A/N: I did the whole Block thing a little differently than in the book, it's setup and execution and all that. It flows and it moves the way I needed it to move :p
Chapter 36: Beauty in Tears
Calliope was up before anyone else in her wing, moving around and enjoying the predawn silence. She showered quietly and dressed in her full armor, all except the plates for her upper arms. Beetee had given her a strange woven shirt to wear, not unlike chainmail except for its lightness which was indistinguishable from standard cloth. He said it would offer her similar enough protection, now she would get to find out. She wanted to be early, miss the inevitable semi-parade of solemnity when she walked through the wing. Some things about Callie would probably never change.
She stopped when she left the compartment and stared at Gale, leaning against the railing, waiting for her. He was holding something - two actual swords in leather sheaths - against his chest and staring down at her.
"I figured you'd be up early," he said, but he had forgotten to smile so the words came out grave and heavy.
Calliope shifted on her feet having not exactly wanted to run into anyone that morning, "I couldn't sleep much anyway. What's that?" she gestured to the swords.
"Oh," Gale said and handed them to her, "Beetee wanted me to send these up to you, but I'd rather give them to you myself."
Callie took them and examined the fasteners. They would snap onto her already existing holster straps to keep her unburdened. She slid one halfway out of the sheath to get a look at it and admired the metalwork. A pair of sabres similar to what she had trained with, no guard, a gentle curve towards the end which reminded her of an undertow in a river current. The grip was wrapped with dark brown leather, the mouth and lower hook a brassy colored metal she did not recognize.
Briskly, Calliope snapped the blade back into the sheath and struggled to clip them against her shoulders. Gale swatted her hands away and moved behind her so he could do it for her in silence.
He turned her to face him when he was done and squeezed her shoulders, "I don't know what you'll see in there."
"What did you see?" she asked, having already put together the pieces of his concern.
Gale frowned and shook his head, "I was given orders to follow, I just did whatever the simulation told me to do. You're going to have to do the same thing."
"Then why are you so worried?" Callie had tried to be facetious with him, she even offered a sly smirk, but Gale did not return it.
"Because Coin controls the entire thing, she could change any aspect she picks about your test," he sighed and shook his head, "That's neither here nor there, don't stress out about it and you'll be fine."
"You're right," she said gently, "I will be fine."
Gale was careful when he kissed her, long and lingering like he would see her later and not like he would never see her again. Calliope was about to push him away, but she thought better of it. Nobody was awake, nobody would see, and she wanted him to. She needed one stable thing before she submitted herself to Coin's whims. Gale released her and the moment was over.
"I should get going," she said to break the silence, "Coin'll be waiting for me, I'm sure."
"Katniss and Johanna are taking theirs today, too. So is Finnick," Gale tried to offer helpfully. He wanted to spread out the pressure he could feel on her shoulders.
"You're not helping," she teased in a sing-song tone. It took her a second to keep talking, "Walk with me."
Gale nodded and reached for her hand, winding his fingers through hers and clutching her palm tightly until they heard voices. Reluctantly, he let her go. Calliope swallowed hard and took a deep breath. The rest of the walk was in silence passing hallways she hardly noticed and people she barely recognized. Looming before her, the double sliding doors to the examination room stood like two stoic sentinels. Callie closed her eyes and steadied her breathing, gathering herself. She felt her feet firmly on the ground, her heart beating calmly, brought her mind into focus, and opened her eyes again.
He fished in his pocket and pulled out one more thing - a small earpiece. It looked similar to the ones she was accustomed to using in the field, just smaller. Callie fitted it into her ear and attached it to the small communicator Gale clipped to her shoulder.
Gale saw the determination in her face, she was Commander Cress again. He stepped aside stiffly so she could go into the room and watched her disappear. Coin would be set up in the control room, waiting for Calliope to enter the Block. She would be sitting with Plutarch and Haymitch, observing the trainees as they went in and came out again. Calliope would be the second trainee they tested that morning, one of four solo runs through the SSC they would see that day. Gale decided that was where he wanted to be right now.
