Trigger Warning: Suicidal ideation.
Maria Lobos, 42, Avox POV
The Quell is going to be a nightmare.
But, as I kneel on the floor outside Snow's office, where I'm not supposed to be, I hope that the Quell next year will be a good nightmare for me.
I'd always believed that Quells were terrible. Had the Second Quarter Quell not demanded twice as many tributes, my husband, Xavier, would still be alive. We would've been able to raise our sons in a stable environment with all the money from Xavier's fancy job as a mutt-breeder instead of being overwhelmed by debt. The Second Quarter Quell tore my family apart.
Twenty-four years later, there's nothing left to tear apart. One of my sons is dead. The other one has been separated from me forever. All the Third Quarter Quell can do is rub salt in the wounds.
There's only a tiny chance of helping them heal.
I was shocked when I first found out the twist. It was something the best mutt-breeding labs in Panem had been working on since the Second Quarter Quell. Pretty much the moment I was avoxed, I was assigned to work on the Quell. They thought that, since I was married to Xavier Lobos, one of the greatest scientific minds the districts had ever produced, I'd have a few useful skills. Plus I wasn't disposable enough to force into another, more dangerous trade.
Manel, my last remaining son, is a victor. He has his father's good looks. As long as I'm alive, the greedy, grasping women of the Capitol have a pretty toy to play with. When I was brought before him, held at gunpoint to threaten him into signing his body away, I wish I'd screamed at him to let me die. Maybe if he let me die, he'd have a chance of finding a new family. Of meeting a pretty girl and settling down.
But I couldn't say that. I had no tongue.
It was a little painful, working in a lab after everything that happened. Most scientists are cruel people. The ones who created the squirrels that ate my husband, for example. Or the ones who created the dragon that tore my eldest son to shreds. The ones who almost made sure that Manel was never born, the ones with all those harsh, cold words.
Now that your husband is no longer a student here, you'll need to make monthly payments or your son's embryo will be used for research purposes.
You'll need to pay this much for the embryo to be implanted, Mrs Lobos. Nothing comes for free.
Yes, we're very sorry for your loss. But what is the mourning of one district girl compared to the loss that the scientific world experienced when we lost Xavier Lobos?
There's one advantage, though.
The Quell could bring my husband back.
The Quell twist is very long and complicated. It reads:
On the seventy-fifth anniversary, as a reminder to the rebels that the Capitol will always be able to recover from any loss they cause, the two most recent living victors from each district must mentor their final opponent from their games, regardless of their opponent's age district or gender.
It ought to have been impossible, bringing twenty-four children back from the dead. But the Capitol developed the technology to make it possible. All it took was some simple cloning technology. The hard part was transferring the dead tribute's memories to the clone's body. But they got the hang of that two years ago. This one boy from Three, Fawkes Chau, who I heard one of the scientists I work for name 'every psychologist's shameful crush', proved to be very easy to replicate.
For five years, ever since I was avoxed, I watched over twenty four cloned bodies, making sure there were no faults in the machinery keeping them preserved. I kept an extra close eye on Xavier. I realised pretty early on that there'd be no way of getting our relationship back to where it was when he died. Even if he won the Quell, I'd be twenty-five years older than him and I'd still be an avox. I just had hope that Xavier would be alive again. Maybe even that Manel would get the chance to finally meet his father.
I watched as bodies were replaced with new bodies as new tributes pushed older tributes out of eligibility. It always put a lump in my throat. Queenie Kreiwitz was replaced by Liberty Stringer. Nyla Bell was replaced by Rusalka Darien. Paragon Butler was replaced by Fawkes Chau. Gravel Cuomo was replaced by Jiro Ethridge.
I never thought that Xavier would be replaced.
Until recently, District 12 only had one victor - Haymitch Abernathy, the victor of Xavier's games. To ensure that the Quell had twenty-four tributes, it was decided that the second and third placing tributes from that games would be resurrected. But if District 12 got another victor, as the third placing tribute, Xavier would be eliminated from the running. His clone would be completely destroyed, just like all the clones that had been replaced.
I wasn't too worried. It was Twelve, after all. I never expected them to get a victor.
