A/N: Skip skip skip ahead a little bit in time…
25. Spill
She watches with satisfaction as Nudge and Fang take turns punching a middle-aged guy's lights out, and smiles despite the fact that her stomach is slowly starting to feast upon itself. Due to her dehydration and lack of food and sleep, Jeb had stuck an IV up her arm, and to get away from the gore upon the screen Max starts to watch the clear liquid slowly drip down into her system. The scientist observes behind her with a deadpan expression. He clicks the top of his pen and scribbles something down.
"Why do I have to keep watching this?" Max groans, and tilts her head back to peer over at the man she once considered as a fatherly figure. "I've already told you, I don't have a breaking point."
"You might not." Jeb's voice is quiet, and he gestures towards the Games going on in the background. "But they do."
Max can't help but wonder what he might mean. Her babies, her warriors have a breaking point? They might get mad at each other, and they might end up fighting it out, but everything's always turned up alright in the end. Well, mostly. Max wishes she can hide the reminding scars glaring up at her from her forearms.
They are her soldiers; every single one of them. They're tough as nails, and won't hesitate to bring someone down. How is it possible that they have a breaking point? How…? "Oh." Her face relaxes as the leader suddenly comes up to the answer. How long had it taken her to come to this? She curls her hands around the bars of the chair and whispers, "It's me. I'm their breaking point."
For a moment the room is silent except for a young boy slinking out of the water and slitting a woman's throat with his knife. The girl on fire appears and takes out the tribute without a second glance.
Jeb places a hand on his daughter's shoulder. It is cold, and she tries to jerk away but his fingers just tighten their grip, until his fingernails are seconds away from puncturing Max's skin. She closes her eyes in an attempt to calm herself down before her temper flares out of control. "Oh, Max," He says silkily. "We should have known you were so conceited. I mean, I knew that you think highly of yourself, but I didn't think it was that much."
If Jeb is baiting her, it works, and Maximum Ride's calm and collected personality snaps in two.
"Conceited? Me? How dare you even think about putting those two words in the same sentence! I dedicated my childhood to taking care of no one but my warriors, my babies. The ones you abandoned to go back to some white coat friends that were part of your little Bauherren group."
Jeb snatches back his hand as if Max has burned him, and she knows she's hit a nerve.
"You think I didn't find out about your friends?" Max pushes. "You think I wouldn't find out about the truth about Dr. Hans? How he trusted you with the world's best distraction?"
"Stop." Jeb mutters.
She can't. "I know, Jeb. I know how Haagen-Dazs knew that the world was going to end before I was even created. You think I wouldn't find out?"
"Stop." Jeb says louder.
She keeps pushing further, unable to do what he commands. She never could. "I was nothing but a pawn, a toy to play with, something to keep the common-minded busy while Hans was busy preparing to take over the world after the apocalypse had run its course!" Max voice continues to grow louder and louder. "We were nothing but stepping stones!"
"Stop!"
"Nothing but disposable distractions!"
"STOP!" Jeb commands, his face inches from hers.
"Sorry, Jeb," Max smiles at him. "I can't stop now. I've just gotten started, because I remember. Everything."
Without thinking, Jeb reaches forward and slaps Max across the face, leaving a sting and the scent of blood in its wake. For a moment they stare at each other, too stunned to drop the weight of silence that's settling upon their shoulders. The girl recovers faster, and she grins wickedly through the pain. "Whose breaking point's been reached now?" she calls after him as Batchelder storms through the door of the room, and slams it shut behind him.
…
"You let them get away!" Johanna looks infuriated, and about ready to thrust her axe through Fang's chest just right there. Secretly, I am glad that I have someone else to chew out the winged ones, knowing that they see me as an odd replacement for their missing Max.
"This is the Hunger Games." Finnick sides with Johanna, his trident gleaming with new blood. "It's either kill or be killed, not let them live and be killed!"
Angel looks ready to cry. "Well, what are we supposed to do?" she cries.
"I know what to do," Johanna says too sweetly, and gets down to the girl's level. She puts both her hands on Angel's shoulders. "You put both hands around their neck, and twist!" the older woman narrows her blood-lusting eyes and curls her fingers around Angel's pale neck. Her small hands claw at Johanna's arms uselessly.
"Let her go!" Gazzy roars defiantly.
The victor from District 7 turns to look at him. "Or what? You're going to give me a mouthful of fist?" she bites.
"I'm thinking about it." Gazzy snaps.
Johanna smirks, and drops Angel onto the sand. She stands. "Okay. So what are you going to do when I press the tip of my axe to your chest…like so?" There is a glitter in her eyes that I can see from where I stand next to Beetee. Johanna studies the boy's face for a moment before relinquishing her weapon. "That's what I thought." Turning to Finnick, she says loudly, "These are a bunch of winged wimps. I say let's kill them and get out of here. They're just a bunch of dead weight. 'Specially the blind one, over there."
Iggy's fist collides with Johanna Mason's face in an instant. She tumbles out of the way and into a ready position. The cut streaks fresh blood down her cheek. "Good, good!" she encourages, the pain a delicious sensation. "But can you finish me off?"
My district partner steps forward and easily disarms the District 7 victor. She falls back onto the sand, defenseless and an easy kill. We can hear her heavy breathing as if I can feel her accelerated heartbeat pulse against my skin. Iggy reaches forward and presses the axe to her neck. There is a moment of absolute tension, my arm frozen pulling out an arrow. I can't decide who I want to shoot first, Johanna or Iggy.
"Go ahead," Jo breathes, obviously dying for a taste of what Wiress had. "Do it. Just one move of your arm and it'll be all over."
So he does. The tall boy raises the weapon to the sky and brings it down at lightning speed. The bird kids look away, but Beetee, Finnick and I lick our lips in anticipation. Johanna's eyes stay wide open, waiting, wanting, starving for the violence. The blood. The sweet release. I can see it in her eyes, and wonder if Iggy can feel how she does. How is it possible that he can be so calm when he's about to claim his first victim?
The sun bounces off the blade of the axe as it comes down and just skims over the skin at the base of Johanna's neck, leaving a sore line behind, and not a single drop of blood. Iggy lets the axe fall from his hand, but he is unwavering, calm. "We are not wimps, Johanna. It takes a lot of courage to take a life, yes. But it takes a lot more to spare one."
And with that, Iggy turns away and starts to walk off the beach and back towards the beach. I want to remind him that now we have no idea where everything in the arena is since we spun, and that we won't know until the beast returns, but I don't. Because I have a feeling that he already knows.
"Wimp!" Johanna screams after him. "Coward! Spineless excuse for a human!" She hurls her axe at the back of his head. In her anger, it spirals around Iggy's flame-like hair and lands in the water.
Nudge frowns at the victor. "Actually, we're mutts." With that, the girl turns on her heel and runs after her friend. One by one the Flock scowls at Johanna and follows Iggy back into the jungle.
"Imbecile! Freak!" Johanna is starting to go mad as she screams, now unable to control her temper. Beetee rises next to me, the spool of wire cradled in his arms. We nod at each other, and follow the rest away from the Cornucopia.
Iggy turns around to face the sounds, cups his hands around his mouth and yells back at her, "You forgot to mention 'great cook'!" In response I think we hear Finnick say he'll stay behind, to try and cool her down.
As we move farther away, Johanna shrieks become occasional gurgles and incessant splashing.
A/N: So I might have made Johanna a little OOC...but whatever. I actually like this chapter :D