Hello...welcome back.
Like the other times, I'm going to try to post more than just this chapter. Let's just say I thoroughly allowed myself to let go during the holiday. No work whatsoever even though it was there to be done.
Oh heads up! Disclaimer: I took most of this scene from the movie (Catching Fire) not the book. The movie is simply easier to follow.
Anyway, enjoy.
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X-X-Part 3-Chapter 24-X-X
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It was early the next morning when they woke up, and then Annabeth was leaving after he'd kissed her once more. She needed to get ready just as much as he needed to and so she was gone, and he was left alone. He dressed up in joggers, and a sleeveless shirt and jacket that had been their training usual for the past week, and then made his way to the lounge room. There was food on the table, and he was aware that technically he wasn't meant to eat anything, but he stuffed himself.
Then he made his way down the elevator.
Genevieve caught up with him. There was an awkward tension in the air. Which he ended shortly.
"Good luck," he told her, bowing his head a little as he looked at his shoes. "May the odds, be ever in your favor."
"You too, Percy," she said kindly.
Hopefully, in three days they were both in thirteen, he thought, as the doors opened and they both stepped out, but they went separate ways. This year they were each getting to the arena with different aircrafts. One for each individual. His fear of flying had long since passed, since Zeus was in no condition to bust him out of there, or was too busy to care about him. It didn't mean he didn't flinch every time the jet caught some turbulence. He got there in one piece, though, and that was all that mattered.
He made his way through the underground of the arena, led by four guards, two in front of him, and two behind him. He didn't think it was necessary, he knew there was no turning back at this point. But he let them guide him through to small room, a transparent cylindrical tube in the middle. Dorian was there as well, and a jumpsuit lying on the table.
They didn't share much, in the sense of words, between them. Neither of them knew what to say it seemed. Dorian did however tell him his opinion on the arena. "The material's thin," he told him. "My guess is some place hot. Perhaps a lot of water too, as it's waterproof. Can't say more than that..."
He nodded, as he pulled up the padded sleeves. "Okay, I can work with water," he said more to himself than to the other man, hoping then, that there was as much water as possible. It would make everything so much easier if there was. If there wasn't…well, he would manage anyway.
"I've seen you can," Dorian commented as he straightened out the jumpsuit around him. "You look ready," he said. Then he hugged him. "Good luck, Percy."
He hugged his stylist back. Four years now, he'd known the man. He'd come to his home to dress him for the cameras. Styled him for every year's game. For his own. "Thank you," he said, and his voice caught a little. He pulled back, and then, he stepped into the tube. The glass part raised around him, encasing him in the cylinder. He didn't panic. He looked up above him and waited for the hole in the ceiling to open.
When it did, his eyes were met with a blinding light, and he squinted as he felt the platform rise. Higher and higher, and then he was hearing it, and his heart was calming down. The sound of crashing waves. Water, lots of water, all around him. The smell, just like the sea breeze he remembered from the beach in district five. As his eyes adjusted to the light he looked around himself. The cornucopia was in front of him, and all around him, there was seawater —and it called to him, a force so strong— and then there were stretches of stones from the cornucopia up to the beach. Twelve of them, and two tributes in between them.
He was facing the backside of the cornucopia. He could see Finnick somewhere on his left, and Annabeth, he guessed, was on the other side, where his eyes could not see. Katniss, she also seemed to be on the other side, as did Peeta. He saw Johanna though, and Gloss and Cashmere, and that's when the voice on the speaker started. "Let the seventy-fifth Hunger Games begin," the voice said. "May the odds be ever in your favor."
The odds were never in his favor.
Nonetheless, he crouched down, putting one hand on the edge of the platform, getting ready to dive for one of the stretches of land. There was no competition on that. Even though the cornucopia was not facing him, he was confident that he would anyways be the first one to have a weapon in his hands. Hoping Annabeth would be careful, but not doubting it for a moment that she would manage it as well.
The cannon sounded, and the numbers on top of the cornucopia counted down, from ten, down to one. When the last number sounded, he dove in the water like a fish, and immediately, upon contact, he was met with a rushing relief, with renewed energy. He pushed the currents to aid him in his speed to reach the stretch of land. As his head resurfaced, he saw he was the first to have his hands on there. He pulled himself on the stones and started his run to the cornucopia. He was halfway there, when he saw, on the other side, Katniss was on her way as well.
He got there first, no surprise there. He immediately rounded the corner and was met with the assortment of weapons displayed there. It all looked much fancier, better quality, and more expensive than it ever had, but he didn't gawk for too long. He grabbed a sword, and soon enough he felt the arrow flying. He turned around to see Katniss, her bow raised, and Gloss, falling in the water with an arrow in his leg.
