Chapter 6
Her eyes were weighed down. Her tongue was stuck to the roof of her mouth. Her limbs were numb.
"Katniss?"
That was her name…Katniss…that was her…Where was that voice?
Where was she?
Something touched her right hand. She felt her fingers gripped in a calloused palm, bigger than hers. She tried to grab it, hold onto it. An anchor.
"She's been unresponsive for almost a full day. She's not in a coma, but she's clearly not awake." An unfamiliar voice. Male. Calm. Were they talking about her?
"She's brain dead?" the voice who called her name, the one who belonged to that hand, asked. The hand tightened, and she tried once again to respond. Why couldn't she respond?
"Nothing so simple. The poison was complicated, requiring a second antidote after the injection of the first. We barely got it to her in time to save her life, but we don't know what it will do to her long term," the unfamiliar voice replied.
A doctor? She was sick…she had been hurt…
A vivid memory of being collared in the white room flashed before her eyes and she tried to turn her head away.
"Katniss? She just moved!" the familiar voice sounded excited. "Katniss do that again."
Do what again? She tried to move, to blink to do anything. She wasn't even sure where her body was, it seemed far away from the rest of her.
Long moments, maybe minutes, passed and there was a sigh.
"Just a fluke, maybe a memory response. She can likely hear us right now, like someone in a coma, but she can't respond." The unfamiliar voice was calm and rational, but pitying as well.
"So, you're saying she might never wake up?" another voice, trembling and female, came from her other side.
"It's too soon to tell. The poison is an unknown. Quite simply we don't know what it might do to her. There's every chance she might wake up."
The voices faded as her mind was dragged down below the surface. She was underwater. She was floating and weightless. She was…somewhere.
A soft cry brought her from the monotony of floating in the water to the place where she felt heavy. She heard voices again. She tried to open her eyes but couldn't find them. She moved her tongue, flicked her teeth. Success! Movement, even if her tongue was trapped in her mouth, unable to breach her lips.
"Hope's been missing you, Katniss." Familiar voice. Warm and rough.
Peeta.
A jolt of memory: a smiling blond boy, strong arms and broad shoulders. Kindness in the face of starvation. Grimacing with fever in the darkness. Wide-eyed and shouting at her. Beaming at her with love…so much love.
A breath expanded her cheat, she felt it rise and fall, felt something on her skin. A blanket? A shirt?
"Katniss?" that same voice. Peeta's voice, rising in hope. "Can you hear me?"
Yes, I can hear you, where are you?
She tried her eyes again and felt them scrunch a little with the effort of trying to blink. She tried to reach up to rub her eyes, to get rid of the grit. Her hand was too heavy.
A hand, warm and strong, gripped her fingers. "That's it," Peeta urged gently, "Can you open your eyes?"
It was too hard. She was tired. She wanted to go back to that floating place. But then that cry came again, the one that had awoken her in the first place.
Hope.
She had to protect Hope. Had to get to her. Keep her safe.
She curled her fingers towards her palm, trying to make a fist. She dragged it up to her face, her fingers twitching and flexing unable to hold a fist for long. The act of having her nails digging into her palm kept her present, kept herself from drifting. She finally reached her face and rubbed her mouth. Her tongue flicked out, licking her dry lips with a parched tongue.
"I'll get you some ice chips," Peeta's hand disappeared.
Katniss moved her hand up to her eyes and rubbed the gritty orbs before finally managing to blink them open. The world was blurry and it took her several tries before she could focus.
She was in the same room as before. The one where she had been isolated until they figured out the collar. Or was it a different room? Maybe they all looked the same. She couldn't move her head yet, but she was tilted up in bed enough to see ahead of her. She saw her legs beneath a blanket. She twitched her feet and saw the blanket move, felt the fabric on her toes. One hand was at her side, a drip inserted to give her fluids. The other was resting limply on her chest. She let it too fall to her side.
A figure moved into her line of sight and she tried to smile at seeing her husband standing in the doorway. He looked more exhausted than she felt, his hair in disarray and his eyes shadowed, but his mouth was smiling as he approached the bed.
"Hey, it's good to see those eyes of yours," Peeta murmured as if speaking loudly would shatter the moment.
Katniss tried to reach for him. He wet her lips with ice and then sat back while she smacked her lips from the cold moisture.
"You've been asleep for two days now. Do you remember what happened?" Peeta asked.