Coin saw Calliope turn her face towards the only camera visible to her in the small chamber. She felt serpentlike, a snake in the grass. She was almost excited about Callie's exam. Gale would pick up on this inevitably, not long after he entered the control room, but he would not reflect on this until much later.
It was almost an hour later when Glory burst through the door and looked from Gale to Coin, not bothering to question the lack of surprise at his bullish entrance, "Did she start yet?"
"She's just about to," Plutarch said without taking his eyes off of the screen.
Calliope stood in front of two glass doors that would open to reveal the Block created for the testing portion. She had been labeled exempt from the other three portions, only the Street Combat portion remained. It was the only one Coin could control elements of without lifting a finger. Callie was not stupid, she knew there was a standard test the other soldiers would go through. She also knew that would not be the examination she was about to take.
The glass doors parted and she stepped inside the room.
It was black for a second before she heard the whirr and digital chime of systems being started up. The doors seemed to disappear when the lights overhead came on. Callie's eyes took a moment to adjust when she realized the light overhead was a simulated cloudy daytime sky, only visible between the pillars of buildings. All of it was perfect, it looked exactly like the Capitol. She looked carefully at the broad tiles that lined the fabricated street and wondered if Coin had gone so far as to insert pods into the simulation. She decided against it since none of the other soldiers had trained their people with traps.
The door to the control center opened again and Crowe was chased down by Grouse into the room, "Anything?"
"Just started," Glory said, crossing his arms and lifting his hand to he could grind his teeth anxiously along his thumbnail.
Coin gestured to one of the men controlling the simulation and he tapped an icon on the panel in front of him. Coin bit back a smile.
Calliope heard the gunfire before she saw the orange pops in the window. She ducked back behind one of the buildings and pulled the standard issue pistol from her hip. Firearm practice had made her better with these things, but not perfect. She fired a few shots, but hit nothing and cursed loudly.
The gunshots died down and she put the pistol back, sliding one of the hunting knives from her lower back and listening carefully. The simulated Peacekeepers were careful when they walked, but there was no way boots could be completely silent on paving like this even in a simulation. She listened carefully for the steps as they closed in on her location. Calliope lashed out and used the hilt of her knife to weight her knuckles through the punch and landed a fist cleanly in the side of the Peacekeeper's head. He jerked to the side and she was on him like a viper, shoving the knife into the space under his chin.
The kill was clean and quiet, but she was not invisible. His backup was firing before she was able to duck away again and Callie heard the whiz of a bullet by her head. The realism alarmed her and she considered for a moment what would happen if the bullet had struck her. The movement of her hand was mechanical and she whipped one of the red handled knives from her belt, it landed in the softest flexible portion of the white armor. When it exploded, Calliope did not wait to see what it looked like. She was moving, crouched low like a cat and moving as close to the edge of the buildings as she could. She had no idea what she was supposed to be doing or looking for, but that mattered very little.
Coin touched an image on the small pad in front of her and spoke, "Northwest two blocks, you'll reach your destination point there. Once you arrive, await further instructions."
Callie nodded and realized she was being watched, not just heard. Instinctively, suspiciously, her eyes flicked around the skyline and she searched for the telltale signs of cameras, but found none. When she did not find a camera, she realized she did not expect to find any at all.
She started to move quickly and quietly along the building again.
Something burst from one of the small alleyways that led nowhere and the butt of a rifle plowed into her head. Dazed, Calliope stumbled and fell to the side. She had gotten fairly tired of being hit in the head so all it inspired was rage now. The feeling of fuzziness in her brain was something Callie had learned to cope with without losing too much of herself.
She grabbed the nose of the rifle that the Peacekeeper aimed at her now and pulled him to her, headbutting him hard in the visor of his helmet. He dropped the gun and Callie took it, turning it quickly so she could fire a shot into his chest. The simulated Peacekeeper looked so real, even in death. She had anticipated them to crumble away into blocks or something, not lay dead and bleeding in the street. Calliope did not stop to think about it too long, there was no way she could. Somewhere overhead, a shrill siren started to pulse earsplitting notes.