Katniss turned her bow to him, aimed with an arrow, and she let loose an arrow as well. He docked out of the way to avoid it. He raised his arm, with the golden bracelet around it. If this didn't work he was in deep trouble. "Forgot to mention we're allies, sorry," he told her, and then he saw the female from ten. "Dock," he told her, and he didn't wait to see if she did. He grabbed a knife from the nearby laying pile and threw it directly at her. The female from ten dropped dead behind Katniss.
Katniss looked at the female with horror, and there was a sound that escaped her, which reminded him how young she actually was. She was like Nico's age, and he had never fully understood how someone so young could deal with all of it. Annabeth appeared from the edge then, and she was grabbing knives, pushing them in between her boots, finding a belt for two of them.
"Don't trust one and two," he told Katniss as he pulled her up to her feet, sustaining her on one arm. "I'll take this side, hold them off," he told the two girls. Then he looked at Katniss, "I'll go find Peeta."
"Where'd you get that?" she asked him, looking at his bracelet."
He looked at her for a split second. "Haymitch, who else?" he said, and before she could say anything about that he was around the corner. He saw him immediately. He turned back to them. "Come, I found him, he's over here!" he told them, and Katniss, who had just shot at Enobaria but missed, followed him immediately. Annabeth threw a knife at the female from nine, and it met the target, the woman falling in the water.
Peeta on the other hand did not look half as good as he had hoped. He hadn't made it even to the land, instead getting caught up in a fight in the water with the male from nine. He handed his sword to Annabeth. "Cover me," he told her, before jumping right back into the water. He heard the bowstring being pulled back, but ignored it, deciding to keep on going, and that Katniss was going to have to deal with it, and start trusting him because he wasn't going anywhere.
He saw through the water, that they went under, and then one body started floating. He got to them just as Peeta resurfaced the water, but the boy had inhaled enough water for him to be coughing. He looked back at the cornucopia, to see the careers, both from one and two, talking, dominating the island, and looking at them. He could take them, a small part of his brain told him, but the other part of it told him he needed to get the two tributes from twelve to proper safety first.
"Let's go," he told them once Peeta stopped coughing, he took the lead, Peeta followed him immediately and Katniss followed because of Peeta. Annabeth was last, but then they were jogging, off the rocks, onto the sand surrounding the water and into the jungle. The hot and humid jungle. It was then that the heat of the place really set in on him. He was sweating, and it wasn't only because of the exercise he'd just gone through. It was because it was hot.
Once they reached the jungle, he stopped and let them go ahead, he would stay last. One to make sure they remained in his sight, and two because he needed to make sure that they weren't suddenly attacked by the pack of careers who had been looking at them with hungry eyes. So they ran, and they ran through tall grass, and falling vines, jumping over fallen branches and the hot humid air had them all out breath quickly enough but they didn't stop. They needed to make as much distance between them and the cornucopia as they could.
After about ten minutes, Peeta, who had been at the lead slowed down and then to a stop, painting. He stopped right after them and then turned to look at the way they had come from. It was all jungle, and he could see no beach this far in. He looked around himself, it was all jungle, and the direction they were going in, it was an uphill incline as well. He leaned against a tree and caught his breath as the others also looked around themselves.
"Damn…" Annabeth exhaled, her hands on her knees as she too caught her breath. "I don't remember running this much, like ever," she said as she walked to him and then…it wasn't the right moment, but he welcomed the kiss. "Good morning," she said to him sarcastically. He smiled at her, but then he crouched down slowly, deciding that if their break was going to last this long, then they would do well to get cover.
They all followed his example, and soon enough Peeta was voicing the obvious. "God it's hot," he said. And damned yes it was. "We gotta find freshwater," he then added.
Annabeth looked at him. Willingly, he could turn pretty much all the dew around them into a stream of water, even the seawater at the beach could be good if he had a say in it, but he wasn't going to. Because they were still in the games, and if he did that, there would be no reason whatsoever for Snow not to order the game maker to make her death happen. He shook his head at her. Then caught Katniss looking at him with suspicion. Before she could say anything.
The cannons of the deaths of the cornucopia sounded. They all looked in the direction of the island, and then at the sky, where the sound seemed to be coming from. Annabeth shook her head, looking down. "Not holding hands anymore are they?" he said to them, a stupid smile on his face, followed by a chuckle. Annabeth looked at him with confusion. Well, perhaps he still had to play the role the Capitol had so wonderfully set on him. They didn't know, though, did they.
"You think that's funny," Katniss was quick to say, and she was nothing like the girl of the night before. All quirky and glowing. Here she was cutting, her words had a razor's edge on them.