But now they have two.
Which brings me to where I am, spying on President Snow from outside his office. It was nerve-racking but shockingly easy to get here. Even though I'm not supposed to work here, all the peacekeepers see when they look at me is an avox. They don't care where I'm going as long as I look busy. So all I need to do is look like I'm scrubbing the floor and I'm fine.
It's not like they can do much worse to me, anyway. I don't have any reason to live anymore, so the only thing killing me will achieve is setting my son free from a lifetime of slavery to the Capitol. They can't do anything to my son because he's a famous victor. I have nothing to lose.
"Now that District 12 has two new victors, that throws all our plans into confusion," Professor Cassius Gable, one of the lead scientists on our team, says. "We have three options. The first is that we choose two tributes from the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games. Cato Allegro and Reacta Goldfinch. The second is that we choose one tribute from Seventy-Four and one from Fifty. That would be Cato Allegro and Medallia Tranen. Or - this is my favourite one - completely forget about the Seventy-Fourth Games and just choose two from the Fiftieth. That's particularly good because it includes Medallia Tranen and Xavier Lobos. Xavier Lobos is a particularly interesting specimen because he's the father of Manel Lobos-"
"Yes, I know," Snow says dismissively. "Why put the father of a victor in the games when you can put two victors instead?"
"Excuse me?" Gable says, completely incredulous. I can imagine the wheels turning in his brain trying to figure out how.
"Was Peeta Mellark not Katniss Everdeen's final opponent?" Snow asks, coldly. "And was Katniss Everdeen not Peeta Mellark's final opponent?"
"You make an excellent point, sir," Gable says.
"I want Everdeen and Mellark in the Quell, representing Twelve," Snow says. "Who are the tributes you have cloned at the moment?"
"Tranen and Lobos, sir," Gable says.
"Terminate them," Snow says.
A shiver runs down my spine. I know there's no saving Xavier now. Snow doesn't want my husband to live and he always gets what he wants. Especially when the only person who wants anything different is just an avox. It was foolish of me to hope.
I just wanted one small thing to hope for. One way to make my life or my son's life better. Something to look forward to.
Now there's really nothing left.
I keep my head down as Gable says goodbye and rushes out of the office. He doesn't recognise me at all. But then Snow pokes his head out the door.
"Hello, Mrs Lobos," he says. "Would you like to come in?"
I climb to my feet and follow Snow into his office. I know that there's no escape for me now.
I'm not sure I want to escape.
"Take a seat," Snow says, sitting down behind his desk. I do as he says.
"Now," he says. "I'm sure you were hoping that the Quell would give you the opportunity to get your husband back. I'm sorry that that won't be happening. If I had my way, District 12 wouldn't have won the Seventy-Fourth Games."
I nod. That's how you're supposed to act when someone important talks to you. Just nod.
"But where are my manners?" Snow asks. "You must be thirsty," he clicks his fingers. I fight the urge to stand up and pay attention for new orders. Another avox walks over.
"Get this woman a glass of District 10's finest whiskey," Snow demands.
The other avox leaves, shooting me a look of both envy and pity.
"Do you know what the issue with bringing people back from the dead is?" Snow asks.
I shake my head.
"Death loses its power," Snow says. "Once these twenty-two tributes are brought back from the dead, people are going to start asking "Why can't he bring this person back?". Nobody will believe that death is final anymore. So do you know what the solution is?"
I shake my head. The avox returns and sets a glass of whiskey down in front of me. Snow stares at me with those snake's eyes of his.
The whiskey is poisoned. I know it'll kill me if I drink it.
I look Snow right in the eye and down my glass.
"We need to dispose of all the evidence," Snow says. "Once all twenty-two tributes are resurrected, every machine used to resurrect them will be destroyed. So will every piece of information about the cloning process. And everyone who worked on cloning them will be killed. But if something - or someone - is completely vital... there can be an exception to the rule."
I nod. I'm feeling a little light-headed. Perfect.
"I'm afraid that your son's been getting himself into a bit of trouble," Snow carries on. "It's nothing that you need to worry about. If he gets himself sick from all the drink and drugs, we'll just make him better. The worry is what'll happen to his looks. Since he began taking morphling two years ago, we've been fighting to keep him looking at his best but the income we gain from him has already dropped by ten percent. I only hope... that he's not trying to make himself ugly on purpose."
