Author's Note
I do not own the Hunger Games.
A big thank you to HoppsHungerfan, SongofFete, HowTheHoursGoBy, and HogwartsDreamer113 for your reviews on the last chapter. I think the triplets surprised everyone!
District Three Male, Gadge Bishop (12)
Data was dead.
She was dead.
Dead dead.
Never going to wake up dead.
Not going to come back dead.
Dead dead dead.
And for he first time since this whole thing started, Gadge felt truly on his own.
Sure, he had Zinnia, and Oliver, and Data's babies, but...
The babies were going to be a problem.
And Zinnia and Oliver...
They were District partners.
And like him and Data, they trusted and cared for each other more than they did for him.
Gadge was alone.
Alone alone.
And Data was gone.
He'd been speaking to her, holding her hand, and...
And now she was dead.
At least she hadn't been brutalised by another tributes.
And her Little Ones were alive.
For now.
And safe.
For now.
Gadge wet his lips.
He'd never felt so alone.
More than ever he wished he could close his eyes and open them again and he would be safe at home in District Three. He could find Data there and she wouldn't even know who he was or why he would want to talk to her, but they would both be alive, they would both be safe.
There seemed no point to this.
Throwing babies into a world like this.
Zinnia started gathering up the supplies.
"What are you doing?" Gadge asked.
"They'll want to take the body."
"Her body," Gadge corrected.
Data's body.
Because she was dead.
Dead dead dead dead.
And he was all on his own.
"We're just going to leave her here?"
"We can't take it with us. Come on."
Gadge gazed at Data's lifeless figure one last time and then gathered up two of the babies, Zinnia and Gadge. It was weird, having a baby named after oneself, but that was what Data had wanted. Oliver took the third, the one she'd called Maizie. They stepped outside to the blaring lights of a hovercraft. Three small boxes were lowered down on cables. Zinnia frowned and held her spear tight.
The box nearest them had 'Baby 1' printed on the top in bold black letters. Gadge looked at the babies in his arms, then at the box, then at the babies.
"What was it you said?" Zinnia asked. "No one wants to kill a newborn baby."
"But what do you think they'll do with them?"
"Send then home to Sean hopefully. Come on, put one in the box."
Gadge stared at the babies more. They were all he had of her now, all he had of District Three, all he had of home. But they were tiny, and innocent, and being freed.
He put baby Zinnia in the box. "Her name is Zinnia," he said. "Not baby one." Then he walked to the second box and put baby Gadge in. "His name is Gadge."
Oliver put Maizie in the third box. "Her name is Maizie."
They would stand out like sore thumbs in District Three with names like those.
But they were the names Data gave them.
The boxes vanished into the hovercraft.
When Gadge looked back at what had been their camp, he could see Data's body was gone too.
The thought of setting foot in there again made him feel ill.
The Capitol anthem played as they were walking away. Zinnia remembered the hollow under the tree and said they could set up camp there for the night. They all stopped to look up.
Data's face shone in the sky.
She was gone now.
Dead dead dead dead dead.
"Attention tributes," came the voice from nowhere and everywhere.
"Fuck it what now?" grunted Zinnia.
"We are making a slight change to the rules of these Games. If the final two tributes at the end of the Games are allied with each other as of right now, they may both be crowned victorious. Good luck tributes, and may the odds be ever in your favour."
Gadge wanted to scream.
He really did.
It would attract attention to them.
He found he didn't care.
He screamed anyway.
District Seven Male, Tupelo Barker (18)
Two Victors.
Two.
So long as they were allied.
Two tributes could win.
They could both win.
He grinned. Willow stared at him. He wanted to shout out, to scream and hug her and celebrate.
He couldn't of course, because currently they were both still hiding from the very big cats he was pretty sure wanted to kill them.
But they could both win!
He could take the most amazing woman he had ever met home to meet his parents, and punch her father on the nose!
They could both win!
They could both get out of this!
Of course, first there was the slight problem of the cats.
The cats were a definite problem.
So far, they hadn't seen them in their hiding place, but every time they thought about making a move, one of the creatures would come strolling past.
But they couldn't sit here forever.
Sooner or later, the Gamemakers would decide for them.
Willow jumped to her feet and grabbed his hand.
"What are you doing?" he hissed.
"Making a break for it instead of sitting there like a stranded duck. Come on!"
Damn, he really loved this girl.
They took off down the trail at breakneck pace. Soon enough the bridge off the island was in sight and Tupelo really thought they might be in with a chance.
Then one of the bigger cats came strolling round the corner. It was a huge yellow thing, with a tangle of orange fur around its face.
