The Capitol Games
Chapter 1

Disclaimer: This work of fan-fiction is not intended for personal profit. All characters utilized herein which are not creations of myself belong to Suzanne Collins.

Plutarch Heavensbee

They're going to do it.

By all the forgotten gods of ancient legend, they're going to reinstate the Hunger Games one last time.

Even after ex-President Snow choked on his own blood and President Coin's assassination was not punished (you can't punish the Mockingjay herself, now can you?), the Victors' Vote was revealed and President Paylor chose not to cancel the Capitol Games, as they're going to call it.

It isn't hard to guess who was made Head Gamemaker for the last dying cry of the brutality of Panem.

I didn't want to do it.

I sat there at the first cabinet meeting under the new President. Gale Hawthorne, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark were all there as observers. I recognized some of the victors from the other Games as well. I wasn't sure why Hawthorne was there, but I assumed the victors were there to make sure things got done.

President Paylor said, "The Capitol Games will be set for two months from now. Secretary Heavensbee, you're to be the Head Gamemaker for this."

My jaw dropped momentarily. As I tried to recover, Hawthorne spoke up. "If he won't do it, I'll be more than happy to." Something flashed in his eyes, and Katniss's jaw set as she briefly looked at him. I've heard the rumors that Gale was actually behind the plan that killed people in the City Circle, one of them being Katniss's sister. If that's true, Gale Hawthorne has been out for revenge and won't stop just because the war's over.

I wasn't really sure I'd like to think of what he would consider appropriate for an Arena. Hastily, I replied, "No!" I caught my breath and continued. "No, that's fine. I'll do it. I'll need a budget and people to hire, Madam President."

Hawthorne sharply said, "Then I want to be a Gamemaker."

I stood up, my ample bulk positioned in a way to give gravity to my voice as I responded, "What experience do you have that justifies me hiring you for the job? Watching the Games isn't enough. Can you evaluate the tributes? Can you help design an Arena? Assist with the logistics of all the behind-the-scenes work that goes behind the televised Bread and Circuses we call the interviews and the chariot rides?"

Gale pointed at me and snarled, "Just having been a slave of the Capitol ought to be enough! By rights we should be putting you on trial, Plutarch."

I bowed my head. "I realize that." The gift of drama hasn't left me yet, though. I looked him in the eye as I continued. "Under the new laws being proposed, the 'crimes against humanity' provisions would apply to me. I have actively aided and abetted the deaths of hundreds of teenagers in my job as Gamemaker. I freely admit that my role in the Rebellion, as much as it was motivated by my knowing that the Capitol was doing wrong, does not change the fact that my post in this government is colored by that past.

"But Mr. Hawthorne, unless the blanket pardon President Paylor signed has been revoked, I am not about to be charged and sent off to trial. I might also add that 'crimes against humanity' could apply as well to what some of us did in the Rebellion. Am I not guilty there, as well? As director of the war effort I sent people to knowingly kill Peacekeepers and people in the Capitol."

I hoped that being addressed as a man and not a child would mollify Hawthorne, and the comment about the rebellion would warn him off, even if I talked about my role and not his.

President Paylor broke in, saying, "Hire him. Half the Gamemakers are dead anyway, and aside from the few who were your Capitol contacts during the Rebellion, the other half have been tried under the crimes against humanity laws. You may as well start with people you know."

I sighed. "Fine. Gamemaker Hawthorne, you're with me. Is there anyone else who wants to be in on the nepotism wagon while we're at it?"

The victors looked uncomfortable, shaking their heads.

/\/\/\

And that was that. I ended up with a grab-bag of old and new Gamemakers. The old ones are my contacts, and the new ones are from the Districts and are reasonably intelligent.

Most are just happy to have jobs. The Capitol's financial system was destroyed during the Rebellion, as the banking system's computers took a direct hit from a hovercraft. Ironically, I proposed that tactic because throwing the money system into chaos would reduce morale, since money was so computerized. Unfortunately, since the rebellion was actually successful, it means a rocky start for New Panem since we have to print money for the time being.

We're slowly getting things back up and running, but when people don't get paid, that's a bad situation. Regardless, it'll last us just long enough to pacify the Districts with their Revenge Games, as I term it in my head. My first stop is to find where the hell Caesar Flickerman and Claudius Templesmith have gone.

