(A/N) - While the blood is flowing back in the Games and we're sadly saying goodbye to some of these kids, let's go back to the Capitol, before the death and destruction. This one-shot features the lovely Silmarilz1701 and Canucklehead Cowgirl and their incredibly bull-headed mentors!
Let's Kill The Mentors!
Sinthea Schmidt of District Six and Logan Howlett of District Seven
Written by Silmarilz1701 and Canucklehead Cowgirl
"There is nothing wrong with revenge. The wrong has already been done, or there would be no need to even the score." - Ashly Lorenzana
"You'll never be worthy! You'll always be a failure, just like your whore of a mother!"
Sinthea brushed away a lone tear that fell from her left eye. Allergies, that's all it was. It wasn't because of the verbal abuse she'd just suffered from her father and mentor, Johann Schmidt, the Red Skull.
Even though it certainly wasn't that, she kept walking swiftly down the stairs out of her room and into the common area of her floor. Bruce was nowhere to be seen, and Darcy was out somewhere. It had just been Sinthea and her father.
"Come back here!" her father shouted from the top of the stairs as Sinthea just kept moving. "Damn it, girl, I said come back here!"
Sinthea didn't listen. She had to get away. She had to keep moving. Sinthea looked at the bowl of fruit as she passed it and saw the strange-looking dragon fruit. It reminded her of her talk with Bruce on the train. Back when he'd admitted that his own father "was an ass" just like her own.
Her father was an ass. And if she stayed with him right now any longer, they would come to blows. She was more like her father than she enjoyed admitting. She was rude, rash, angry, and driven by emotion. Just like Johann Schmidt.
Sinthea kept walking until she reached the door of her district's suite. She opened the door, walked through, and slammed it shut in defiance. But now where would she go? She wasn't friends with any tribute, so she couldn't go visit any of the floors, even if that was allowed, and she wasn't sure about that. But she couldn't just go back inside. She'd be beaten to shreds, or, if she had it her way, she'd end up beating up her mentor.
Her father had been so angry with her because she'd gotten a six on the scores for private assessments. He'd expected, nay, he'd demanded better. And she'd failed. Her measly score of six had not been enough for the daughter of the Red Skull.
So rooftop it was. Heading down the short hallway to the elevator, Sinthea hopped inside and pressed the button for the very top floor. The roof. She had heard rumours that the Careers had met up here sometime previously.
But when she arrived, she quickly realized that she wasn't alone. The sound of small explosions echoed across the rooftop, and it took her little time to see what the source of the disturbance was. The burly kid from Seven was tossing pebbles at the force field … apparently just to watch them explode.
Sinthea crept forward quietly, trying to get a better read on the kid. Logan was his name, she remembered. Well, James, but he went by Logan. After all, she remembered watching his reaping. "James Howlett." That's what they'd announced. Why the hell would he be up here?
"You really gonna try sneakin' up on me, Red?" His tone was gruff, and he hadn't looked over his shoulder as he continued to toss the occasional pebble over the edge.
She sneered in the dark before walking calmly and confidently into the light of the large floodlights. "Worth a try."
"What the hell're you doin up so damn late anyhow? Past yer bedtime, ain't it?" Logan finally turned to look at her, one eyebrow raised in question. He looked irritated himself. Must have been that kind of night for everyone.
"You act all high and mighty, but you aren't any different from the rest of us," Sinthea pointed out. "You're a kid, just like me and Bruce and Tony and Pepper. So don't you dare be talking down to me."
He considered her for a moment and just grunted in response before muttering out a "whatever" and turning back to tossing pebbles at the force field, a little more force to his throws than he'd been using.
High an' mighty. Right. That's a new one, he thought to himself. She didn't like it when he pointed out her youth. He could almost feel the anger radiating off of her.
"Here … throw a few. It's kinda entertainin' when they blow up." He offered her a handful of pebbles, largely ignoring her irritation.
Sinthea glared at him in suspicion, convinced he had something up his sleeve, but she took them anyways. She began tossing them off the side of the roof, watching as each individual rock made its own kind of explosion.
Each time a rock left her hand, she imagined it was her father's head. It would hit the force field, sizzle, and then poof! It was gone. It actually made her feel slightly better.
He just watched her as her smirk grew slowly before going back to it himself, the two of them taking turns watching the rocks disappear in an almost perfect imitation of fireworks.
"So, James," Sinthea smirked, using his birth name, "what brings you up here?"
