to line up with his own. "Yes, good. You do see. Now here's what I propose: a twelve o'clock strike. What happens exactly at noon and at midnight?"
"The lightning bolt hits the tree," Katniss says.
"Yes. So what I'm suggesting is that after the bolt hits at noon, but before it hits at midnight, we run my wire from that tree all the way down into the saltwater, which is, of course, highly conductive." He runs a finger down the line that Ontari guesses is supposed to represent the twelve o'clock segment. "When the bolt strikes, the electricity will travel down the wire and into not only the water but also the surrounding beach, which will still be damp from the ten o'clock wave. Anyone in contact with those surfaces at that moment will be electrocuted."
Ontari raises her eyebrows in mild surprise. Although she hadn't been born when Beetee had won his games by electrocuting everyone, as the rest of them had recalled the day before, but she'd have thought one time would be enough for him. Apparently she'd misjudged her ally— he has more bloodlust than she'd anticipated.
But it means that Beetee is no amateur for this maneuver. He knows what he's doing, and if he's done all the calculations already, he'll know what needs to be done in order to make it work.
Peeta, seemingly less convinced, asks, "Will that wire really be able to conduct that much power, Beetee? It looks so fragile, like it would just burn up."
He grins, the expression almost haunting. "Oh, it will. But not until the current has passed through it. It will act something like a fuse, in fact. Except the electricity will travel along it."
"How do you know?" Johanna questions harshly.
"Because I invented it," Beetee jabs back without missing a beat. "It's not actually wire in the usual sense. Nor is the lightning natural lightning nor the tree a real tree. You know trees better than any of us, Johanna. It would be destroyed by now, wouldn't it?"
Johanna, looking beraged at his remark, replies, "Yes."
"Don't worry about the wire — it will do just what I say."
Finnick wrings his hands together, running his fingers along his chafed knuckles. "And where will we be when the lightning strikes?"
"Far enough away to be safe," Cassian assures him. His hazel eyes flicker to his sister and clarify, And far enough so the hovercraft will be able to pick us up. "The Careers may still be a problem unless they're within a close proximity to the water when the lightning strikes."
"But all the seafood will be cooked," Peeta points out.
"Probably more than cooked," Beetee replies, scratching his small beard. "We will most likely be eliminating them as a food source for good. But you found other edible things in the forest, right, Katniss?"
The girl nods. "Yes— nuts and rats. And we have sponsors."
"Well, then, I don't see that as a problem," says Beetee. "But as we are allies and this will require all our efforts, the decision of whether or not to attempt it is up to you six."
Really, it's only up to Katniss and Peeta. Beetee already knows that the Nightfalls, Finnick, and Johanna will do anything to escape. Surely this plan somehow involves District 13 picking them out of the area... but how?
In the end, it's Peeta who decides first. "I say we try it. Katniss is right."
Finnick, feigning hesitance, looks to Ontari for her answer. She finds it endearing despite the fact that she already knows he'll go on with the plan. It's an act, maybe, but it's also what he normally would have done.
Ontari makes a show of glancing at Cassian before saying, "I'm in."
Her brother nods wordlessly in agreement. Finnick chimes in, "Alright, then. So am I."
They all turn to Johanna, who has a scowl on her face and her arms crossed impatiently over her chest. Her eyebrows raise at their stares. As the silence presses on and they wait for her response, she dramatically throws her hands in the air and exclaims, "Fine! I'll do it. It's better than hunting them down in the jungle, anyway. And I doubt they'll figure out our plan, since we can barely understand it ourselves."
Classic Johanna fashion. She's good— really good, which is why she's in charge of ripping out Katniss' tracker when the time comes.
Beetee wants to inspect the tree before the plan truly sets into motion, so they decide to break camp and begin moving into the forest. They have to get going now if they want to reach it before the noon lightning strike blasts them all to bits. The air is still as muggy as ever. Ontari would literally kill for a glass of ice water or a shower. Everything is the same temperature in this arena: the air, the ground, the sea, and the water that they tap from the trees. She wonders if anyone has died from dehydration like she nearly has in her first Games. The thought makes her nearly sympathize with them.
Katniss takes up the rear since her arrows can do the most damage from afar. Cassian walks a short distance ahead of her with a knife at the ready. Ontari suspects that he's holding it not only to ward off any potential attacks, but also in case the Girl on Fire gets any clever ideas to betray them. With Peeta in the middle of the clump near Ontari, it's unlikely, but the younger Nightfall hasn't trusted them since the beginning.
As they near the tree, Finnick says, "Katniss should start to lead. She can hear the force field."
"Hear it?" Beetee questions with a confused tilt of his head.
"Only with the ear the Capitol reconstructed," she explains hastily.
"Then by all means, let Katniss go first." He pauses to wipe the steam off of his glasses. "Force fields are nothing to play around with."
Ontari's eyes flicker between the two of them, gauging this new energy that has arisen. There's something hidden behind Beetee's words about force fields. She isn't sure what, but it makes her wonder if Katniss isn't telling them something, and only the older man knows what it is.