Then I've got to convince Effie Trinket to come back and be the announcer at the Reaping we'll have at City Circle.

/\/\/\

Some weeks earlier...

Asedio Avalon

Things have been confusing for the last week. All I really know is that after months of shortages, rationing, constant patrols by the Peacekeepers, the first sign that things were different was the rumble of distant explosions early one morning in the middle of winter. Not six hours before, the entire Capitol had gone into complete lockdown: nobody in or out of any building. My girlfriend Jovanna Dacius had sneaked over to be with me just before the lockdown. She lives maybe a ten minute walk from my place.

Then all hell just about completely broke loose, as building after building blossomed in fire and smoke as hovercrafts zoomed down from the skies to drop bombs. Terrified, I huddled with Jovanna under a blanket as we sat on a couch, watching wide-eyed through the window as we saw flames and plumes of smoke billow out over the skies of the Capitol. Occasionally, repeating clattering sounds would echo through the Capitol. We suspected there was fighting on the streets as well, and the clattering was from hand weapons.

The next couple of days, filled with booms and the continual rattling of the room, are still hazy in my head. The electricity had gone off in our area. Jovanna and I managed to get water out of the tap, so we didn't die of thirst, and we also had some dry rations. But we dared not open the freezer. Mom had told me to leave it closed, because it ran off a small backup generator she'd scrounged up from somewhere. I think she stole it from work, actually.

My mother hasn't been home for the last week either. She has, or had, a job with a genetics lab. I had no idea if she was alive or dead until a day after the booms and rumbles stopped. I found out when I woke up, and there was a harsh banging at my door. I opened it, my eyes widening at the burly rebel standing before me. He consulted a datapad, asked my name, then told me my mother was being held "for questioning about her participation in muttations research."

My throat went dry. I rasped, "I've got to see her!"

The guy shook his head and said firmly, "All people suspected of aiding and abetting the Capitol's war against the Districts are being held in a secure place. No visitors. You will be contacted with further details when the news nets are back up."

I was ready to beg, but my pride wouldn't let me get on my knees and plead. Jo said, "Please. Let my boyfriend see his mother. Just for a little bit?"

All the guy said was, "Absolutely not, miss. No visitors."

I stared at hm and couldn't say anything else as the man turned his back on us and left. Muttations? But wasn't Mom just one of many workers who did research into genetics? Mom had always been a bit vague about what she did, telling me I wouldn't get much out of the details.

After letting the door close, I sat heavily on the couch, my head in my hands. Jovanna sat next to me, rubbing my leg. All she could say was, "I'm so sorry, Ace."

I shrugged, trying to damp down my emotions. "I'll find her eventually, Jo. At least your parents are okay."

Jo looked a bit guilty as she said, "Well, as far as we know. Damn it, I shouldn't have sneaked over here. I should be with them!"

"At least you managed to calm them down over the videophone after the Capitol went into lockdown," I said as I gently grasped her hand. "And to be honest, I'd probably be going crazy right now if you weren't here."

We cuddled on the couch, with Jovanna snuggled up next to me. She closed her eyes, resting her head on my chest. I felt tired and before I knew it, we both fell asleep.

/\/\/\

The electricity came back on the next day some time before we woke up, so we spent the entire day watching the news nets, desperately eager for any information at all. We were definitely going to get a new government; President Snow's arrest and upcoming trial was announced with some relish by Plutarch Heavensbee, named provisional Secretary of Communications. Jovanna had smirked and said, "That guy sure gets around; wasn't there a big fat reward for his arrest after he was exposed as a traitorous Head Gamemaker?"

I had chuckled, nestling in a bit closer to her. We tried the videophone network to see if we could get hold of Jo's parents, but all communications channels were still reserved for government use only. I had no idea who to contact about Mom and all we could do is wait, watch the news and hope. A curfew was announced, going from dusk to dawn.

Unfortunately, the bad news about my Mom's situation got even worse later in the afternoon when the e-mail alert popped up.

Our television is fully-equipped as a videophone, electronic mail – you name it, it's got it. Well, the list of backlogged e-mails comes up, and the newest one is blinking red, dated today. Stalling for time, I notice the subject line of the previous message: A mass announcement that the Capitol is off lockdown.

But the one blinking in red…

I swallow nervously, clasping Jo's hand as I tap the message on the screen with my finger.

My mother's been held for trial, and the horrible truth emerges in a cold, impersonal message listing the charges against her.

