Merlin/Hunger Games Crossover
"Some say our destiny is tied to the land, as much a part of us as we are of it. Others say fate is woven together like a cloth, so that one's destiny intertwines with many others. It's the one thing we search for, or fight to change. Some never find it. But there are some who are led. " -Brave
Silence settled heavily over the crowd as the dreaded response was aired throughout Panem. Today was the day that the government would make the rebels pay penance for their insurgence. How this would be carried out was beyond the wildest guesses of the remaining citizens, but dark rumors flew through the night, whispered in one ear and passed on with a fearful glance. Now the truth would be revealed, and the rebels braced themselves for the horrors to come.
"From the Treaty of Treason; In penance for their uprising, the kingdom of Panem will henceforth be divided into twelve rebel districts, and each year shall offer up a male and a female between the ages of 12 and 18 at a public reaping. These tributes shall be delivered to the custody of the Capitol, and then transferred to a public arena where they will fight to the death until a lone victor remains. Hereafter and forevermore, this pageant shall be known as the Hunger Games."
In a land of fear and a time of darkness, the destiny of a future kingdom rests on the shoulders of a young boy. His name; Merlin.
Merlin woke up in a cold sweat to the sound of the vase on his dresser bursting into millions of tiny shards. His mother's footsteps padded quickly down the hall and she swung his bedroom door open, a wild, panicked look in her eyes.
"Is everything okay?"
Merlin sighed wearily. "Yes, Mum. It was just a dream."
His mother came over and sat on the side of his bed, gently brushing her hand across his forehead. "The vase…" she murmured.
"I can't control it sometimes, Mum. It just happened."
She stood abruptly and motioned for him to do the same. "It's a big day, honey. You'd best get dressed for the reaping then come downstairs. Breakfast is ready, and Will is going be here to walk to the square with you in about an hour."
Merlin nodded mutely and pulled on a clean shirt and his nicest jacket. Glancing in the mirror he sighed, fingering his red neckerchief absently. He had always hated reaping day and everything having to do with the infamous Hunger Games. He couldn't understand what sick entertainment the Capitol found watching children slaughter eachother. Even the last youth standing didn't truly "win" the Hunger Games. No, the only people who won the Hunger Games were the gamemakers, and those who came out were scarred survivors, not victors.
Suddenly, the lights flickered into darkness as the district experienced another of its increasingly common power outages. Instinctively, Merlin muttered, "leoht," and his azure eyes shone golden as a bright ball of light appeared, hovering inches above his upraised palm. Fumbling his way down the stairs and to the kitchen, Merlin quickly found his mother, who met him with a patronizing stare.
"What would the neighbors say if they saw that glowing through the window?" She reprimanded him sternly. "You would be reported and arrested within minutes."
Merlin quickly shut his hand, extinguishing the magical light source. He walked blindly toward the table, finding a bowl of porridge laid out for him. He spooned the thick, grainy substance into his mouth as his mother took a seat opposite him. Merlin thought back to his strange dream the night before. The memory was slowly fading, but he remembered a blond boy his age brandishing a sword in the Hunger Games. Then the image blurred, and the boy was surrounded by others, all wearing chainmail bearing a red crest with a golden dragon. Merlin couldn't help but feel that it looked familiar, then a voice said, "He is your destiny, just as you are his. You are two sides of the same coin, and it is your destiny to restore the might of Albion and right the wrongs committed by the Capitol."
Suddenly Merlin spoke. "Mum, if I get chosen at the reaping-"
"Just don't, Merlin. We've talked about this before. You are not going to get chosen. What are the odds? You have taken no tesserae, and you only have seven slips in the drawing. Other children have, what? Twenty or more? The odds are in your favor, my son." She smiled weakly as someone knocked loudly on the front door. "That'll be Will. I'll see you after the reaping is over, alright?"
"Alright." Merlin rose and headed toward the door before turning to look back at his mother. He looked into her eyes, moist with unshed tears. "I love you, Mum."
Her voice broke as she replied. "I love you too, my boy."
Outside, a misty rain greeted Merlin as he shut the door behind him. "Hello, Will," he said, trying unsuccessfully to sound like his normal, cheerful self. If Will noticed his forced tone, he didn't show it, and grunted in reply. The two boys walked in companionable silence through the hazy streets until the square was up ahead. Both took in a steadying breath. "Good luck," they said in unison. This drew a small smile from Will, but Merlin looked unsettled.
"Merlin, what's wrong?" Will asked pointedly. The other boy sighed, shifting his weight from foot to foot uncomfortably.
"I just have a bad feeling about the reaping, that's all." He replied. "How many slips do you have in it this year?"
Will knew Merlin was hiding the truth and trying to change the subject, but decided not to press the issue. "Thirty-five." He replied curtly, trying to put on a brave face. "With the drought and another baby on the way I had to take more tesserae."
Merlin looked away, ashamed. He had no reason to be worried about the reaping, unlike Will, who did not have the odds in his favor in any way, shape, or form. He and his mother always tried to help Will, his parents, and his five siblings, but they were by no means well off either, and didn't always have enough to give. At thirteen, Merlin had tried to take tesserae to give to Will's family, but that had earned him such a scolding that he resolved to find an easier way to help. It obviously wasn't enough.
Merlin forced the false cheer back into his voice and said, "Well, see you after the reaping."
Will offered an equally forced smile in return, as he strode off to stand with the eighteen-year olds as Merlin walked over to the seventeens' section. A Capitol official asked for his finger and he robotically complied, hardly wincing as the needle pricked his skin and his blood was smeared in the records by his name. He absently scanned the crowd, trying to take his mind off the impending ceremony, but the words of the mysterious voice kept echoing through his head. "Two sides of the same coin… your destiny to restore Albion…" What was that supposed to mean?
