Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins.
Once Again
The wheels of fate will turn.
Part One – The Ashes
Chapter One
I felt something cool on my face. I struggled to open my eyes and saw Edward wiping my face with a cool towel. I sat up in confusion and I remembered what happened. Warm tears fell down my face, not unnoticed by my brother. He was still in his peacekeeper uniform. We were in a dimly lit room.
"Did Theo win?" I questioned immediately.
Edward frowned. "It's not finished yet, he's still playing."
My lip fell at the edge. "He promised me he would win." I whispered.
"He will." My brother reassured. "For now you should rest. I fixed you up as best as I could, but I'm no doctor. When you get more rested up, I'll send you to Meera. She'll take care of you."
My brother turned to leave. I pulled on to his shirt, "Where are we?"
"We're in an underground bunk. It's a hideout in case anything ever happens. For now, this place is safe for us to hide."
The key words caught my ears as livid hornets. This place was only safe, for now. Soon, there would be be nowhere left for me to run, and I would spend my life hiding in the darkness. I could never be seen again. My heart ached as the future became and clearer and clearer in my head.
I watched my brother disappear through the door. It closed with a hollow noise that echoed in the room. It felt like I was hearing the emptiness in my heart. I tried to recall exactly what happened:
"…going to let anyone else kill you but me. I want you to suffer Melanie." Theo said bitterly. That wasn't his voice. No, never his. I loved him too much to believe that.
The flashlight he held in his other hand went out. All the power in the city was cut off, the electromagnetic wave Enerem had died to make was working. The Capitol would never see what happened next. I turned to ready to grovel for my life.
That was when Theo began to cry. "Melanie, your father doesn't want you to take the chance staying in the games anymore. He made me do this… He made me!"
I didn't understand the change in Theo. He had just tried to kill me before he'd broken out crying, he was weeping like a child as he fell to his knees, the gun trembling in his hand.
"Theo… What are you talking about?"
"Your father used me just like how he used you. That accident when your mother died, when my parents died. I was the one who snuck into the peacekeeper's tower."
I blinked in disbelief. "Theo… That's impossible."
"Lainy…"
"No Theo." I interrupted. "It's impossible because I was the one who did it. My father gave me a device, similar to what Enerem had made. It disrupted the signal and allowed the boat to leave."
"But… But I went to the guard tower that night."
"What exactly did my father tell you?" I questioned with my eyes narrowed.
Theo bit his lip. We didn't have much time, and this was the only chance to tell the truth. "He told me your mother was going to blow up District Four. She had the bombs and everything."
I swallowed hard. "It was the only solution, my mother had gone mad." I fought the tears that had returned with the memories. "But this still doesn't make any sense. Why did my father make both of us do it?"
"Perhaps he was unsure of it working?"
My breathing was becoming heavy. The pool around me had become rather large. "Are you going to kill me now Theo?"
Theo shook his head and offered a hand to help me up. "Your father and I prepared for this. On the offchance that you are unable to best the other tributes, I am to abort the original mission and ready you for extraction."
My eyes widened. "You were in this with my father?"
"And brother." He added. "The mutts had a special venom similar to some spiders, if you mix it with morphine," Theo glanced at the first aid box that I had believed to have been sent carelessly, "Then you have a drug that will stop your heart for about ten minutes. Then you will be taken away on the plane where Edward will extract you out to somewhere safe."
"What about you?" I questioned, and he went over to pick up the first aid kit.
Theo turned back to me and gave me a weak smile. "I'll do my best to win."
I limped, feeling more than faint, outside. "And what if you don't win Theo?"
"Then I hope you will remember me, Lain."
I had become such a crybaby. Tears fell without end down my face. "Promise me you'll win." I begged as I finally made it outside. "I can't do this if you don't promise."
Theo paused as we met the rubble of a collapsed building. He laid me down and placed a hand on my cheek, I looked up to him, meeting his eyes with mine. "I have a plan Melanie. I know how to kill them." He then stood up again and looked to the sky, estimating his time. "The field will break off soon. I need to do this now, Melanie." He gave me a weak smile and opened the first aid kit on the ground.
"This is the poison I retrieved from the mutts that had attacked us earlier. I messed around with the compounds with the supplies in the first aid box. This will make it stop." Theo said softly. I didn't move as he jabbed the needle into my chest and pushed the liquid in. "It's going to take a few minutes to get around your system."
Fresh tears filled my eyes again. Everyone had been on my side, and now they were all going to die. I swallowed, no, that wasn't true. Theo was going to make it out of the Hunger Games. He would be a victor. I wasn't sure how exactly that was going to happen between him, Maphite, and Rinsh, but he said he had a plan. It was my job to believe in him, and I knew I was going to see him again.
I struggled to get up just as Edward returned. "Woah, woah! You have damaged organs, you can't be getting up just yet."
"Let me watch the games." I said firmly. "I had to see how Theo was doing."
"Theo is doing fine. They're resting right now."
"What time is it?" I questioned.
Edward looked at his watch. "2:37AM."
I sighed in relief, and looked at Edward. "What happened?" I asked sullenly. "While I was out."
"The entire Capitol was brought down by Theo's betrayal, all his sponsors have left. You were extracted just as planned, no one suspects anything. There will be double agents going in once the games have finished to erase any evidence of what truly happened before the arena becomes a tourist spot. Everything will be fine, Melanie. This was thoroughly planned."
I grabbed my brother's shirt by the collar, my first time displaying any violence in front of him, nevertheless to him. "Father." I seethed the word. "Told me that this was so I could get inside the Capital and kill Snow. He explained to me carefully that he expected me to either win or die. I never knew about this little extraction plan, about Theo's part-taking in this!"
Edward placed his hand over mine, "Melanie, please. Don't be so rough. You're badly wounded, you don't want to reopen those wounds right after surgery." His points were backed up by a sudden throb in my stomach. "Calm down for a second Lainy, and let me explain."
I sat back and gave Edward a grin. "Ed, isn't it past the time to explain? Father didn't only make you keep secrets from me." A cold laugh escaped me as I looked away, no longer able to meet the eyes of my brother. "I was the one who killed mother."
"I know that, Lainy. Your father was too busy to dispose of the body."
My eyes widened and they returned to him.
"Lainy, I'm your brother. I've always been watching out for you. Even if this world disgusts me so, I know we're making progress and one day, perhaps near or endlessly far, we'll make it out of the world we know now." Edward took my hands. "Everything we're doing, we're doing in sacrifice of a new world. You know that Melanie."
I looked to the barren ground. "Mother was the same wasn't she?"
Edward gave me a look. This wasn't a subject we often tread upon, and that was for a good reason.
"Melanie, we-"
"No." I snapped, interrupting him. "No more Edward, treat me like an equal. I'm an outlaw now, and there is nowhere for me to go anymore. I gave up my life for this. You gave up your life for this. We're no longer siblings Edward, we're allies."
Author's Note
Ah, finally started "Once Again". This is the sequel to "Once Remembered". Of course it is possible to understand this story fine without referring to the prequel, but my suggestions would be to read it anyways. In any case, I would like to hope that this sequel will appeal to more readers with Melanie actually on her own for so many of the scenes. This will be focused more on the treacheries in the Districts than anything else.
Prequel Link: s/8129031/1/Once-Remembered
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