AUTHOR'S NOTES: After I finished writing this story, I went back and reviewed bits of it and felt that something was missing, and thus, this chapter was born. Originally, Chapter 37 was Chapter 36 (and so on), and this Chapter 36 simply did not exist. I wrote this on the spot just now and felt that it was an important (albeit slightly brutal) addition to the story because of the character development therein. You might be able to tell where some of this is going, but I think one of the biggest perks that this chapter possesses (besides also ironically being the longest one in the series, despite me cranking it out in a couple hours) is that it shows exactly what kind of person Junichi Thatch is, and thus provides us with some very interesting insight on her character.
Happy reading.

CHAPTER 36: A Mother's Love

As Ava got her things together, she could hear heavy footsteps approaching her room, but did not think much about it. She glanced at her dresser, where Chel's battleaxe was resting, and suddenly saw a black-skinned hand take hold of it. She looked up, and to her utter astonishment, there was Chel Colorado, exactly as Ava remembered her. She was clothed in a dazzling white dress that looked like a more elaborate version of the one she had worn on her interview night a few weeks ago.

"I'm glad you kept Bridget safe for me," the larger girl smiled.

"Chel!?" Ava gawked, "pinch me. I'm dreaming, aren't I? Did any of this happen?"
"Did any of what happen?" Chel chortled, picking up her axe and examining it.

"The games!" Ava exclaimed, "the arena… you and me… Wes… Iris… Chaco!"

"Of course the games happened," Chel nodded, "you killed Cress in the opening minutes and Iris was furious. We broke from the career pack and made a break for it. Then there was a lot of fighting and me carrying you while you carried my battleaxe, and all sorts of other fun things."
If this Chel was an illusion, she was doing a damn good job at seeming real. Ava pinched herself a few times and even punched herself in the face to no effect. She was standing on her two feet and this was real in front of her.

"Why are you hurting yourself?" Chel tilted her head, "I know my jokes are bad, but I didn't think they were so bad that you'd resort to self-harm."

Ava groaned. "Chel, that was worse than bad, and you know it." She laughed.

"I regret nothing," Chel laughed again, "that's a pretty dress though."

"Well gosh, so is yours!" Ava exclaimed, "so tell me everything! You're supposed to be dead! How did you get in here? This doesn't make sense and so I thought I was dreaming!"
"Well… Zurok the Gamemaker brought me back—said she liked me." Chel explained, "the Capitol can create mutts out of thin air, and they proved they could even bring a humanoid to life with that black-haired monster we saw, yeah? Well… apparently they did the same to me."
It certainly made Ava think of the cruelty of the Capitol if they really did have the power to bring the children they tortured and killed annually back to life and did not ever do so.

"There's gotta be a catch though," Ava insisted, "they're not allowing two victors, are they?"

"They're treating this like you won, because technically, you did," Chel went on, "They're taking you to District 12, and then me to District 2. When the victory tour starts, they'll pick me up and then come to pick you up. We're still going to visit District 2 in order, since I'm not a victor; I'm just a survivor."
"You'll be an awesome victory tour partner!" Ava sighed happily, throwing her arms around her beloved friend. "Chel, I can't believe you're actually here!"
Chel rubbed Ava's back reassuringly, "and even in heels, you are still super-tiny, kiddo." She quipped, "I'm going to pick you up and squeeze you."

Before Ava could react, her feet left the ground and Chel bear-hugged her again, lifting her several inches off the ground. The tiny girl squealed, but didn't struggle. She did not want her gown hiking up.

Chel set Ava down a moment later and ruffled her hair. "you shouldn't sleep in that gown though, kid," she warned, helping straighten the garment for Ava, "you'll get it all wrinkly or maybe ruin it. That would be quite the tragedy, wouldn't you say?"

"I'll say," Ava nodded, still just overjoyed that Chel was there with her. "still… why do you gotta make fun of my size, Chel?"
"Because you're the size of a 10-year-old," Chel laughed, "…and cute as a 6-year-old…"

"Chel, I'm 15." Ava protested. Not to say that Ava was sensitive about her small size, but it was slightly touchy when someone called her young and cute when, after the Hunger Games, she had matured significantly, to the point where even President Snow himself had said she had gone from being a girl to being a woman. Really, that was just another of the many things the 'games did to someone. They would destroy any childhood that boy or girl had left in them, and start them prematurely on the road of adulthood, where dealing with this issue became a rising concern. It was one of the reasons so many victors did not have children—Vigo was single and childless after all. Would Ava be the same way?

"I don't care," Chel snapped Ava back to reality, "you're cute and so I'm going to remind you of that."

"Fine," Ava grumbled, crossing her arms and pouting, before getting another curious question.

"So what was death like?" she said softly, "I am pretty sure I had killed you, after all…"

"it was like sleeping," Chel shrugged, running her large hands down the handle of her trusty battleaxe, "I woke up in an operating room a while later, and they told me I was back. Long story short, here I am with you again."
"It still feels like a dream," Ava shook her head. "even getting reaped at all… It's hard to realize that my brother is still gone—unless they saved him too?" Ava half expected Wes to walk in through that door, but no one appeared, except for Chel who was still standing in front of Ava.

"Just me,"Chel shrugged. "They were going to revive Iris as well; but I strangled a man and threatened to do the same to the rest of them if they dared try it—so they didn't."
"Bull!" Ava laughed, knowing that Chel was making that up.