Crowe leaned forwards to watch the screen, smiling sharply at Calliope disarming the Peacekeeper. He nudged Grouse who kept his face drawn and sullen, a shake of his head implying he would celebrate when she was done.
Plutarch nodded with a soft, breathy chuckle and tapped something into the portable screen with a stylus. He and Haymitch shared a nod which Coin did not look away long enough to register.
Calliope covered her ears and looked around, trying to get her thoughts together. When she pulled her hands away, she felt the sticky sensation of blood on her palm where she had been hit in the head. Ignoring the sudden drop of fear in her stomach, Calliope took off at a sprint. She heard something behind her, shouts and the rattle of gunfire, but kept her feet moving. She rounded a corner and slid when she tried to double back. Peacekeepers, four of them, were walking down the open street that led directly to her relay location.
Coin's voice chimed in her ear, "Push through, Commander. We need to get you to that destination point."
Glory scowled at her and muttered to Crowe, "This kind of shit won't happen in the Capitol, what's she doing?"
"Sh," Crowe said harshly and kept his eyes fixed on the screen broadcasting the simulation. It made him uncomfortable watching Calliope like this, it reminded him too much of the Hunger Games broadcasts. Glory was right to ask what Coin was doing.
Calliope slipped into a very small side street hardly big enough for her, a little vein in a complex of arteries. She took a deep breath and considered her options carefully. Unfortunately, there did not seem to be many. She had to get to the end of that street and apparently that meant whatever the cost. None of these side streets would spit her out anywhere she wanted to go, if they even went anywhere at all. Calliope's only choice was to push through the four Peacekeepers waiting for her down that street.
She steadied herself, took a controlled breath, and reached over her shoulders. Calliope drew the two sabres, untainted by combat, and flexed her fingers around the stiff, unbroken leather. She let a breath hiss out of her lungs and felt her thoughts drift away with it. Callie turned and broke into a run down the street. The Peacekeepers opened fire.
Crowe leaned over and rested his hands on the back of an empty chair, hiding the fact that he was anxious. Grouse was rigid, arms folded, staring straight at the screen. Glory watched with anticipation as Calliope charged once of the simulated Peacekeepers, ducking to the side to avoid his shot and arcing one of the long blades of her new swords upwards. Whatever it was made of, it cut through the armor and split it in two. The material kept the edge from doing too much damage with the first hit, but it was the downward sweep of the second blade that dropped him.
It was so fast the other three actually hesitated, despite their artificial intelligence. Calliope swept one of the blades up and back into its sheath, dropping and rolling when the shots came. She released two yellow handled blades and watched the Peacekeeper fall in a twitching heap. He did not get up. She was not waiting to see if he ever did, though. A pistol shot cracked loudly and too close for comfort, a second shot sent a searing pain through her arm. The mesh fabric had ripped, the bullet bit into her skin. To Beetee's credit, the long angry gash was much shallower than it would have been if her arm had been bare.
Calliope gripped the single sabre with two hands and swept the blade up with her when she rose. She whirled back around and let the momentum carry her the rest of the way, the blade thudding into the Peacekeeper's side. The fourth soldier fired two shots at her, one got her along the exposed curve of her neck and the other ricocheted off the wall behind her. Calliope slammed the hilt into the visor once, twice, three times until it shattered and she saw shards embed themselves in the man's face. He was nondescript, nothing special, Callie pushed the curiosity away before it settled.
She sprinted towards the fourth and final Peacekeeper and sheathed the sabre before she collided with him. He was the same as all the others, all of them copied from the same program. The collision was so real she lost herself in the simulation. Everything about the man felt real when Calliope collided with him. She thought about what she was actually colliding with briefly before swiping the two knives from her lower back and plunging them both into the Peacekeeper's neck and collarbone.
