Chapter 10
Ruby's POV
I am lying in bed looking up at the ceiling when Katniss re-enters the room. I look at her expectantly.
"Tomorrow." She doesn't need to say anything more, I already know what she means. "Plutarch is outside. Says he wants to talk to you about something. A proposal."
"Uh, okay." I hesitantly make my way to see him, hearing Johanna ask Katniss what's going on before closing the door.
"Ahh, follow me Ms. James." I'm slightly confused, but follow him anyway. He leads me towards the mock training centre on the bottom floor. "So, my proposal. You are, to my knowledge, the most mentally stable of all the victors here, and now that you have your sight back there is no harm in giving you a quick test to see if you can go out with the squad."
"What? You mean go into the Capitol?" He nods, sighing slightly at the sight of my obvious worry. "I'm not sure that-"
"No, Soldier, we need you. Now that Johanna can't go, we need you to go for her." So, I don't have a choice. "So, here's a gun. This is just a simulation test, to see how you will handle things in the Capitol."
"But I haven't done any training."
"True, but you're a victor. This is just a test, Soldier." A new voice says from behind me. I turn to see President Coin strolling towards us looking optimistic.
"Right, o-okay." I say, slightly taken back by the surprise of this test.
"Go ahead. We'll watch from here." Plutarch says encouragingly.
I slowly walk into the staged Capitol setting, gun ready for any surprise Capitol officers, making my way towards the pod about ten metres away. Half way there, an entire herd of peacekeepers close around me, I immediately shoot them all to the ground and sprint towards the pod. After about five minutes of this, I hear a scream. Johanna's scream. I turn frantically but she's nowhere in sight, so I press on. Once again, her scream is heard and I turn to search for her, it's coming from the building across the way. I make my way towards, still on full alert for an attack, and hesitantly open then door. Nothing. I sigh in defeat and simply sprint back towards the final pod. When I reach it, I hear applause from behind me.
"Well done, Soldier." President Coin praises, her and Plutarch beckoning me back to them. "You successfully completed the test. The aim was to test your greatest weakness, can you guess what your's was?" Of course I can.
"Johanna." Plutarch smiles, impressed.
"Yes, and you didn't let it compromise the mission."
"But I went to look for her." I don't understand what the mission even was.
"Yes, but you got back to the mission almost immediately after not finding her." Ahh.
"Oh, yeah, I guess I did."
"Right then, Soldier, welcome to the squad. You leave tomorrow morning." I nod, still slightly dazed at the rush of this, and saunter back to my shared compartment.
"Anything interesting?" Johanna asks as I enter the room.
"Uh, yeah, pretty interesting." She raises her eyebrows, pressing me for more information. "Oh, right, um... I had a test."
"A test? As in the test?" She looks angry.
"Yeah... I passed." I smile sheepishly at her, hoping it will allow her to soften up. It doesn't.
"So they're going to let you go. You who only just got your fucking sight back and have had no training what so ever the entire time you've been here. Yet they won't let me go because they purposefully tried to throw me off. What the fuck?!" I sigh as she begins to pace the room, Katniss looks on from her bed confused. "Did they even give you a weakness?" She looks at me accusingly, like she thought I'd got off easy.
"Fuck you, Johanna. You're not upset at the fact that I'm going to be in danger, you're upset because I get to go and you don't! Yes I did have a fucking weakness, and it wasn't a tiny bit of rain or a little drop of water. It was you! You're scream. So, yeah, be a bitch about it. I'm going to shower, and no that wasn't a fucking invitation." I storm into the bathroom, leaving Johanna looking guilty and shocked at my outburst. I relish in the showers warm, relaxing, rhythmic droplets and sigh in defeat. After half an hour, I finally decide to try again with mine and Johanna's conversation, but when I re-enter the room I find that neither her or Katniss are there, so I give up and go to take a nap.
Johanna's POV
"What the fuck, Plutarch?" I say angrily as I enter the control room with Katniss. "She just got out of hospital and you want to ship off to Snow. Are you fucking insane?" I realise that what I'm doing is wrong. I just spent ages being angry at her for getting the chance to go, possibly getting killed in the process and don't mention to her how awful the likelihood of her death is to me. Instead, here I am saying exactly that to Plutarch of all people.
"Soldier Mason, stand down. Ms. James is a necessity to the squad."
"Well, you know what? You can all fuck off." I say, sprinting back to the room to find Ruby fast asleep on our bed. "Rubes?" I say, softly shaking her. She wakes, looking up at me, face full of anger. "I'm sorry, okay? I shouldn't have blamed you for that. In fact, I was just talking to Plutarch about it now, about how dangerous this is, sending you out there." She doesn't reply, simply turns away to face the wall. I sigh, "Rubes don't be like this, I said I'm sorry." This seems to anger her even more.
"Oh, now you're sorry? Sorry for what? The fact that you didn't think about my impending death, or for the fact that you don't care about my impending death? Which one, Johanna?" Now I'm angry.
"How dare you? You honestly think that I don't care that you might out here, Ruby? You're all I have left alright? If you die out there, I will have no one. You're the only person I love that hasn't left me yet! Ruby, don't leave me. Please!" I can't hold in the sobs, the thought of losing shaking me to the core. Her eyes soften.
"I won't." She leans in, pulling me towards her. "Or at least I'll do my very best to prevent from doing so." I sigh, despite her clear attempt at humour.
"That's not funny, Rubes." I sniffle.
"Sorry."
AN : DUN DUN DUN! Needed a bit of drama. Hope you enjoyed it. Didn't proof read so I apologise for mistakes.