Zero degrees-Prologue
Summary: Katniss Everdheen is an effective huntress, promoted to the rank of Captain in the Capitol. Her job is now to unveil the mystery surrounding the boy nicknamed Ice (Peeta Mellark) who is being loosely incarcerated by the Capitol. Yet, as she delves deeper into Peeta's secrets, she begins to realize that what the Capitol has imprisoned is not an enhanced superhuman, but a phenomenon.
"Captain Everdheen." The title had a certain satisfactory resonance to it, Katniss thought smugly as she straightened her uniform. Her promotion was very well timed, she smiled. She needed the extra cash. It was not that she was particularly loyal to the Capitol. Working for the Capitol was merely a means to an end. So far, it had not bit her so she had little reason to bite back.
Her prowess as a hunter and her ruthlessness as an executioner had not been recognized by the Capitol until recently, when her friend Lieutenant Gale Hawthorne, recommended her to the higher chain in command. And while Katniss rarely showed emotion, she was grateful for Gale's vote of confidence. Friendships such as his were rare to come by in this treacherous environment that was the Capitol.
Katniss saluted Gale as he passed her. He had summoned her to receive her new uniform and assume her new rank as Captain. Though his posture was professional and austere, the small curve in his lips hinted at joy in her promotion. She could not help but be amused at his rare show of affection, albeit subtle.
"Your duties from today on will . . . shift gears, Captain," Gale spoke, the unexpected pause in his comment drawing Katniss' wandering attention back to Gale who now hovered over her. She waited patiently, but with a hint of strain. There was a strangely unnerving chill that swept through her body, leaving a trail of goosebumps on her arms and chest. Odd. Rarely did anything elicit any reaction from her, not after the death of her father nor her mother's unexpected mental illness nor her sister's violent assault that left her near death nor Katniss' own starvation that nearly killed her. Strange indeed.
"You will no longer patrol the borders of this city," Gale continued after an emphatic pause. "We have a more challenging task that would better test your skills. This unaccomplished task has resulted in a high turnover rate of your current station, I am sorry to say."
Katniss raised an eyebrow at Gale, surprised that the promotion was not entirely a slam dunk. But then, what should she have expected? While Gale admired her more than as a soldier, he was quite immune to nepotism. She looked directly into Gale's stern face. It softened as he continued to speak. "Captain, I asked for your promotion because I feel that you will succeed where others have failed. I believe this is your calling, and should you handle this task well, you will jettison up the ranks." Gale's face, now full of admiration, nodded encouragingly at Katniss.
"I am glad you have faith in me," Katniss spoke firmly, Gale's confidence reinvigorated her, reminding her of her innate skills as a predator. She had, after all, been the most successful huntress in the Capitol to date, sending some of the most spectacular criminals to the Capitol prison in the most untraditional manner. She considered her nonstandard technique more artistic flair.
Gale smiled widely. "It is more than faith. I know you can do it. You are a huntress, and a damn successful one at that. You can consider this tackling a prey. It's what you do best, isn't it?"
Katniss smiled wickedly. Gale understood her love of a challenging hunt too well. Katniss knew no boundaries when it came to tackling a prey. One could say that her repertoire of tactical moves was expansive. And she never hesitated to acquire more tricks of her trade. She hungrily absorbed any new skills that she set her eyes on, storing them for future use. "So, what is this task you ask of me?"
Gale placed a long index finger on his chin in contemplation. "Maybe it is better if I just show you."
"That complicated?" Katniss smirked.
Gale laughed. "No, not complicated. Just easier to show than tell. Come." With that, Gale strode forward, swiping the security card to open the locked doors behind them. Katniss had learned that the Capitol kept many secrets behind locked doors, and she had no doubt that no one was privy to all the Capitol secrets other than the infamous President Snow. She had uncovered some locked doors as she swept up the ranks. Some of the secrets used to disturb her, but she learned to overlook them with time. She did not have the desire to have her family destroyed by voicing disagreement with a governing body that was quite ruthless in its executions. All she wanted was for a safe haven for her family. And at this moment, working for the government afforded her a safety net she never had before she joined.
She followed Gale as he confidently swept across the building that was a training ground for future soldiers, awed by its grandiosity. The technology always baffled her. The building was a mystical fortress with men training at all levels. All areas of battle were taught at this training facility, including techniques in hand combat, projectiles, survival skills, and tactical military strategy. Tens of thousands of recruits of all different levels not only trained, but also tested their physical prowess against others. It wasn't until Gale escorted her to an elevator and pushed the button leading to Level X that she realized the significance of this task.