Katniss tried to nod but she felt like she just moved her chin. Peeta reached over and tucked a lock of her dark hair behind her ear. He loved her hair. He smiled at her so fondly, it made her heart ache.
A soft grumble came from out of sight and Katniss' head tried to turn to look. Peeta was quicker. Moving away and returning with a small bundle in a pink blanket.
Hope.
Katniss wanted to hold her, but her arms were too weak. Peeta settled into the bed next to her and helped Hope rest on her chest.
She looked at her daughter's sleepy face and wanted to cry. This was why she had fought. Why she had come back from the happy, peaceful place.
"I love you, both of you," Peeta whispered into her hair.
Katniss couldn't agree more and allowed herself to relax. She knew there was more to come, their fight was not over, not by a long shot, but for now, this moment, they were fine. They had all they needed.
*** Page Break ***
The doctors called her recovery miraculous. Katniss didn't care what they called it. She was fine. Two weeks after she was brought to the mysterious District Thirteen, she was moving about the place on her own.
She was a little startled by the reverence some of the people showed her. No, not her. The Mockingjay. She was a symbol of their effort. Katniss was like the pin she had worn into the Games, a token of rebellion.
Now what could she do?
Senator Coin wanted her to fight, to be a driving force behind the rebellion. Many others said the same. She was meant to pave the way for change.
"They believe in you, what you represent. Without you, they'll fall back into servitude, without you, we'll all fail." Coin was a master at playing on guilt.
Katniss had never wanted to be a symbol of rebellion. She had never wanted to be seen. She had just wanted to survive. But that was no longer an option.
She discussed it with Peeta. Though they often argued more than discussed.
"It's not your fight anymore, you've done enough!"
"How can I have done enough when we're still not free, when we're hiding in fear of the Capitol?"
"Think about Hope, she needs her mother."
"She needs her father too. But she also needs to grow up without worrying about going into the Games, without hiding in a hole for the rest of her life. Because that's the future she has with the way things stand now."
They could not agree.
The war, the rebellion, the conflict, whatever name everyone called it, heated up shortly after Katniss was rescued. As if they had been waiting for her. It was a heavy burden and she felt their fate resting on her shoulders.
"Mom, you need to take care of Hope," Katniss said the day her daughter turned six months old. The happy little baby was oblivious to all the tension around her, but Katniss felt like time was running out. She never wanted her baby to know this life.
Her mother was grim and pale when she accepted Hope from Katniss, promising, with a rare show of courage, to protect her grandchild.
Katniss and Peeta were gone by morning. They joined with the frontline soldiers, fighting to get around the traps and soldiers in the Capitol.
Call it luck, fate, or skill, but they managed to infiltrate the Capitol, they skimmed past the traps, the mutts, the guards. Katniss watched as the men and women in her unit were killed, maimed, left behind.
She strode toward the gates with weary resignation. One way or another this would end. Gale at her side, Peeta lost somewhere behind her in the throng of people moving to hide in the palace.
BOOM!
A truck exploded. Chaos reigned as people screamed and scrambled in all directions. Katniss was thrown into the street and trampled. She curled into a ball to protect her head.
When she could, she stood in a daze, ears ringing. She looked around at the dead. People from the Capitol, lying in broken colours and blood. Ash fell from the sky.
She looked up to see people still running toward the palace. She watched in a daze as bombs fell from the sky instead of ash.
A trilling beep, like the sound from her collar, caught her attention and she looked up just as a bomb detonated above her head.
*** Page Break ***
She had been on fire. She had burned until someone had put the flames out. She hadn't had her wings this time. Still, the image of the burning Mockingjay had become something of a common eyesore around the Capitol after the rebels turned the tide and won.
When she opened her eyes Peeta was in the bed beside her. He smiled around the bandages on his face. "We need to stop meeting like this."
A helpless chuckle broke from her chapped lips.
Her mother, wan and pale, appeared with Prim in tow, Hope in her arms. The baby squealed upon seeing her mother.
It was a happy moment, a tired but triumphant fragment of time.
When the Capitol bombed their own people to get rid of the rebels, the public turned on Snow astronomically fast. It was over, it was all over so…completely, finally.
Coin was President now. She had the world at her fingertips. She wanted to reinstate the Hunger Games, but using the Capitol's children instead of those from the Districts.
