Chapter 18: Flawless Execution

Venatrix was really getting tired of emergency alarms at this point.

The sudden piercing wail shot her out of the bunk like a bullet and onto her feet, the rest of the trainees doing the same around her. Flashing red light grated against Venatrix's prematurely-opened eyes, bathing the unfamiliar room in its brilliance.

Head Peacekeeper Ainsley had been gracious enough to house everyone inside the Nut's numerous spare barracks for the night, the blizzard effectively locking down the mountain. They'd be free to return to the Academy in the morning, weather permitting; Venatrix just hadn't expected 'morning' to mean — she glanced at the digital clock hanging over the door, just underneath the emergency light — oh-three-hundred.

"Fucking 'Makers, what is it now?" Agate grumbled, rubbing her eyes, but Venatrix was already out the door on Percy's heels.

At the sight of them, an officer in the hall pointed them down the corridor, exchanging quick conversation with Percy. "Come on, they want us in the lower levels," he said, turning to the group of confused but alert trainees. "As quickly as we can!"

That was enough to spur the twelve or so kids into a jog; picking up her pace, Venatrix shoved her way towards Percy at the head of the group. "What's going on? What's down there?"

Percy only shrugged. "Dunno."

Only a light chatter permeated the group as they made their way to the stairwell that led to the lower levels, the halls lined with blinking red emergency lights. ("Iago, do you not hear the alarm? We can't use the fucking elevator.") A steady stream of officers traipsed aside them as they descended deeper into the mountain, guiding them in the right direction, though they too remained close-lipped on the situation; Venatrix doubted they knew anything anyways.

"This way," one of the peacekeepers said as they reached a landing, indicating a set of large double doors outside the stairwell.

Pushing through the door, Venatrix found herself crossing into the harsh fluorescent light of what seemed to be an expansive gymnasium, similar to those that peppered the Academy grounds. Stationed along every inch of the walls, white-armored officers kept guard, the two at the rear closing the doors firmly behind the trainees.

In the center, her parents stood with the rest of the mentors overseeing the mocks as well as Flint Ainsley himself, the younger man exchanging a grin with her father. At a quick word spoken into the Head Peacekeeper's wrist communicator, the flickering lights and emergency siren came to a halt.

Venatrix and Percy swapped a look of confusion as Oberon spoke, his voice ringing solidly through the gym.

"Venatrix, Perseus, Agate, Lancelot, Iago, Julia, and Coquina. Welcome to the finale."

The sudden silence was almost uncomfortable, the named trainees exchanging bewildered half-asleep glances in the unfamiliar lack of alarms wailing. Venatrix's narrowed eyes picked out a gap in the wall of officers who separated to let a handful of others carrying armor sets and weapons through. "Wait, what?" Iago blurted out, and Oberon grinned again.

"You didn't think we were done, did you? The seven of you still alive, put on your armor and grab a weapon."

Shaking the last remnants of sleep from her body, Venatrix followed her father's instructions along with the others while the rest of the mentors led the few kids who'd 'died' before escaping the wrath of the storm away to watch from the sidelines. So there was no emergency after all, Venatrix thought irritably, tugging the armored shirt over the clothes she'd attempted to sleep in and switching it on. Fuckers.

Oberon barked instructions as they dressed. "I want all of you, especially our volunteers, to take this as a little lesson on improvisation." Venatrix rolled her eyes as she met Percy's gaze, grabbing her sword. It was just like her father to act as if this was the whole plan all along. "While we may not be able to schedule a blizzard, the Gamemakers certainly can and will, depending on the arena," he continued as the seven tributes gathered in front of him, prepared for their fight.

Well, prepared as I can be without shoes, Venatrix thought, shrugging off her socks so she wouldn't slip on the mat.

"We've seen how they guide tributes to a desired location by use of weather, natural disasters, mutts, feasts, you name it," Oberon continued. "If you cannot adapt to the instructions of your surroundings, you will die."

This time, the words were clearly directed at Venatrix and Percy. They nodded curtly.

Around her, the trainees began to spread out; Venatrix positioned herself between Percy and Iago, figuring she might find an ally in one, if not both, of them.