He was interrupted from his musings by the squeal of a microphone echoing through the square. The gamemakers were not ones to be stopped by a pesky power outage, and had already set up emergency generators behind the justice building to ensure that the show could continue. "Because that's all it is to them; a show." Merlin muttered darkly. Why couldn't the Capitol use some of those emergency generators to restore power to the district on a daily basis?
A woman strode out onstage and Merlin grimaced. Was there anyone from the Capitol that didn't resemble a walking, talking circus act gone wrong? This year Celeste, the district escort, had died her hair pink to go with her orange skin and green dress, which was adorned with golden, sequined blobs that Merlin supposed were intended to be stalks of wheat. A pair of red stilettos finished off the ensemble, effectively blinding the audience.
"Hello District eleven," she exclaimed in her atrocious Capitol accent, "and welcome to the sixty-first Hunger Games!" She paused dramatically, obviously waiting for thunderous applause, but when none was forthcoming, she scowled and continued.
"Here we have our traditional introduction, provided by the Capitol, to remind us why we gather together each year for this memorable and glorious showcase of bravery and skill in combat."
Merlin rolled his eyes as Celeste pointed a silver remote behind her toward the justice building and a screen unrolled, showing the same propaganda as was shown at the reaping every year. Merlin watched in horrified fascination as Celeste mouthed along to the words of the narrator, eyes closed reverently and never missing even a syllable. As the presentation came to an end, she opened her eyes with a sigh, and turned back to the crowd. "I just love that, don't you?"
Again, there was silence, and she glowered, both at the audience and at the misty rain, which had turned her elaborate hairdo into a bedraggled mess. "Well then, we will continue with all due haste. Let's start with the ladies."
She strutted over to the glass balls of names narrowly avoiding slipping on the slick stage in her ridiculous heels. Reaching into the left ball with a flourish, she pulled out a single slip and opened it.
"Guinevere Stallock!" she announced grandly. The crowd of fifteen-year old girls parted silently to reveal a dark-skinned girl with curly black hair, her eyes wide with fear. Merlin looked on sadly as she tilted her head up proudly and started walking toward the stage, hiding her emotions for the sake of the first impressions of potential sponsors. He didn't recognize the girl, but he grimly realized that he had a pretty good idea of what her fate would be.
Celeste welcomed Guinevere up onto the stage, turning her towards the crowd and shaking her hand before reaching towards the ball with the names of the boys. Merlin's heart clenched in sudden realization, and all he could hear was the sound of blood rushing in his ears. It all seemed to happen in slow motion. She pulled out a slip of paper and unfolded it. "Two sides of the same coin…" Her mouth moved, shaping the name of an unlucky individual who was about to be sent to their death, and somehow he realized that it was his name that she had called.
Numbly he set his legs into motion, and all of a sudden he was on the stage facing the crowd. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted Will and instinctively realized that he was about to volunteer in his place. The two friends locked eyes, and with a minute shake of Merlin's head, Will slumped in defeat, lowering his hand. Merlin and Guinevere shook hands, and looking down, he had just enough time to register the fact that her hands were sweating and his were trembling violently. Then he was being pulled backward, through the heavy doors of the justice building, which shut with an ominous boom, and corralled into a small room with guards outside.
His mother rushed in and ran over to meet him where he sat, motionless on a velvet couch by the window. She hugged him tightly, and he seemed to wake from a stupor, turning from the view outside to look into her eyes "I told you this would happen." He said simply.
Tears flooded his mother's eyes, and he hurried to hug her back so as not to see her anguish. He had to be strong, for her sake. Finally she let go of Merlin's slight frame and looked him over with the hunger of one who is seeing someone they love for the last time.
"You can't let them find out," was all she said.
Merlin's heart sank as he realized what she meant. "If I can't use magic, what have I got? I'm just a nobody and I will always will be. If I can't use magic, I might as well die, and I will die, because magic is the only thing I'm good at. How else will I defend myself in the Games?"
His mother sighed, and suddenly the guards were in the room, saying that the allotted time was up. Giving Merlin one last kiss on the forehead, his mother was escorted out of the room. "Be careful, my son."
Then she was gone. Merlin's eyes flashed gold, and a necklace with a heart pendant suddenly appeared around his mother's neck as she stepped through the doors of the justice building. She stifled a sob, and ran all the way home.
The next person to visit Merlin, predictably, was Will. Merlin took one look at the tortured expression on his best friend's face and held up his hand. "Don't even think about it. Your family needs you more than anyone needs me around here."
Will sank down to sit next to Merlin on the couch and put an arm around him. "It's too late now anyway." He murmured.
Suddenly agitated, Merlin turned to face him. "I need to show you something."
Something in his raven-haired friend's eyes gave him pause, but Will nodded. "Of course. You know you can tell me anything."
Merlin took a shaky breath, looked down at his hands, and muttered, "Blowan." A pure white rose bloomed in his hands, and his eyes shined golden. Will simply sat and stared at the flower, his longtime suspicions confirmed.
"You have magic." He said in wonder. Merlin sent him a pleading glance.
"Please don't hate me."
"Hate you?!" exclaimed Will. "I could have guessed that you had magic for a long time now. It was Merlin's turn to stare in shock.
"How did you know?"
"Don't worry," said Will, "You have done a pretty great job of hiding it. And your secret's safe with me."
The doors swung open and Will was taken from the room by the guards.
"Please make sure my mother is okay!" Merlin yelled in desperation.
"I will!"
The doors shut and Merlin was alone again. He turned and resumed his examination of the rolling fields and orchards out the window, blocking out the sounds of sobbing from the next room until Celeste came for him to take him and Guinevere to the train.