"Get to your destination, Commander," Coin snapped, slightly urgently. It even drew a skeptical sidelong glance from Plutarch.
Calliope was on her feet and sprinting. She vaulted over the hood of the stopped vehicle that brought the Peacekeepers to her, blocking her way to the open space she wanted to reach. Something snagged her foot and she fell, tumbling head over heels for a second before getting her bearings. Calliope turned to see what got her, catching the sight of a spike disappearing in a flurry of pixels.
What she could not see, however, was Coin subtly tapping things on the pad in front of her. Gale was close enough that he could see her hand movements, but did not know what he could have done about them. He saw her access a face, somewhat familiar, and rotate it with a second tap.
Calliope kicked out and got to her feet, slowly and carefully drawing the two sabres again. Overhead it seemed to get dark as though a storm were gathering, not a sun setting. Something was wrong, she could feel it in her bones. She wanted to demand the simulation stop all of a sudden, say something to make it end, but she knew Coin would not let her out that easy.
A Peacekeeper rounded the corner and aimed its pistol at her. It was walking with a confidence uncharacteristic of the simulated versions she had been fighting. Calliope noticed the sudden change immediately and took a defensive stance. The Peacekeeper threw the pistol and drew a baton, running for her without a second though. Calliope met the downswing with crossed blades and shoved the man away. She spun one blade in her hand menacingly and arced both swords down at him. He blocked with his baton and whirled around to hit her in the side. Calliope gritted her teeth against the impact and lashed out with two or three punches to his face. The hilt of the sabre added a bit more force to her movements and his head jerked back a few times.
It did not stop the man, nothing seemed to.
Callie roared and pushed him away from her, pointing one of the sword tips out to him. They circled each other like hawks before he brought the fight back to her with a sweep of his baton and a down strike. Calliope's blades rang out against the carbon steel of his baton, one blade swept away and up when she went for his side. The Peacekeeper hopped to avoid the blow and tried to bring his baton around and hit her, but she met his weapon with hers and disarmed him with a spiraling sweep of one blade she deemed expendable.
Crowe scowled at the simulation and down at Coin, "What is this."
"It's her test," Coin said nonchalantly, "If you're all as good as she is against our top end training simulator, then you have a pass," she turned in her chair with a vicious glimmer in her eyes, "Would you like me to stop the test?"
Crowe tightened his lips and considered saying yes, but thought the better of it and declined. Glory focused on her movements and on those of the Peacekeeper, something about him seemed familiar. It was difficult to say with the visor down and his identity hidden, but Glory knew his movements from somewhere and could not put his finger on it.
Calliope swung her sword down and tried to strike him, but it bit into the armor on his forearms and he shoved hard so she lost hold of the blade. They were even now, even enough at least. The Peacekeeper took a step for her and faked like he would punch her, dropping low to try and sweep her legs out from under her.
Gale had tried to do this to her a number of times, Callie moved without even thinking. She jumped over his legs and kicked out when her feet touched the ground again. Her boot collided with his face and flung the man backwards. He seemed dazed enough for a simulation and she struck. Calliope leaped on top of him and swung a few times until the visor cracked. She could not really point to what made her rip the helmet off, just that it felt right.
Calliope stared down at the man with the bleeding nose, the cut above his light brown eyebrows, green eyes stared up at her. He held up a hand against her onslaught of attacks, but the blows stopped when she realized she recognized him.
Callie thought she would throw up. Immediately she wanted to be sick more than she could remember ever wanting anything in her life. She had her hand poised to strike again, but could not bring herself to bring her fist down.
Glory felt his stomach drop to his feet and took two enormous strides towards the screen to be sure he was seeing correctly. He whirled on Coin, pointing an accusing finger at her and stumbling over his words, "You."
Coin stared at him, cold, daring him to act, "Muttations are common occurrences, especially in the Capitol. They know everything about former Tributes, to think they won't use some of that against us is to grossly underestimate them."