"If you expect things to go your way one hundred percent of the time, you will be sorely disappointed. The trick is," Oberon said, stepping back and gesturing to their surroundings, "not to let that trip you up. Adapt, and succeed. Think of this as a Gamemaker event, or a feast."

"A Nut feast?" Iago piped up, and Oberon shot him an absolutely withering look.

Without a second thought, Venatrix stalked over and jammed her sword into Iago's stomach, causing his armor to flare bright red and exacerbating the snickers and groans from the crowd. He yelped in surprise, falling to his knees, and Venatrix thought she caught a twitch of humor in her father's expression as more giggles bubbled up from the tributes.

"Six left," Agate said cheerfully.

"Aw, come on, that doesn't count!" Iago protested, staggering to his feet and shaking out the static of the blow.

Seven pairs of eyes turned to Oberon, who shrugged. "We haven't officially started yet—"

"Yesssss!"

"Iago, turn off your armor," Oberon instructed, clasping his hands behind his back. "On my mark, the Games will resume." He positioned himself outside the ring of armored Peacekeepers, his watchful eyes lingering on Venatrix.

Right. God forbid she forget the pressure stacked on her shoulders. Wake up, Venatrix.

Turning slowly on her heel, Venatrix faced her competition; right now, they were nothing more.

One glance at Percy's face said he was thinking the same, though he nodded when their eyes met, an arrow already strung in his bow. On her other side, Iago had pulled two knives from his sheath, fingers flexing on their hilts. Across from them, Lancelot and Agate stood sword and spear at the ready while Julia twirled her blunted mace threateningly. In typical fashion, Coquina had pressed herself as close to the sidelines as she could without any of the officers snapping at her. Her gaze darted quickly around her opponents, skittishly flicking away from Venatrix's stare as soon as they locked eyes, her bow already loaded as well.

At Oberon's whistle, Venatrix sprang into action, her sword arching towards the chest of her nearest opponent. Agate blocked the strike with the shaft of her spear, but Venatrix recovered, countering her friend's riposte and stabbing at her heart again.

The hit landed, knocking Agate from the running, but Venatrix was already ducking under Julia's mace, the blow harmlessly skimming her shoulder.

She turned to attack, but a rain of arrows struck the girl in the chest and back from two different directions. Another barreled towards Venatrix and she flattened herself to the floor, rolling away from the projectile. At a cry of surprise, she glanced up to see Coquina pawing at an arrow stuck to her armor; as Venatrix watched, a knife flew towards the girl as well, barely missing her fingers as it struck her down.

Jumping to her feet, Venatrix caught a look pass between Iago and Percy at their unexpected teamwork.

Grinning impishly, her brother sent another knife flying her way; she dodged, pivoting as it struck something behind her: Lancelot. Without missing a beat, Venatrix drove her sword into his approaching form, his armor buzzing a brilliant red. She turned back in time to catch Iago's cheeky salute, Percy appearing at her heels just a little too late with an arrow still pointed at Lancelot. "This was fast," he huffed, only mildly out of breath.

"Sure was," she quipped.

Only a couple meters behind Percy, Iago raised his eyebrows in a silent question; abruptly, Venatrix ripped the bow from Percy's hands, sending him flying towards Iago with a swift kick to the stomach.

Iago, the grin never quite leaving his face, acted quickly, catching the stunned Percy with one hand and drawing a knife across the armor at Percy's throat with the other.

Refusing to give her brother time to gloat, Venatrix charged, moving too fast for Iago to use Percy's now-limp body as a meat shield. Her sword struck true, the power of her blow enough to knock Iago flat on his back. "Fucking 'Makers," he groaned. "Can't trust anybody in this damn place."

Venatrix huffed in amusement, offering him a hand up and then Percy. "Nice job, Trix," the latter said flatly, and Venatrix's smirk deflated.

Her father's pleased laugh interrupted her concern. "That's what I'm talkin' about, Trixie!" She couldn't help the breathless smile that stretched her cheeks at the praise, though she batted away the hand that tried to ruffle her hair, thoroughly embarrassed.

The secondary feeling increased when she noticed Percy's eyes trailing Oberon through the interaction.