"Give them a taste of their own medicine," Johanna agreed with the new President. That bitterness, that rage, hadn't softened at all over the course of the fighting, "Coin's got a granddaughter."
Katniss thought of the young girl who reminded her of Prim. Lilia was so young, so innocent. The granddaughter of a monster. They shared the same eyes, but where his were cold indifference, hers were sweet and sincere. Asking Katniss to play with her. To join her for tea. She wondered what the girl's eyes looked like now that her world had crumbled down around her.
"No." Peeta was ungiving in his opinion. He was smart enough not to glare but he shot the new President a disdainful glance before looking away.
Katniss refused as well. In the end, the vote for the reinstatement of the Games was negative. Coin looked frustrated but accepted. There was something about her that reminded Katniss of Snow. But her mask was not superiority and mind games, Coin's was gentle and caring. Katniss wondered what hid beneath that pretty face.
"What about Snow?" Katniss asked. She knew the man was alive.
"He'll be executed tomorrow at dawn. Will you do the honours?" Coin's calculating gaze chilled her, but Katniss agreed.
She went walking with Peeta and Hope in the gardens of the palace. She had not been allowed this far when she had been an unwilling guest and some morbid fascination urged her to explore her prison.
"What's in there?" Peeta asked, pointing to a solarium guarded by men in rebel uniforms. Katniss shrugged and moved forward.
They entered the indoor garden and Katniss looked around in awe and unease at the sight of all the white roses. She plucked one by the stem and moved it under the light. A golden shimmer sparkled on the pure petals. Poison? Snow was well known for poisons. She knew this first hand. She had also learnt from Finnick about Snow's propensity for poison. And an interesting fact she might be able to use if she ever saw the former President again.
"Miss Everdeen, how delightful it is to see you here," a familiar voice sent a shiver up her spine and she dropped the rose in fright. As if merely thinking his name had summoned him, there he was.
Formerly-President Snow stood in a robe set that looked like elite pyjamas and slippers. For once he was not adorned in his dapper suits with the rose in the lapel. Then again, he was surrounded by his beautiful obsession and had no one to show off to.
Peeta growled and hugged Hope to his chest. The baby fretted at the tightened hold. Katniss couldn't take her eyes off her tormenter. He looked small, frail. Instead of the imposing powerful figure he looked…old. There was that ever-present element of danger to him that had been honed for decades, that cold glint in his defiant eye, but while his mind was ever sharp and eyes watchful, his body was failing to hold up to standards.
"What do you think of my garden? I never did show you this place, did I?" Snow moved to sit on a garden chair.
"What are you doing in here?" Katniss asked.
Snow shrugged, cool as ever, "Your new leader deemed me fit enough to hide here amongst my treasures while I await my fate. I assume you will be doing the honours, Miss Everdeen?"
Said with the same cool calculating tone as Coin. The word, honours, suddenly sounded anything but honourable.
"You have questions," Snow mused, "Shall we play one final round of our game?"
Katniss hissed through her teeth at the reminder. Truth or Dare. She had lost more than she had won. The game didn't matter anymore. Snow could not hurt her. Yet she found herself taking a seat across from him. Peeta moved to stand behind her but said nothing, for which Katniss was grateful.
Snow began, "Truth or Dare?"
"Truth."
"How many?"
"One."
"Reason."
"You have one day left to live." So, she might be driving the dagger in deeper, after all he had done, she didn't feel particularly bad about that. Yet he didn't seem offended, only amused.
"Accepted." Snow paused, studying her. She waited, keeping his gaze. Finally, he asked, "What is to become of my family?"
Katniss blinked, surprised that this was his final question. "That's not for me to decide."
"You didn't answer my question."
Katniss sighed, "I don't know how much of your family is still alive. Coin has them sequestered away in a wing of the Palace until she decides what to do with them."
Snow studied her for a long moment then inclined his head in acceptance. "Your turn."
"Truth or Dare?"
"Truth."
"How many?"
"One."
"Reason?"
"There is only one day left until you kill me." Unlike Snow, Katniss was affected by the words. She felt them resonate in her soul. She was prepared to kill this man, to see him dead at least, but being reminded that she was the killer…
"Accepted." Katniss thought hard about her question. Finally, she asked something that had been nagging at her since she learnt the fate of the rebels. "Did you send those bombs that killed the people outside your gate?"