"Fine, you're right. I didn't see or hear anything about Iris, luckily. Otherwise I'd owe her a knife to the gut for what she did to me. Anyways, let's go out to the balcony again, what do you say?"
"Aren't we about to get ready to go home though?" Ava mused, swearing that she had heard Junichi come in earlier.

"We've got a while," Chel reassured her, taking her battleaxe and heading out of Ava's room towards the common room and then the balcony. "It's still dark out, mind you."
Sure enough, as Ava stepped outside, the sky was still black and glittering with the various city lights of Panem's magnificent Capitol. Chel's gown shimmered in the moonlight, and so did Ava's.

"It's amazing, isn't it?" Chel commented, gazing over the balcony, "how two simple weeks of someone's life can change them so powerfully… you're definitely not the kid you were when I met you in that elevator, Ava. You've grown so much."

"Doesn't that happen to everyone?" Ava sighed, "I don't think innocence could last more than 1 minute and 38 seconds in the arena."
"True enough," Chel chuckled, as Ava walked towards her. playfully, Chel stuck her foot out to see if Ava would notice, but the smaller girl failed to notice, and thus planted on her face instead. She saw a few stars, but had managed to prevent breaking her nose against the solid floor of the platform.

"Chel, that was NOT even funny, you ass." Ava was half-chuckling, knowing that Chel's sense of humor was weird like that. Without even looking up, she extended her hand.
"Chel, help me up," she muttered, figuring her friend would happily pull her back up, but there was no response. "Chel?" Ava muttered again, twisting her head again to try and see Chel's feet. However, there was nothing there, where Chel had just been. Grunting and pushing herself into a kneeling position on the floor with her hands, Ava looked around. She was still on the balcony under the night sky and everything but Chel was not there.

"Chel!?" Ava called out, slightly more frantic. Scrambling to her feet, she raced back to her bedroom in hopes of finding evidence of Chel's presence. Instead, she found the opposite. Chel's trusty battleaxe was still leaning against the dresser right where Ava had left it before. The horrifying reality of what had just happened finally sunk in—it had all just been a dream. The nightmare had not ended until just now.

Ava threw herself onto her bed in utter, hopeless despair as she cried herself to sleep.

Her face was still red when Junichi woke her up for real, except the woman's approach was unarguably one of the most unusual things that Ava had ever experienced. The Capitol woman sat at the side of Ava's bed, gently running her hand through Ava's hair the way a mother would. It reminded Ava that the woman had said she had lost a child before, and she wondered if this explained Junichi's attachment to her or not, but did not have the ability to ask.

"Bad dream?" she asked Ava once the smaller girl woke up.

Ava simply nodded, whimpering again.

"I wish there was more that I could do, dear," she insisted, "but you probably know how tied my hands are. I understand that telling a distressed victor to cheer up or get over it is probably the most inconsiderate thing I could say to them… but I do hope you can be happy again."
Ava slowly sat up, slowly sliding out of bed until she was sitting next to the blue-haired woman in the sharp white and purple suit.

"You remind me of Chel," Ava glanced up into the escort's red eyes.

"How so?" Junichi glanced over at Chel's battleaxe in the corner, "she probably related to you better than I ever could. I will never know the Hunger Games personally… I will never see my friends and family go to their deaths.

"Because you break the mold," Ava explained, "District 2 is known for their vicious and loyal tributes. They are ruthless and merciless, in these games for glory, which is why they volunteer." Ava might have been from District 12, but she knew this truth about District 2 as well as anyone.

"Chel volunteered though," Junichi reminded Ava, running her dexterous fingers up and down the girl's bare back (for the gown had a very low back). Ava shuddered briefly.

"But she was like you—friendly, humble, caring… either you're putting on a damn good act for me, Junichi, or I'd dare say that you care quite a lot about me, and even Vigo. You're not the usual airhead that comes through and gleefully reminds us that we're sending two of our children to their deaths. I can see it in you—your hands are truly tied."

Junichi was silent for a moment as if pondering something. This was very dangerous territory for them to venture into, and if word got out about Junichi's behavior, she was certain that the Capitol elite would have no trouble killing or torturing her.

"You have read me correctly," she replied softly, looking down at her lap and away from Ava. "Do not speak much of this, I beseech you… but know this, Aveline. I am on your side."
It was in this moment that all of the differences in the world that the society of Panem imposed upon these two women meant nothing. Brief as it may have been, these were two individuals who, despite being from viciously contrasting backgrounds, were seeing eye-to-eye as equals. Junichi Thatch was truly a rare specimen to ever come from the Capitol, and it reminded Ava of a simple truth that Chel Colorado had taught her about the viciously loyalist District 2, only a couple weeks prior.

Not all of them are like that.

"Let's get up and get you ready then," Junichi patted Ava's back, hoping to coax the younger girl to her feet. "Get some breakfast and get ready to leave afterwards, Ava… you're going home!" She gave Ava a genuine smile before stepping out to give Ava a moment to herself. The smaller girl smiled, shedding a tear or two from emotional takeover. Chel might be dead, but there were still good people in this brutal and horrible world they lived in. they came from the most unexpected places sometimes, such as District 2, or even the Capitol itself sometimes. Ava was very glad that she had gotten to know Junichi better. That woman was true rarity in Panem.

Slowly steadying herself and straightening the white gown that she still had on, Ava decided to greet the morning and grab some breakfast.