She had always wondered what Level X held. The floor could only be accessed through three of the twenty-five elevators in this training facility. And she had never witnessed anyone actually descending to that floor at any time.
Her heart gave a little flutter, another sensation that was quite strange and rare for her. Gale must have noticed, because he reached over to give her hand a small squeeze. "Don't be fooled by first impressions. Things are never what they seem."
The rest of the elevator ride was silent. It took two full minutes before the elevator came to a complete stop. They were very deep in the ground, judging from the extreme cold temperature and complete lack of ambient lighting. Katniss felt more goosebumps surfacing. But she collected herself as a surge of courage swelled in her. Surely in her life, she had enough anger, heartbreak, and pain to overcome this physical tension that was blossoming in her. And Gale believed she was more than adequate for the task at hand, which surprisingly meant a lot to her. She took a deep, calming breath.
The elevator doors opened, releasing her from the oppressive atmosphere. At Gale's lead, she took a firm step out of the elevator into a sort of control room. The walls of the room were made of glass. Even the roof and floor was glass. From the looks of it, the glass was exceptionally thick. The room was oval-shaped and was encased by a much larger room. In fact, the control room they were in looked to be a capsule, lodged in the middle of a room that was fifty times it's size. The outer room looked barren and sterile compared to the capsule, which was loaded with lots of small computers and other gadgets.
Katniss' breath hitched as she observed the vast area. She had never seen anything so magnificent, and yet so plain. She was about to say something when Gale placed his long index finger to his lips, signaling for her to remain quiet. And as Katniss forced her breathing to slow down so that she can open her senses to her surroundings, she suddenly became aware that the large sterile room outside their capsule that was empty just a moment ago was no longer empty. Three men now stood in its center. No, not men. That was too petty a description for them. They were three very magnificent-appearing beings.
The man farthest from her had dark hair and a stubble, but his features were handsome and relaxed. He had a kind face that reminded her of a priest. He wore a robe that was of a deep, rich blue hue. The only part of his attire that did not fit was the katana that was strapped to his side.
Next to him stood a much taller and more muscular man with jet black hair and a skin tone many shades lighter. This man was intimidating to behold, if not for the beautiful aristocratic facial features. Yet unlike the first, his gaze was cynical, as if he was losing his patience with something. His weapon was a collection of daggers, each strapped to a limb. The black pants and black shirt fit snuggly against his nicely sculpted body. Though he looked to be in his late twenties, his eyes seemed ancient, as if he had seen too much in his life.
However, it was the individual closest to her that drew her attention the longest. Compared to the other two, this one was much more youthful looking. His body did not appear completely developed, so delicate-looking was his features. He had the angulated cheekbones that would make any other boy envious. His eyelashes were long. His body was lean, and he was shorter than the other two. His clothing was casual and normal, actually. He wore a sweatshirt and a pair of faded jeans. And while his lovely face was hard to look away from, it was not the reason for her heightened interest. As the three men stared at an empty spot on the other side of the room, this one's hair, starting from the roots and progressing to the tips, turned from dark brown to a frosty white.
The boy then closed and opened his eyes, the hazel of the irises morphed into an icy blue. Frost could suddenly be seen blown from his blue-tinted lips, as if he was standing outside on a snowy wintry day. Yet, there was no snow in this place. At least, the other two men did not look uncomfortably cold.
Katniss stared, awed. It was magical . . . the transformation.
But after a brief moment , the boy morphed back into his original form, making Katniss wonder whether what she just witnessed was merely a trick of her eyes.
"Peeta." Gale whispered.
"What?" Katniss asked, confused.
"His name is Peeta. The boy you see whose hair and eyes changed colors." So it wasn't a hallucination.
"Can they hear us?" Katniss asked, suddenly nervous.
Gale shook his head. When Katniss remained skeptical, Gale explained. "This is a holographic recording. What you see happened some time ago."
Katniss nodded, relieved. "How does he do that?" Katniss asked, amazed.
Gale shook his head again, chuckling amusedly. "Surely you can start with a question I can actually answer."
"Why does he do that?" Katniss rephrased her question.