He looked at her. "No," he told her, but there was still that role, that Snow wanted him to play. Not the one of the rebel, but the one who didn't support the uprising, and had to be the scissors, cutting the glue Katniss was setting. "But I don't care about any of them," he also said. "Every time that canon goes off for any of them, it's like music to my ears."
Katniss didn't seem amused, quite the contrary in fact. She reached behind her, and he thought she was reaching for an arrow, perhaps try to kill him again. Instead, she wrapped her hands around the handle of the sword strapped to her back and held it in front of her. He still saw the threat there, she wanted to kill him. She was thinking about it. He felt Annabeth shift slightly, getting ready to fight if she must.
"Wanna face the career pack alone?" he asked her, finding that they were the only words that came to his mind. "No one in this arena is here by chance, Katniss. Everyone here deserves it one way or the other. We might have been holding hands yesterday, but it does not change the fact that today they wanna kill us. And…well, what would Haymitch say?"
"Haymitch isn't here," she replied quickly. But she didn't attack him, and didn't even make a move to, she simply stared at him, like she was only contemplating it.
"Let's keep moving," Annabeth said then, breaking the silence and rising to her feet. Katniss handed the sword over to Peeta, who took it happily. Then she also stood and looked around herself, her grip on her bow tight to the point her knuckles were white. Her muscles were rigid and ready to spring into action.
He looked after her for a moment, before he too, got back on his feet, and then followed them through the jungle. They walked now, instead of running around like crazy people. Peeta was in front, slashing at the vines they encountered in front of them with his sword, and then taking the lead otherwise, Katniss right behind him, her bow in hand, always ready to load an arrow and shoot if necessary. Annabeth hung back with him.
"This is not as bad as I'd thought," she said, her voice even. Katniss spared them a glance, probably thinking that they were planning on how to kill her. He smiled, amused. Then he grabbed Annabeth's hand in his. "I mean, it's hot. Like really hot, but…it's not so bad."
"There's water," he said, almost stupidly, as they kept on putting one foot in front of the other. "Like there's a lot of water, Annabeth. This is good." He was perhaps too enthusiastic about it, but what could he do. He was fine, the water around them, the dew, everything, it was his element, no matter how warm, he was good, and he wanted them to be good too, but he wouldn't push it.
They kept on walking then, going on and on, up the hill. Then Peeta was slashing with his sword at falling vines again. Katniss stopped for a moment, and he carried, on, not wanting to break his pace, Annabeth coming as well. Suddenly, Katniss yelled. "Peeta, no!"
That's when Peeta's sword hit the force field. His whole body was sent flying backward, crashing into his own and Annabeth's, and then he was on the ground again. Where Peeta had hit, the forcefield was gone, if already reforming with the pattern of a honeycomb. He turned around to look at Peeta, who was on the ground, and he wasn't moving. Hearing a groan from Annabeth and seeing her move, he rushed to the male from twelve. Katniss already on him.
"Peeta," she mumbled as she crawled to him. Her hands were on his neck, checking for a pulse. "He's not breathing. He's not breathing! He's not breathing— Peeta!" she was saying, getting hysterical.
That's when he realized, that as much as Katniss was the Mockingjay, Peeta's life was just as valuable. Her goal was to keep Peeta, alive, anyone in a mile's radius could see that. It had always been her goal, even the year before. Keep Peeta alive. Doesn't matter about her. Just, he was the priority. He also guessed it was the reason as to why she was allowing for this alliance between to work. So that she had help in keeping him alive. If he died…then she'd try to kill him, not fearing for Peeta's life no more, and she just would. Then how could he keep her alive if he was dead? How could he keep Annabeth alive if he was dead?
It was a split second in his mind though, that he was then pushing her off of Peeta's body and getting there of his own. He heard the arrow being knocked, as well as he heard Annabeth unsheathing one of her many knives. He ignored them both and then tilted Peeta's face up, closed his airways from his nose, and then put his own lips to his and started pumping air into his body. One, two…four times. Then he was getting up, and with the heels of his hands, he was pushing on Peeta's sternum. Thirty times. Crouching to hear if he was breathing. Then doing mouth to mouth again. Pushing on his sternum.
"Please," Katniss was sobbing, having put her arrow away, and having come closer. Sobbing, her hand clasping Peeta's as he continued to bring him back. "Please," she begged him. "Come back. Please Peeta!"
Then Peeta gasped and he was letting go. Falling backward on to the humid ground. Peeta was immediately embraced by Katniss who…made it clear she was very happy his heart was beating again. Annabeth was behind him then, and he turned to look at her as he panted. It had taken some exertion for him to help him. She looked at him with…admiration. Why? For saving the kid? She should know better that he would be doing no less. He'd tried with Manila, but it had been too late then.