"First of all, it's Logan. And I should ask you the same question. Some jackass was gettin' on my nerves. Can't toss him over, so rocks it is."
She snorted. "I know the feeling. Damn mentor of mine is an ass, as Bruce puts it."
He looked at her a little harder now. "Yeah? Join the club." There wasn't much to be said. Crappy situation for all of them; no way out, really. The pebbles that had vaporized gave silent testimony to that.
"They think they know everything. They think they're better than us. But they're wrong. We're better. We're stronger. They didn't have it as bad as us."
She was of course thinking of her own father as she spoke. Johann Schmidt had been a wealthier citizen of District Six. He'd never grown up in the slums of the district. He'd had cake for his birthday, he'd attended school only, not working in the factory until his late years. Sinthea? Sinthea had worked since she was seven, had had a cake on her birthday once in her life, and attended school only most days, as she spent some time nursing wounds she suffered from her life as a gang member.
"We'll show them." She nearly shouted as she threw a particularly large pebble down onto the force field with quite an arm.
"Ya try hittin' him?" he teased. "Better'n throwin' pebbles."
She bared her teeth like an angry cat. "I almost did. Then Darcy got between us. Lady's got nerve, I'll give her that."
"Huh." He thought it over for a minute before responding deeper, hesitating before divulging, "Broke Creed's nose. Jubes missed the show, but she's barely left me alone with him since. Gonna end up payin' for it, I'm sure. Just don't know how yet. He gets a kick outta pushin' me. Probably better off ya didn't really throw down with yer old man."
Sinthea outright grinned. "So that's why he was sporting the black eyes and tape. Bravo! And it's worth whatever they throw at you. After all, you need to make every moment count." She paused, thinking about the latter part of his statement. "He isn't a father to me. He's a murderer. A maniac. A traitor. Not family."
"Family like that ain't worth the air they're stealin' from everyone else just breathing."
"Yeah." She trailed off, thinking about home. About her real family.
Crossbones and Grandma Scarbo were the closest things to family she'd had. Now they were gone. She couldn't communicate with them. She hoped that Brock hadn't gone and gotten himself killed without her.
She also hoped her "father" lost his footing on the stairs and broke his neck, though. Just for good measure, she threw another two pebbles off the side.
"If you end up winnin' … you got anything to look forward to? That is, aside from stealin' yer daddy's thunder?" he teased, one eyebrow raised with a playful smirk on his lips.
She smiled. "That's the main idea. Make them remember the younger Schmidt. The better Schmidt. I don't really know what I'll do after, other than spend a ton of money on pointless shit. How about you?"
He sighed, thinking it over. It really wasn't something he'd worked that far out yet. "I'll kill Creed."
She looked surprised, but eager. "You think that's an option? Because I'd love to kill my father!"
"If I gotta spend the rest of my life livin' next door to that sonofabitch, yeah. It's about the only option."
"You know, what're they gonna do to us if we kill them, even if we do it now? They're already sending us to our deaths. At least most of us anyway. What else can they do?" Sinthea pointed out.
"Nothin' to me. I don't have anyone back home. No family, no friends. Not even a damn dog."
She snorted, "Really? You look like the animal type."
"Nothin' domestic," he replied with a mischievous look in his eyes. "Nothin' that couldn't take care of itself without me."
"My first kill was a goddamn rat that ran into my room when I was eight. Stupid thing was scared. It had a good reason to be, too." She smirked at him, grabbing another pebble from the pile at his feet. She threw it out over the rail, and it went up in an explosion.
"Is that your biggest kill to date, Red?"
"You wish. Nah, I've put a couple people into the grave." She exaggerated this last bit a little, for her greatest kill was when someone she fought died when their non-fatal wounds had gotten infected. But he didn't need to know those details. After all, she had managed to kill one other gang member in self-defence.
He just smirked, not buying it for a minute. She was a toughie, but he had a hard time believing any of them had gone that far. Outside of the convicted murderer, that is. Most of 'em hadn't even been in a damn fight, as far as he could tell. He was thinking about Kurt, Parker, 'Ro, Pepper … even Sin's district partner … Bruce. None of them looked like they knew the first thing about defending themselves, let alone attacking someone or killing in cold blood.
She picked a small pebble and held it in her hand. For a moment, she closed her eyes and tried to make all her anticipation and fear flow into it before tossing it over the railing.
"What do you think of the Careers, Lumber-boy?"
"They're a buncha assholes. But if you want specifics, you'll have to clarify who."