Whatever. It isn't important right now— after all, she had been able to warn Peeta just before he'd struck the dome, so there has to be some amount of truth to her claim. She can somehow detect the field. Ontari just isn't sure how.
The tree is unmistakable. It towers above the others, the trunk enormous in both width and height. Ontari has to crane her neck to see the leaves in the pale morning sun. The canopy provided by the lightning tree nearly blocks all of it out, but patches of light still manage to sneak their way through and shine on various parts of the jungle floor.
Katniss makes them all wait as she gathers nuts and tests the force field. She tosses the small items in front of her, watching them fizzle once they strike the invisible shield. The elder Nightfall squints as a roasted nut falls to the dirt. It's incredible how well the force field blends into the normal forest; she can't tell a difference between what they've been trekking through for days and what lies ahead of her.
"Just stay below the lightning tree," Katniss orders them.
They quickly assign tasks. Finnick and Cassian guard Beetee while he examines the tree, Johanna and Ontari tap for water, Peeta gathers nuts, and Katniss hunts. The two young women are definitely enough to gather the lukewarm liquid from inside the bark. They'd transported one of the bowls Ontari had woven earlier, and although it isn't nearly as perfect as Mags would have made it, it still serves its purpose.
"This is going to work, right?" Johanna questions abruptly, voice nonchalant enough that Ontari wouldn't worry if she hadn't seen her friend's eyes flicker from the steady stream of water to her face. She's nervous.
"Of course," Ontari replies more confidently than she feels. "It will because it has to."
Because if they fail, they'll be trapped in the arena and will have to kill each other one by one. Ontari wonders if Katniss would hesitant to end any of them. If anything, the Girl on Fire would probably go for Johanna first because she's the least predictable. But that would leave the strongest — Cassian and Finnick — left to stop them before they could spar for very long.
If they have to proceed with the Games as usual, who will emerge victoriously?
Ontari doesn't want it to be her. She'd rather die than live in a world without her friends. Sure, she'd have her parents, sister, Annie, Woof, and Cecelia, but Panem would seem so bleak without Johanna's snark, Finnick's smile, Beetee's intelligence, or Cassian's wit.
Johanna's mask slips back up before Ontari can inquire further about her nerves. It's clear she's done talking, so the two of them silently wait for the bowl to fill. When it does, they carefully carry it closer to the tree and allow the others to drink their fill. Katniss returns a few moments later with some of the same tree rodents they'd eaten the day before. She and Peeta busy themselves roasting nuts and skinning the meat. Ontari can't help but feel proud of this alliance; it's still shaky and tumultuous at best, but it keeps her on her toes. She's glad she didn't accept the other offers she'd gotten from the Careers. She wouldn't have the same trust in them that she has in these people around her... well, most of them.
Soon, they begin to hear clicks rising in the adjacent sector. Ontari stills, listening intently to the sound as it grows louder. Whatever it is, it seemslike it knows there are people present and is upset that it cannot reach them.
"It's not mechanical," Beetee muses.
"Insects?" Cassian offers, brow wrinkled in concentration.
Finnick shudders. "Something with pincers."
The sound grows even louder at the sound of their voices, morphing into an angry buzz that sends a chill snaking down Ontari's spine. The clicks don't sound normal; like the monkeys, they're likely made by the Gamemakers and are thus more deadly than the average insect.
"We should get out of here, anyway," Johanna adds. "There's less than an hour before the lightning starts."
She's right. The insects mean it's eleven o'clock, and they have to make sure they're well away from the tree when it nears noon.
They don't make it very far before their stomachs start rumbling with hunger. Lunch begins in the blood rain section. Even as they eat, not daring to fully sit and instead choosing to squat, Ontari can tell Johanna's shoulders are stiff. She's likely thinking of how they'd lost Blight in this very section. She wonders what it was like to be trapped in here with no sense of direction, choking on blood as it pours from the heavens.
Glancing over to Cassian, she notices that he keeps periodically checking the sky even though the rain has long passed. Her heart aches at the fact that he has experienced another nightmarish hell because of Snow.
Another reason to kill the president.
Beetee asks Katniss if she can climb up into the canopy of trees and watch the lightning. Although they're a safe distance away, the hairs on the back of Ontari's neck stand straight up at the thundering booms of the lightning striking the tree. Once it fades out, Katniss lands on the soft dirt and reports her sightings: the lightning is so intense that it causes the tree to glow blue-white and makes the surrounding air crackle with electricity. That informs them that they definitely have to be clear of it once their plan sets into motion; being near it sounds like they'd be barbequed.
They circle back to the ten o'clock beach, where Beetee gives them the rest of the day to do whatever they want while he fiddles with his wire. Ontari should be relieved. She knows she should be grateful that she has no job to do, but that's exactly the problem. Not doing anything makes her feel useless and fidgety. While the others take turns napping in the shade provided by the treeline, she stays awake the entire time and busies herself any way she can. Doing a weapons count takes her a mere thirty seconds. None of her blades need to be sharpened. Maybe she could practice crafting more bowls or a mat for them to sit on—
"Your restless energy is bothering everyone," Finnick's voice says, effectively cutting through her racing thoughts. Ontari glances up to see him blocking out the sun with his head. Rays poke out from behind his golden hair, giving him a sort of halo.