She put her hand on his neck and then kissed him. "You don't deserve to be in here, Percy," she whispered to him. And he was brought back to before, where he'd told Katniss that they all deserved to be in here. Annabeth was going to be very mad once she found out why he'd saved Peeta just now. But he would think about that once they were on the plane on their way to thirteen.
He turned his head as he heard Katniss ask Peeta if he wanted to stand up, and he realized he'd been wrong. About them. About their love. He truly did love her, it hadn't taken long for him to understand that, but her. The victory tour had been an act, as had all the interviews and everything else, but it was now, that he truly realized that she loved him too. He didn't know how exactly, but she loved him.
When his heart had stopped, it hadn't been for a friend that she had been so desperate, rather, she had been desperate because the thought of losing him was worse than she could handle. Also, why else would she be trying to save him, to keep him alive, if not for that very reason? He looked at Annabeth, and saw it in her eyes, she was coming to the same conclusion as he was. Star crossed lovers indeed.
When they stood, she hugged him, and that's when he was certain. She was shaking. Annabeth helped him to his feet, and he looked at her, before looking at them and simply waiting. Peeta was shaking too, and he realized, as Annabeth's hand slipped into his, that he'd literally brought the boy back from the dead. The man had one foot in the underworld, and perhaps a tether to Katniss of his love to keep him in the land of the living. He wouldn't get all credit for it.
"This is gonna be a problem," he said then, as the two broke apart and they looked at him. "The force field I mean," he elaborated. "I mean, I didn't see it. Peeta almost died, but Katniss, you seemed to see it. You called out for him to be careful."
Katniss was quiet for a moment as if she was deciding on something. "No," she said then. Crouching down to get her bow. "I didn't see it. I heard it." She was lying, but for whatever reason, he didn't call her out on it. After all, they were an alliance, weren't they. If he wanted her to trust him, he'd also needed to trust. It couldn't work only one way.
"Okay, I trust that," he said, calmly, not like he'd just saved someone. "Then by all means." He gestured for her to go ahead. "Lead the way, girl on fire." Her eyes glared at him, but she fixed the strap of her quiver and then moved to get past him.
"Thank you," she then said, and he understood it wasn't for trusting her, but rather, for saving Peeta's life. Peeta also thanked him.
He nodded at them both as they went on ahead of them. "No problem here," he said. "Just try not to do that again. I don't think you'll be as lucky a second time." Peeta chuckled.
Then they were walking again, and as he looked at Peeta, he noted that perhaps they shouldn't be. The guy's heart had just stopped, but when he voiced it out, Peeta said he was good, and that they should keep going. It wasn't bothering him. So he didn't push it. Instead, he hung back with Annabeth, and shared small words with her, as Peeta and Katniss also talked amongst each other.
At one point, Katniss had picked up some of the nuts on the ground and had started using them on the force field. Throwing them at it, on their left, and watching it bounce right off, all skewered and smelling burnt. They walked like that for a big while, and realized, that they were walking on a perimeter, they weren't getting any deeper in the jungle.
That was when Katniss suggested she take a climb up the tree and see how far the force field went. She was a good climber, and so much he'd deduced the previous year, but he hadn't realized how effective she was, that there was a tactic behind her every move, and smoothness not many had. He stopped looking at her and instead looked at Peeta.
"You feeling any better?" he asked him.
Peeta nodded. "Thanks again," he said.
"Don't mention it," he told him as the force field next to them rippled.
Katniss was down the tree quickly after. "The force field," she started as she toyed with her bow. "It's a dome. We're at the edge of the arena. I couldn't find any signs of freshwater."
That was not good. They were still hydrated from having drunk before coming in the arena, but soon enough, with the hot temperature, they could end up dead due to dehydration. He'd have to ask Annabeth more about it later. In the meantime.
"It's gonna get dark soon," Annabeth told her then. "We'll be safe with our backs protected. Knowing the force field is the only thing behind us. We should set up camp. Take turn sleeping." He was glad she was adapting to their alliance. "I can take first watch."
Katniss smirked. Apparently she still wasn't trusting. "Not a chance," she said.
It stepped just slightly over the line. He stood straighter. "Darling," he started, very sarcastically. "Do you remember that thing I did back there." He pointed in the direction they'd come. "It's called saving his life. If either of us wanted either of you dead, you'd both be in a coffin right now being shipped back to district twelve." And that was that, he turned around and then looked around himself. They needed to make camp.
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This is a wrap for this chapter.
Finally into the games eh?
Hope you enjoyed, if you did please let me know in the comments, and follow and favorite this story for more.
I know you want it...so just do it ;)
Have a good day.
Hunter