Sinthea shrugged. "Mainly the archer and the redhead. Girl's not letting on about all her skills, or I'm a gopher. And the boy… something's strange about him. Almost too nice to be a Career."
"She's a liar. It's all show with that one. Far as the others go, I'm keepin' my eye on the nutjob in One."
She snorted and scoffed. "Which one? The girl was in jail and he's ... well I don't even know."
"Natch. Point to the lady, but I was referrin' to the boy. Talkin' to himself all the damn time."
She agreed. "What the hell's a chimichanga?"
He just chuckled finally. "No idea."
Sinthea was looking up at the moon. There were no stars visible because of all the light pollution of the Capitol. She kind of missed seeing the constellations. She and her gang used to find ones that looked like snakes. Picking up a pebble, she threw it high up into the air and waited several moments before it landed on the force field and exploded.
She looked at him strangely when he scanned around him and simply found a spot to lay down, his hands behind his head as he stared up into the darkness. Clearly in no rush to go back inside, and apparently doing the same thing she was. Looking for stars that simply wouldn't show themselves.
For her part, she was content to pace around, kicking the leftover pebbles back and forth. She also had no desire to go inside. She wondered what would happen if they stayed up here all night. Would someone come get them?
As if in response, Darcy Lewis stormed in through the opening elevator door. She saw Logan and Sin there together and shook her head.
"You two… you didn't…"
"Didn't what?" Logan growled out, giving the interloper a dirty look. She wasn't alluding that they … the way these people thought around here.
Sinthea went red-faced in anger and kicked a rock at her. "Don't even think about that, Darcy. I'm too good for this woodsman. We were just talking!" Logan snorted at her commentary.
"Talking." Darcy eyed them with suspicion, "Talking. Right. One of these days, either you or your dad is going to get me killed, Sinthea. And you, James Howlett, right?"
"Logan," he all but snarled as he sat up. "It's Logan. Thanks …. Marcy, right?"
"Whatever. Where are you supposed to be? Back with your teammates is the right answer. Come on, both of you. Back down to the rooms."
"Where am I supposed ... You want me to leave, sweetheart? Go scurry on off and see what kinda mood Creed's in. He said somethin' about lookin' for a new chew toy. You might just be his type if ya pull that stick outta yer ass," Logan growled out. "Hell, it'd do me a favour if ya did. Tell him I sent ya."
Sinthea burst out laughing at the look on Darcy's face. Darcy was completely mortified. She wouldn't stand for this. But for now, there was very little she could do.
"No one likes Creed, Logan," she admitted. "Some of us just steer clear of him. He tends to leave you alone. Pity you can't." Darcy smirked.
"What's a pity is how scared you all are of him."
Darcy ignored him. "Sinthea, you have half an hour, and then I'm sending your father up to get you."
"Send 'im up now" Logan growled out. The appearance of her escort had clearly irritated him. Her assumption that he and Sin had been doing anything but talk had flat pissed him off. "Why the hell not. Was wonderin' what kinda sound a giant jackass would make if he got tossed over."
Sinthea turned to Logan, "There's no point in provoking him. I can handle his anger, but Bruce might get caught in the middle trying to pull some stupid 'protecting me' shit. I should go."
She proceeded to throw a rock at Darcy. "I'll be right there." Logan looked to her escort and gave her a dismissive huff.
Sinthea picked up all the leftover pebbles and chucked them over the railing. She would find out later from Kate Bishop that the sound had kept the girl and Loki up half the night, the sound of the explosions being right above their rooms.
"Alright, see yah, Lumber-boy. Beat Creed up some more for me. We'll show our mentors' who's boss."
He just jerked his chin up at her in response, getting comfortable again. As Darcy glared at him, he flipped her off.
Sin wished she'd had a way to warn him when, on the stairs on the way down, they passed Creed heading up. She hadn't made friends with this boy, but it was nice to know someone shared her hatred of the mentors that she harboured. And she wanted to make sure he survived at least /to/ the Games. But he could handle himself. He was a big boy, so she didn't worry all that much. Even as the two of them could be heard barking at each other as she and Darcy stepped onto the elevator.
"What is wrong with that kid?" Darcy grumbled, crossing her arms as the doors closed. "He's going to get himself killed before this thing even starts."
"Creed's a jackass. There's nothing wrong with Logan wanting to beat him up!" she insisted, walking up to the door of their suite.
Though she wasn't worried about Logan, she soon was worried slightly about herself as she walked inside her suite and saw the Red Skull ready to pounce.