"Can't help it," she sighs in response as her fingers tap out an irregular beat on her bent knee. "I want to get this plan over with."
Finnick's gaze softens. "I know, but Beetee needs time to perfect it. We can't get going now, when we have such little information."
Ontari wonders again how much Finnick knows about Plutarch's intentions. It's obvious that they each have varying degrees of knowledge about the plan to save Katniss and Peeta. Evidently, word had spread to include more people than she'd initially realized— that morphling had stepped in front of Peeta without hesitation and let the monkey-mutt kill her. Why not have everyone on the same level? Why tell some people more things than others?
She shakes her head and turns her gaze toward the sea. It laps gently at the sand, recently smoothed by the wave. Her blue-eyed stare shifts to the sky above the treetops across the water, yearning to see beyond the field. For all she knows, it could be midnight in Panem. This schedule could be completely different from the one her parents and sister are on. The thought fills her with a bizarre feeling. It's one of almost disconnectedness, making her feel even further from them for some reason.
"I was going to teach the kids how to hunt shellfish," Finnick informs her in a gentle tone, sensing her deep thoughts. "Want to join us?"
She ponders his offer for a moment before shaking her head. "No, thanks. You should teach Cass, though— he loves learning too much to pass it up."
The blond boy nods in understanding before retreating toward her brother, who's pacing near the treeline. Ontari sighs once more. She wishes she could join them. Back when she'd visit District Four, she loved swimming in their oceans, which always seemed to be the perfect shade of turquoise. Now she can't imagine going back into the ocean in front of her. Not after being trapped beneath it, after seeing Gloss' lifeless eyes staring at her, blood leaking from the arrow going clean through his skull—
She winces at the memory, yanking her head back as she snaps out of the daydream.
Hopefully this wound will heal with time.
Ontari watches Finnick teach the four other tributes how to hunt the shellfish. She's surprised that even Johanna wanted to join, but there she is, her natural frown pulling down her lips and arms crossed as she listens to whatever he's saying. Peeta seems excited to swim. It's kind of adorable, really, to see him intently following the instructions given to him. He's tasked with finding oysters in the more shallow water so he doesn't accidentally drown.
She feels like she's on the outside looking in, seeing Finnick smile a bit at them splashing in the water. Katniss holds a wriggling fish above her head in victory as she pops out of the waves. Cassian resurfaces with four colorful fish in his arms. Johanna presents several miscellaneous shellfish to Finnick, who nods as if she's a child giving him a messy art project. Ontari wants to laugh with them but discovers that she can't. It's like a sense of impending doom is gnawing on her, preventing her from tugging her lips upward at all. She wonders if any amount of Capitol training can override this much trepidation coursing through her.
In the end, Finnick urges her to help them clean the seafood while Johanna takes watch. Ontari plops down in their small group and uses the knife in her belt to fillet some of the fish. There are enough of them for each person to have their fill tonight, probably because this is their last chance to eat it. And they'll need their energy to pull off this heist.
"Hey, look at this!" Peeta exclaims. Ontari looks up to see him holding up a pearl he'd wrenched from inside an oyster between his thumb and index finger, so small it's practically the size of a pea. There's a devilish glint in his eyes as he says earnestly to her and Finnick, "You know, if you put enough pressure on coal it turns to pearls."
"No, it doesn't," Cassian says blankly as he guts a fish. Peeta shrugs at the defeat of his joke while Katniss cracks up, a sound so jarring to Ontari that it causes her to nick herself with her sharp blade. She hisses and immediately presses the side of her thumb to her mouth, running her tongue over the drop of blood welling from the tiny cut.
"Are you okay?" Finnick questions in a whisper as he eyes the knife in her other hand.
"Fine," she says with her mouth still attached to her thumb so her voice comes out muffled. Finnick raises a brow as if to say, Yeah right, but doesn't push her further. He turns toward Cassian instead and gives him a few pointers that Ontari doesn't hear.
She can't help but feel like she'd never been rescued from that ocean at all. She just keeps sinking further and further and further, clawing at the water as it fills her lungs and steals her senses from her. How long will it be until she drowns?
_____
this tweet from alex is literally ontari in this chapter:
oh my gosh, i honestly just want this to be over. i didn't realize how much time the golden alliance spends frolicking around because it's been a while since i read catching fire, but my god, i feel like i've barely written a decent fight scene in this entire fic!
i'm sorry that this chapter is thick with dialogue— that scene where beetee is discussing his plan was honestly painful to write. but i did include a few key points that will become important if i decide to make a sequel! right now, i'm still undecided because i have some other fics that i'm working on as well. i'll keep you guys updated on what i decide (:
one last thing: please check out Iydiamartin's wonderful story, "fragments"! not only is it AMAZING and all of her characters are incredibly well-written, but it's written during the 69th games and ontari has made a few cameos. the stories aren't connected in this canon since cassian won those games, but liv was kind enough to include ontari in her story and i'm eternally grateful for it. you won't be disappointed!
—kristyn