Snow's face showed nothing. "What reason could I have for bombing my own people? Some of those children were the offspring of my guards. When they learnt that bombs had been sent in the form of Capitol gifts, they all threw down their weapons and surrendered. The rebels won with no further fuss."
Katniss studied the infuriating man in front of her trying to figure out if he was lying. His words dripped with honeyed lies daily. It was impossible to tell full truth from half-truth.
She looked to Peeta. Her husband gave nothing away, yet a look in his eyes showed his turmoil. She turned back to Snow. "Your turn."
"Truth or Dare?"
"Dare."
Snow smiled and it was not a pleasant one. Then it was gone and he regarded her with his typical arrogance. "When you execute me tomorrow. Take a moment to look at Coin before you do."
Katniss waited for more, for more instruction. None came and Snow just sat silently, waiting, until she said, "Accepted. Truth or Dare?"
"Dare."
Katniss paused because he had never accepted a Dare before. He was always about the truth; his power was in words. Her brain stalled as she tried to think of something. Finally, it came to her and a calm settled over her as she knew she would win.
"Show me your tongue."
For the first time since she'd known him, his eyes betrayed him. He looked startled for a brief moment. "Excuse me?"
"Open your mouth and show me your tongue. You have thirty seconds, starting now, to comply. You must show your tongue for ten seconds."
"Your reasoning?"
"I don't have to give you that for a Dare."
"Humour me."
"Do you remember the first time we played this game?"
"Of course."
"The final question I asked you, do you remember your answer?"
Never let them see you bleed.
Katniss could see the moment of remembrance, of dawning understanding. He lost his smugness, his arrogance, and suddenly he looked defeated, for a long moment. Then he sat and stared at her as the time ticked down.
Thirty seconds were over in a flash.
"I win." Katniss rose smoothly. Without looking back, she turned and walked away, Peeta at her side, leaving the broken former President to his roses.
*** Page Break ***
The next time she saw Snow, she was walking down the path of Tributes. Three times she had been down this path to face Snow at the end, but this would be the last, and he was not in control this time.
She walked, wearing black armour and sharp makeup, a quiver on her back and bow in her hand. The crowd cheered and gathered behind her as she passed. The long path that stretched before her was eaten up too quickly as she marched, unwavering, to the rhythm of the drums.
Coin delivered a stirring speech then all was silent as they waited for Katniss to fire the final arrow into Snow's black heart. For a man who had delivered so much pain and destruction, he stood calmly and at ease. Wearing the same robe as the last time she saw him. He met her gaze dead on, unafraid.
Katniss nocked an arrow then paused.
Take a moment to look at Coin.
Despite herself, she did. She looked up at the podium where the new President of Panem was waiting, cool and collected, in the same place Snow had stood for so many years. Coin had wanted this for a long time and had finally backed the winning horse. Ushering the rebels into action.
Katniss, with a stirring feeling of dread, suddenly saw the future as it could be. She saw different faces, different tactics, different reasons…yet the same person. Snow and Coin were the same, they wanted the power and were willing to do anything to get it. Snow had swallowed poison for years to keep his power. What would Coin do?
Anything.
Coin had wanted to reinvent the Hunger Games, but what would that serve? Except to drive the wedge even firmer between the Districts and the Capitol. But that was what she wanted, wasn't it? The rebels would be so grateful for Coin, so glad Snow was gone, they would be lost in their hatred of the Capitol. But then what?
Where did it end? In fifty years, one hundred years, maybe more, would the subdued Capitol rise in retaliation? Would it begin all over again?
Katniss drew back the string and aimed her arrow at Snow. He stared back calmly. Katniss tensed, made her decision, and let her arrow fly true.
It struck Coin in the chest. With barely a gasp she tumbled from her throne to lay in an elegant heap on the ground.
Over the gasps and shouts from the crowd behind her, Snow finally showed her his tongue, his blood-stained tongue, as he laughed with his mouth wide open.
The crowd surged behind Katniss, swarming around her for Snow. Some rebel guards gathered her to them and hurried her away. Katniss tried to find Peeta in the crowd, her mother, her sister. But all she saw was the furious people converging on the one who had wronged them, their shouts drowning out his laughter, and almost smothering his screams.
And so ended the reign of President Snow, and President Coin. On the same day. One by the rebel who was supposed to be a martyr, the other by the people who had been abused for too long.