Tupelo drove his axe into the top of its head. Quickly, Willow ran round to its side and slammed her axe into its neck. It roared and slashed out at them with one razor clawed paw. Tupelo wrenched his axe from its head and slammed it down on the paw, severing it. Willow drove her axe deeper into its neck. It shuddered and thrashed. Tupelo slammed his axe down on top of hers. The cat collapsed. He helped wrench her axe free. "Let's go."
They sprinted for the bridge. He could hear more of the mutts coming now, their paws slamming against the ground. He ran faster. At last they reached the bridge, a thin wooden thin. He shoved Willow onto it and jumped on behind her. They were only halfway across when the mutts reached the shore.
And stopped.
The mutts paced back and forth on the shore, but they didn't try to cross the bridge.
"They're not following. Why aren't they following?"
Willow shrugged. "Maybe they can't leave the island."
Oh.
Oh, that made sense.
They scrambled across to the other side.
Just for good measure, they destroyed the struts holding the bridge and shoved it into the water, watching it sink out of sight. Willow turned to him. "So."
"So," he said, and then the excitement broke over him all over again. "We can both win!" he shouted. "We can both go home!"
She squealed and jumped at him, wrapping her arms around his neck. He spun her round. "We could have that house, and pets, and children, and I will grow old with you! Neither of us have to die in this damned arena!"
Neither of them had to die.
But they both still could.
They still could, and that was the thought that saw him put Willow down again. They still could, and that was the thought that erased his happiness.
They could both still die.
They nearly had at the claws of those mutts.
They could be killed by another tribute.
They nearly had at the hands of Silas's and the Eleven girl's alliance.
They could be wiped out by the Gamemakers.
They hadn't had a run in like that yet, but it could happen.
It could.
They could both still die.
But they could both win.
District Four Male, Orion Achoda (18)
This was done for them.
Orion was pretty sure of it.
The Capitol wanted to see their beautiful twins from Four win and become beautiful twin Victors from Four. Victors of the same Games even.
And at last they had a way out.
"We can both get out of here," he said, and gave Astoria's hand a squeeze. "We can both go home."
Home.
He hadn't thought of that in... too long.
It felt like they'd been in the arena longer than he could remember.
Training felt like a lifetime ago.
That nightmare of a reaping even more.
He felt like he could barely remember their family, picture their faces, hear their voices.
Home felt like an incredible dream.
But they could make it.
Astoria gave him a grim smile. "We're not out of the woods yet brother-mine. There are nine tributes between us and Victory."
Nine.
And it had been one of the weakest links that just died.
"Nine's not such a big number," he said.
"It's a big enough number."
"But it's not so big."
Not like twenty two.
Not like the whole world.
Even if sometimes it felt like the whole world was against them.
They still had each other.
They would always have each other.
Two halves of the same whole.
As if to prove it, their shadows were merging on the floor in front of them.
Astoria squeezed his hand tight. "The Ten boy's still out there. And so is Maximus."
Maximus was a big enough threat, Orion knew that. He'd sparred with him in training, watched him spar with trainers. He was good.
Scary good.
But there were two of them.
Or one in two bodies.
Orion wasn't sure which sometimes.
"There are two of us. There's only one of him."
"That didn't work so well against the Ten boy."
"We'll make it work." He lifted her hand to his lips. "I'm not going anywhere without you."
They had the chance now. It was right there, hanging over them, shining bright.
All they had to do was make it.
District Eleven Male, Oliver Farmer (14)
Oliver didn't want to begin to imagine what Gadge was feeling right now.
Data died, and then the rule was changed.
If it had changed just that bit earlier-
It would have made no odds.
Data died from complications with the childbirth. There was nothing they could have done to stop that.
The boy from Three had screamed, once, kicked the ground, and now said nothing else.
Two Victors.
As long as they were allies.
He could go home with Zinnia.
He could win with Gadge.
But it could only be two of them.
Their problem was that they were three.
Not two.
But they weren't separating now. It would feel wrong, somehow, when they had come this far together, when they had faced all they had together, fought together and lost together. It would feel wrong to separate.
So it was him, and Zinnia, and Gadge.
Oliver felt awful for it, but he knew which one he would rather take the crown with.
The truth, though, the truth was that he would almost certainly be one of the next ones to die.
Who thought the little lame boy from Eleven would get so far?
Certainly not him.
He wondered if they were watching, back home. Eleven hadn't had tributes come this far in a while. Were they cheering them on now that there was a possibility they could both come home? Were they sending them luck and wishes before they went to bed? Were they expecting to wake up to bad news in the morning?
Then he wondered if Sage was watching, if she knew what was going on.
She was a sweet kid.
She deserved a good life.
If he lived, if he got out of here, he could give her one.
He could make her family, make himself a family.
Except he'd done that, had one of those, and now most of them were dead.
He looked at Zinnia and wondered what she was thinking about. One could never tell with her. Was she calculating which one of them would be best to take on and which one to kill?
Oliver wouldn't put it past her.