I close my eyes. I definitely feel it now - a piercing headache. But it doesn't hurt half as much as what's happening to Manel. Since I was used to threaten Manel over four years ago, I haven't seen him in person. I've only seen what was shown on the TV screen, a teenage celebrity trying desperately to hide how uncomfortable he was with all that fame. I could always tell when something was wrong with him. Even though Manel was always so quiet and so good at soldiering through everything, I always knew when he was upset.
I always knew that something terrible must've happened to him during the Seventy-Second Hunger Games. I didn't know that he got addicted to morphling.
Maybe when I die, he'll clean up. He won't need to escape anything anymore.
"So, I needed to give your son a reminder that he can't get away with defying the Capitol," Snow says. "I also needed to dispose of you because you worked on the cloning project and you could spread dangerous information. So I decided to kill two birds with one stone."
I smile. I know what's coming. Your drink was poisoned, Mrs Lobos. You're going to die.
"I put poison in your whiskey," Snow says. "But don't worry. It won't kill you. It'll just make you very sick. You won't be able to spread any secrets when you're in a coma and your son will be scared into doing whatever I want."
I gasp. Suddenly it's hard to breathe. I let out a wordless cry for help as Snow's voice rings in my ears. The world spins. Panic fills me.
Snow's winning, I realise. I'm not going to die and the Capitol are going to keep hurting my son until he drugs himself to death because he's too selfless to let me die. I'm not going to die.
As I lose consciousness, I can only hope that Snow is wrong and the poison kills me.
One of my best friends asked for a Maria POV and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. Then it turned out really bleak. Sorry, bro. Out of all the Loboses, Maria probably has the rawest deal, since she tried so hard to protect her family but couldn't. Also she's had her tongue cut out and she's been forced to spend a lifetime in servitude to the Capitol. However, despite things looking so dark from Maria's perspective, there's one tiny ray of hope for the two remaining Loboses. Maria doesn't know this but one of the tributes due to be resurrected is likely to brighten up Manel's life a considerable amount. Maybe, finally, something nice will happen to Panem's unluckiest family.
Also, Maria's fate ties in pretty well with the Quell twist. I wasn't originally going to write a resurrection games but then I killed off someone who I don't think should remain dead. You can probably guess who they are. Don't worry if you don't like resurrection games (I love them but they can get a little crazy). There are rules that I've laid down so things don't get too chaotic.
1 - This isn't an SYOT. That's more of a statement than a rule but I don't want to confuse anyone. It might be laid out a lot like one because I'm experimenting with POVs (I didn't give enough characters POVs in The Bride and The Widow so the background characters were a little bland) but I created all the tributes in the games (apart from Katniss and Peeta, who were made by Suzanne Collins. I suppose that Jiro featured briefly in the films but he didn't have much of a role besides being murdered with a brick). I considered making this games an SYOT but I didn't think it would be fair since any submitter would need to put a lot of effort into the tribute to make them fit into the verse. Plus this games is going to have Fawkes in it and he's as good at stealing the spotlight as Lumas is at stealing Ramona's heart. I'd rather he stole the spotlight from my characters than yours because you guys deserve better.
2 - The twenty-two resurrected tributes are not the exact tributes who died. They are clones who have been programmed to believe that they are those tributes. Or maybe that's enough to make them exactly those tributes. Things will get philosophical in later chapters.
3 - It's easier for the Capitol to resurrect a newer tribute than an older one because most older tributes weren't preserved properly. That's why it's the two newest final opponents from each district instead of two randomly chosen final opponents - because the Capitol doesn't have the facilities to bring back super old tributes. There is a limit to what the Capitol can achieve and it'll show later on.
4 - There will be no more resurrections (at least in this AU). Once a tribute dies in the Quell, they are dead forever. If a character dies outside of the arena, they are also dead forever. The cloning machines were a one-time thing for the Quell and Snow has made sure that they'll never be used again.
So there are my rules. Next chapter, we'll meet our first two tributes.