"You," Glory's rage was electric, he rippled with it.
Plutarch motioned for him to sit and looked at Coin, "She's right. It's not fair and it's cruel, but she's got a point. They have the DNA of all former Tributes and can use it against us all whenever they choose. Look how easy it was for Seneca Crane to send those mutts after Katniss and Peeta."
Glory stayed standing and tightened his hands into fists, visible veins throbbed with rage in his neck. He stormed out of the control room and stood in front of the two large doors leading to the Block area. Crowe was at his heels and touched his elbow cautiously.
"What's wrong, soldier?" he said in a low, demanding tone.
Glory turned his face to Crowe, steeped in sympathy and fury, "Marvel. They recreated Marvel to mess with her head."
Calliope felt the blur of tears in her eyes, but she felt no sadness. She turned her face up in the direction she assumed the cameras were and frowned, slowly and deliberately to indicate the combination of anguish and anger she was trying to decide between. This was too far, it was too much for her. She felt herself start to hyperventilate and tried to steady her breathing. The Peacekeeper-turned-Marvel under her hands was very still, it did not fight back or attempt to get up. It was like the simulation stopped receiving commands.
It's only a simulation, she thought to herself over and over, closing her eyes to shut it all out, it isn't real.
"It isn't real," she repeated and opened her eyes again. Callie scowled brutally and stared down into Marvel's face. No, it was not Marvel, Marvel was dead. He had died two years ago, Katniss had seen to that. She knew better than to give the thing under her hands a life or a personality, she was smarter than that. This thing under her hands was not Marvel, it did not even exist.
Callie reached back and inhaled, steadying her shaking hands. She slipped a knife from its sheath and plunged it into his throat in one motion. For a long, distended moment she was completely still. The pulsing shriek of the siren stopped and she heard no buzzing overhead, everything in the simulation just stopped.
Rage overtook her and replaced the stomach turning fear. Callie knew what Coin had done, what she had found out about Calliope, what she had programmed into her examination, and why she was so ready to let her make that deal. She got to her feet with the languid sluggishness of a person with a revelation, like someone with a vendetta they could wait years to fulfill. When she looked back in the direction she felt the cameras would be, her face was unreadable. Her eyes were dark, despite their cold blueness. If looks could kill, this would be one of them.
Coin's voice chirped in her ear again, "Your fellow soldier is a traitor, he's trading secrets to the Capitol. Kill him."
She saw something out of the corner of her eye, like building blocks constructing something. Threads covered it and the digital blocks became a figure, familiar, tall, imposing. She kept her eyes fixed straight ahead and drew her sidearm. Without looking to confirm it was a simulated Glory at her side, Calliope fired a single shot into the simulation's temple and watched it crumble. It was a tower of cards tumbling down after that, everything seemed to erase itself in a series of threads, cards, blocks, anything that rendered them and gave them texture.
The room was illuminated and yet so very dark, long and tall and enormous. There was a material on the wall she did not recognize, black and studded with soft, large squares. The area she determined she had charged the simulated Peacekeeper contained a tall mannequin-like structure that resembled the walls. The ground under her feet was spongy and soft, she felt her feet spring with every step.
Calliope felt the numbness flowing into her veins again. For once, she wondered if that was such a bad thing, if numb was really the worst thing she could be. Over and over she replayed every fight she had ever been involved in through her head, snapshots of images played out in her mind. She decided there were worse things than numb.
The doors opened and Glory half fell inside. Callie was already walking away from the glass enclosed room when he took her by the shoulders. He had expected her to be crying or shaking, maybe sobbing or crumple to the ground, anything dramatic. It was scarier that she was just walking, dry eyed and purposeful. Glory let her go and walked slightly behind her, tense with anticipation.
"Get the men together," she said, her voice strained and low, "We're leaving tomorrow."
"Where are we going?" Crowe had appeared at her elbow and was following her, Grouse seemed to be the only one unsurprised by her reaction.
"The Capitol."