They made it to the hollow under the tree. It was big enough for all three of them and they curled up inside, bunched close together.
"I'll sit first watch," Zinnia said. Gadge wrapped his arms around his legs and rested his chin on his knees.
"It's not fair," he mumbled. "Why'd she have to die?"
Neither of them could answer that.
District One
As they did for all their tributes, District One held a memorial for Diamond the day after her death, and everyone in the District wore black for three days to mourn the loss of their brave Careers for another year.
Diamond's parents nodded wisely and observed that they'd always known she wouldn't make it. She just wasn't as talented as Tiara. Their precious Tiara would throw them out of her house a month later when they started badmouthing Diamond. Her brother, Platinum, would volunteer the following year, and the Blush family would face the pain of having lost all three of their children to the Games.
Tiara Blush became a bit of an oddity in District One, a Career Victor who hated the Games. In time, maybe she would be the one to talk the Career recruits at the academy into seeing they were throwing their lives away and joining the rebellion to attack the peacekeeper barracks in the dead of night. Or maybe she would continue her lonely, drunken life.
District Nine
District Nine was used to their tributes dying, but Maizie had done something that hadn't been done in a long time. She had selflessly sacrificed herself for the lives of her allies (and one ally in particular). Most of the District turned out for her funeral. She would be buried next to her brother.
Her mother would join them six months later after inadvertently starving herself to death.
District Three
Mass uprisings broke out in District Three during Data's labour, the citizens there furious at her treatment. Outright rebellion broke out after her death. The town hall was burnt to the ground, as was the Capitol embassy. Any Capitolites in the District had to be quickly evacuated.
All in all, it took six weeks to settle the rebellion in District Three. Countless citizens and peacekeepers alike were killed.
Even then District Three never forgave and never forgot. They said her name as a symbol and wore her death as a scar on their hearts. If a rebellion was to come, District Three would be the first to agree.
Data's children, Maizie, Gadge, and Zinnia, were kept in a neonatal unit in the Capitol for those six weeks and closely monitored. Maizie would have problems with her heart and Gadge with his lungs. After the uprisings, they were returned to their father, Seam, who tried to shield them as best he could from being seen as symbols by the rest of the District.
They would grow to be tough and resilient, but with their mother's heart and intelligence. Maybe by the time they turned eighteen the Hunger Games would be a thing of the past, or maybe the Capitol would reap them one by one to remind the District's there would never be any hope.
Author's Note
Well, wasn't that a cheery end to the chapter?
So here we are at long last, at the end of the long haul that was day and night seven. Why yes, it was in four parts. Just because I felt like it.
Eulogies
District One Female, Diamond Blush (17), killed by Maizie Miller of District Nine. Placed Fourteenth.
Ah, Diamond. Diamond was... well, a lot of things. She was something I saw a lot of a while back, an overlooked, angry, bitter, Victor's relative. She was the beautiful and deadly District One girl. Admittedly, her vain, ditziness did get lost somewhere along the line. I think I'd have liked to see Diamond go further and gain some sort of closure in her arc with Max and V, but not everyone can have complete storylines or smooth arcs in the Hunger Games. I'm afraid that unlike many of my other dead tributes, this was in fact always Diamond's planned fate.
District Nine Female, Maizie Miller (16), killed by Diamond Blush of District One. Placed thirteenth.
Maizie! Oh gosh, this was actually one of the few tribute deaths that has actually hurt! Maizie was of course the sibling/family member of a tribute who has died in the Games. She was also the happy, bubbly girl, though that went down a bit as the story went on I think. Maizie was actually one of my favourite characters to write for, especially with her internal thoughts. I did consider her for a Victor for a bit, but like Diamond, this has been her planned arc and end for a while now. I just didn't account for how much it would hurt! As Oliver said though, sacrificing herself for her allies was such a Maizie thing to do, and I couldn't agree more.
District Three Female, Data Huxley (18), died in childbirth. Placed twelfth.
As everyone guessed immediately, Data was the stereotypical pregnant tribute, who we almost always seem to see as being heavily pregnant. Data was always quite a difficult one for me, but I did enjoy developing her and writing her relationship with Gadge. The big problem with pregnant tributes is of course that when they die, it kills off the baby too, and no one wants that. I know Hopps in particular was quite adamant there should have been more of a reaction to her being pregnant. There was meant to be, but I'm just not good at writing that sort of thing. Yes, this was always always always what I was going to do with her. I've known this from the very beginning. This moment with her alliance is in fact what most of their story and storylines have been leading up to.
So there we have it! Three tributes have died on Day Seven. There are now eleven left, and they're faced with a stereotypical plot twist: we can have two victors as long as they are currently allies. Take your guesses on how that could develop and end. Also, feel free to drop a vote on the poll on my profile!