She wasn't just a grunt in a genetics lab; she was actually the head of an entire research division devoted just to making some of the most vicious, disgusting muttations in preparation for attacking the Districts! The pictures attached as proof of what she'd done made me gasp in horror. Speechless, I read the seemingly endless list. There were semi-sentient lizard hybrids, carnivorous butterflies, plants with super-fast poisons… I even saw the resequencing of human DNA with wolf characteristics to make the creatures that chased down Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark at the end of the 74th Games. There was more. A lot more.

Overwhelmed, I shut off the television. Jo and I end up huddling in my bed, as though making a cocoon with bedsheets and body heat could keep out the bad news of the world collapsing around me.

I whisper, "What are they going to do to Mom?"

I wish I could see Jovanna's purple eyes in the darkness under the bedsheets. I've always liked her brown hair, her pretty face, the way she wears her clothes so well. But it's her eyes that have always held me. She had them modified before we met, because she hated the plain brown eyes she had before. I think she just looks even better with the purple.

My own eyes are a vivid electric blue color, a popular fad that swept the Capitol when the star-crossed lovers first made themselves known. Peeta Mellark's eyes were too plain a blue color, so the modification centers cranked the dial to eleven and out came, well, electric blue. I was one of many fifteen-year-olds who got that eye color when they re-sequenced our eyes.

Jovanna puts her hand on my shoulder, saying, "I don't know, Ace. I really don't know. Look, they could execute her for this. We did it to the Districts, you know. Step out of line, and you're dead."

I swallow convulsively. It's not something we think about a lot, us Capitol kids. In the past, it was a matter of small items on the news nets – "the family of the Victor Janna Hanson, from District Ten, met with tragedy as her sister was accidentally struck by a Peacekeeper hovercar" – or even rumors that swirl around about a friend's sister's cousin's BFF becoming an Avox.

Nobody really knew anyone who was an Avox – at least not in my social circle – but we all just knew that you could be made into one if you did something really bad.

It has become even starker with the ongoing reports about open rebellion in the Districts and a propaganda war between the Capitol and the District rebels. People have fought and died in those battles I saw in the news.

Jovanna's just telling the truth I've always known. And if we did things like that to the Districts, what's to stop them from executing my mother? Jovanna? Me?

I say, "Jo, do you think they'll find out we sponsored that girl, Glimmer? They can't kill us just for that, can they?"

Jovanna hugs me. She's trembling. Oh man, why did I have to mention the two of us getting executed? Mom will be bad enough, but for us to be staring down the barrel of a gun, or to be forced to drink poison? No wonder Jo's so scared.

The world has totally changed around us. Nothing makes sense. All we've got is each other and I need to just… escape. Escape into my own little world where it's just me and her, where we can be safe.

My mouth joins Jovanna's as we kiss.

The kiss changes from gentle to frantic, our hands roaming over each other's bodies, stopping only to yank our clothes off. Jo says nothing, just encourages me to keep going. I'm determined to lose myself in wild sex as she arches her back to push herself against me with each thrust. I can't think about anything else, which is good.

/\/\/\

I wake, confused. All I know at the moment is that I'm in Jo's arms and my legs feel sore. Her legs are wrapped around me and we're naked. The bed sheet is half off of me, and there's still some light shining in the windows.

Memories filter back into my consciousness, and I'm slightly in awe of myself that I managed to lose all awareness of anything around me when we had sex.

I shake Jo's shoulder. She sleepily blinks, waking up as she yawns. I can feel her legs tightening a bit, then releasing as she finishes yawning. She says, "Feel any better?"

"Just tired, Jo. And kinda sore. Wanna take a shower?"

I'm hoping the water's working if the electricity's back on. I've got stubble all along my jaw and I need a shave badly. Plus, we stink after sweating like crazy in my bed.

We disengage from each other, walking somewhat oddly. I tease Jo for that, and she just flips her hair and says, "My girlfriends stopped being jealous of me walking funny a year ago, Ace. Remember?"

We've been dating since just after I turned fourteen. I'm sixteen now, and so's Jovanna. We had sex for the first time on her fifteenth birthday. The way she put it, she was giving herself a very special birthday present. I'm just lucky I didn't screw anything up that first time. We've gotten better since then.