Before she received her answer, the boy's face turns and looks eerily at their control room, eyes appearing to focus exactly on her, or so it seemed. And the eyes were the most intense she had seen. His face was mesmerizing, not just because of its beauty. It was earthly in it colors, a rich, almost golden hazel with sea green swirls. It was haunting and mysterious, and its focus was on her. That did not make sense. This was a recording from the past, Gale told her. Katniss felt frozen from the stare, so intense was it.
"It's a warning of sorts," Gale answered, shaking Katniss out of her reverie. "He is about to unleash his true strength against an enemy."
Katniss raised an eyebrow, but Gale only nodded for her to pay attention.
The movements were so fast that Katniss nearly missed the details. The two men beside the boy take a huge step back, their movements sleek and anticipating. The boy, Peeta, raises one hand forward almost as if to shake someone's hands. A suddenly visible grotesque form of a mostly skeletal creature flies towards Peeta, its hands outstretched as if to punch him. Peeta grips the hand and ice sweeps through the unfortunate creature, starting from where Peeta's hand touches the limb, and rapidly progressing through the entire creature's body like a wave. The skeletal creature's face was frozen instantaneously along with the rest of the body, contorted in agony. Katniss' mouth ran dry. The creature had turned to ice before her eyes.
Peeta propelled himself high into the air. And as if his prey were as light as a baseball bat, the frozen creature was gracefully swung in an arc behind and over Peeta's head. Katniss was amazed the momentum did not result in a severed limb. Once the body was over Peeta's head, Peeta slammed it mercilessly down onto the floor using all of his weight to drag the frozen creature towards the ground. It shattered into a million pieces, the sound of ice being crushed by shear brute force. And just like that, the creature ceased to exist, its remains shattered and scattered along the floor in a million crystal like shards of ice.
Katniss gaped at the sight, shocked by the brutality and mystique of what she had just witnessed with her bare eyes.
"That," Gale enunciated, "will be your assignment."
"To reign in that beast?" Katniss asked in disbelief. She wondered for a moment whether she was referring to the shattered creature instead, since the boy, Peeta, was anything but beastly. Magnificent would be a more suitable description.
Gale chuckled. "Actually, his nickname is Ice. Beast is the nickname for the taller guy to his right with all the daggers." Katniss found Gale's remarks humorless, but thought what the tall and handsome aristocratic male did to deserve that nickname.
Gale turned serious. "We don't want you to tame anything. We just want you to use your charm and wit and skill to figure something out for us."
Katniss snorted. "What? You want me to delve into Peeta's deepest, darkest secrets?" she offered.
Gale pondered thoughtfully. "Everyone has walls that they put up around themselves, for one reason or another, Katniss. They mask their identity and their motives. Sometimes it is meant to defend themselves. Sometimes they do it to deceive others to achieve a goal. Peeta's walls have been impenetrable to all of us at this facility and to the Capitol. I need you to breach those barriers for me, strip him down to his naked soul. If we have any chance to reign him in and control him, we need to understand his motives."
"And why do you think I will succeed where others have failed?" Katniss asked, still mystified by this strange task.
"Well," Gale smiled sheepishly. "None of the guys we sent could do it, so we figured we would change our tactics and send a girl."
Katniss eyed Gale dubiously. "You chose me for my gender?"
"Not just any girl. You fit his description?" Gale spoke deliberately slowly.
"Whose description?" Katniss asked, confused.
"Peeta. He specifically said, quote 'the day I open up to the lot of you bastards will be the day that hell freezes over . . . or when a goddess invites me to bed.' I think the second was an afterthought, but we decided to take it literally." Gale nodded triumphantly.
Katniss could not believe the stupidity behind what she had just heard, and her face must have mirrored her thoughts because Gale then became defensive. "Listen, Peeta is like a black hole. He's baffling the best of the Capitol. We've effectively locked him on this level, but that's about it. We have gained nothing from his captivity."
Katniss gazed at Gale in disbelief, a hint of skepticism in her tone. "You mean he's your prisoner."
"Yes," Gale smiled smugly. "Everyone has their weaknesses, Everdheen. We know a few of his. Let's see if you can figure out the rest."
Something about Gale's voice just didn't sit right with Katniss, but she brushed it aside. "Non-traditional, challenging, mysterious, pleasing to the eyes. I'm up for the job," she spoke with amusement.
Gale only laughed. "Just a suggestion, Catnip. You may want to exchange that sorry collection of hunting attire that you own for something more . . . layered."
As Gale walked past her to exit the control room, Katniss felt a brush of cold sweep her shoulders, too light to be a human touch, but too strong to be a breeze.