We step into the shower. The hot water's working, and we luxuriate in the ability to completely clean each other thoroughly. Afterwards, we dry off. Jovanna begins fixing her hair up as I shave. I grin as I rub my clean-shaven cheeks and jaw.

She turns to look at me, and her pupils dilate just a bit. Even amid the seriousness of everything that's happened around us, her obvious attraction to me at that moment prompts a mild make-out session. After I break the kiss, I say, "We should probably get ready. I've gotta find my Mom, and we should find your parents."

Jovanna replies, "Yeah, you're right."

I'm a bit angry with myself now for taking valuable time. "Damn it, we shouldn't have done it earlier…"

Her hands on my shoulders get my attention. "Ace. Listen to me. I wanted it as much as you did. I was as scared as you were and I needed to feel you."

I nod, not wanting to say more. Jo likes to play dress-up doll with me, sometimes, and today I let her, knowing I need something normal to latch onto. So I cheerfully tolerate her combing my jet-black hair into a conservative style, and getting me into a suit that isn't wildly psychedelic or weird-looking.

Jo looks at her outfit, and shakes her head. "This won't work, Ace."

Confused, I blurt, "What?"

My hands find my pants pockets as she explains. "This was my party outfit – the first thing I threw on when I wanted to see you. But now we're in occupied territory. You think the District people running things here will like it if I show up looking like those Capitol escorts at their Reapings?"

She's right. If we somehow find out where Mom is, they're going to think Jovanna's mocking them if we show up with her in that outfit. Shame washes over me as I remember dressing up like the District Four tribute from the 72nd Games at a wild party my friend Arcturus put on around the time of the last Victory Tour. It was this skin-tight greenish-blue outfit that had glittering scales on it, making me look like a sea creature of some kind. It drove Jo wild, and Arcturus stared at me when he thought I wasn't looking, too. To be honest, I don't remember all of what I did at that party, but it was fantastic at the time.

But all I can think now is what a disgustingly shallow, drugged-up party boy I was that night.

I sigh heavily. "C'mon. You're not that much shorter than my Mom. We might as well raid her closet."

It's one thing to say it, but I hesitate before I open the bedroom door at the other end of the condominium. I know she's gone, in jail somewhere, but even so, opening it will make the whole thing real. That she's not coming back any time soon.

Fuck it. I open the door and tell Jo, "I'm not really sure where she keeps all her stuff. Can you, um, try to leave everything the way it is?"

Her eyes rest on me sympathetically as she gently squeezes my bicep before letting go and walking inside.

I retreat back down the hallway a bit, and wait while my girlfriend dresses in my mother's clothes. I tell myself my mother would have gladly lent Jo clothes if asked. It still doesn't change the wrongness I feel. It's only gonna get worse when—

A slight cough gets my attention. I try to steady my breath as I realize Jo's in my mom's business outfit – the one she wears when she tells me the government is sending an inspector and everybody has to look professional. Of course, now I know my mom was lying. She was meeting those government people, giving them those horrid muttations for Games or for the war.

It still doesn't stop me from feeling like Jo's an usurper when she's in those clothes.

I mumble, "You look good. Really."

Her mouth quirks a little. "Try not to lie to me too much, Ace. I might get the wrong idea."

I sigh and look directly into Jovanna's eyes. "Look, this just sucks, my mother being arrested and all. But really, you fit into the suit well."

"We should get going and find my parents before dark. Do you have your wallet and ID?"

"Shit! I knew I forgot something!"

I scramble to find my identification. Luckily, my bedroom's not too disorganized yet, so I find my wallet easily and stuff it in the inside pocket of my suit.

Jovanna's face is white as she realizes she left all her stuff at her place. In peaceful times, not having ID was no big deal, and the Peacekeepers almost never bothered with us anyway. Now, though, I have no idea what might happen.

"C'mon, Jo. We'll walk fast and beat the curfew, okay?"

I make sure the keycard for the door still works so we're not locked out of my place, and we head to the elevator. It's time to go out into the new Capitol of a new Panem.

Author Notes: I've had this idea for an AU for a while now and was twiddling it around in my head until finally I got the notion to write it mostly from a Capitol teenager's POV. He's a bit of a wild kid, as you've seen, but he has a conscience. Question is, will he keep that sense of perspective now that he knows his mother lied to him and that she's up for trial?

I want to thank xXKillerxxCupcakeXx for beta reading this chapter for me! :-)