Venatrix tensed internally. She knew Percy didn't have the best relationship with his father for reasons beyond his control; times like this, she felt more hyper-aware of that than usual. He'd never been the type to voice his jealousy (if that was indeed the case) out loud, though Venatrix would never want to intentionally twist the knife.

It was a beat before she realized that it was Percy's words from last night pricking at her mind rather than his background — 'It's kind of hard to be your friend with your dad breathing down my fucking neck.'

Glancing at her father, Venatrix saw that he'd caught Percy's stare, merely offering the boy a familiar cordial smile before addressing the rest of the trainees to commend their efforts and adaptability to the situation. Venatrix only half-listened, keeping a discreet eye on her district partner.

Nothing, as far as she could tell, seemed out of the ordinary, but ordinary had been given so many definitions this past year that Venatrix was beginning to lose track.

District Two hadn't held a public execution since long before Oberon was born.

In the outlying districts, it was a sign of the Capitol's power, the iron hold they had over their second-class citizens.

Here, it was a sign of the people's weakness.

With the might of the Capitol practically ingrained in District Two and her culture, nobody questioned it too severely, and everybody thrived from their benefactors' favor.

Districts like Two shouldn't need a reminder.

Hell, even during the days of rebellion, when the disease of treachery had rotted them from the inside out, exposing the betrayal from within the ranks of Two's Victors, the district had ultimately remained strong. Loyal. Oberon had been told that public executions were like weekend events back then, pictures of dead rebels littering the history textbooks, anecdotes from his parents' and grandparents' memories weaving tales of roaring cheers that followed a gunshot from a firing squad.

Now, however… 'We don't like making a spectacle of it, not if we don't need to,' he'd heard Flint often say. 'Makes us look like we can't control our own.'

The crowd was silent now, the tension of bated breath almost tangible in the frigid air.

(The key word here was public. Panem was no stranger to the death penalty — now, wouldn't that be a thought — and while Two had its fair share of heinous criminals, not every death dispensed by the district was aired out to the open so blatantly.)

As much as Oberon held the threat of execution over his trainees to prevent them from crossing the line too early into murderer, they'd never actually had to follow through.

The orders had come in from the Capitol a mere day after the event — the President was not pleased about the power outage at the Nut, even if it had only lasted some ten seconds. Ten seconds, Valorius deemed, was unacceptable for such a crucial military base, regardless of the matter of wartime versus peacetime.

Somebody would have to pay.

That somebody was currently being paraded up to the stage in front of the Justice Building like a criminal. 'Endangering the safety and capability of the nation through untimely negligence,' as the directive put it.

The offender, one of the junior-level officers responsible for monitoring the base's electricity levels, trembled visibly, Oberon and his family standing close enough to see the tears clearly streaming down his cheeks. Of course the Capitol wanted to execute the district-born ensign rather than the inspector they sent every year from on high to examine the power lines feeding the mountain. Apparently, said inspector had overlooked the fact that they hadn't been replaced since the goddamn Second Rebellion, yet that idiot thought nothing of it.

Now, some poor kid would take the fall for their mistake.

Oberon was about as happy about it as Flint, though at least he wasn't the one stuck holding the gun.

The shot sliced through the dead air — even more poignant in the quiet after yesterday's storm — and the junior officer's body slumped forward like a sack of rocks, no unnecessary bravado from the Head Peacekeeper's end.

Oberon's expression remained unchanged. Next to him, Venatrix exhaled a sharp breath, though to her credit, neither her nor Iago flinched. The two of them contributed uncharacteristically to the somber silence, Dagmara's shoulder pressed subtly against his arm.

He'd been right when he'd told Flint before.

Capitol gets involved, and there's always collateral damage.

A/N: Chapter titles are simply the best place for puns c: Pretty unfortunate consequences for that officer there, rip; also I Think this is the first actual on-screen death here so, wooh! Lol. Shorter chapter than usual, but I think it makes up for the long one from last time. And that's the end of this arc too ! There's only a couple more left in Part I and I don't really expect to be doing 4-5 chapter arcs for those (I'm shooting for 1-2 at most) so hold on to your hats friends ! There's still more that needs to happen before Reaping day. Let me know what you think so far if you feel like it ! Also I mentioned it last chapter, but the blog for this story is at true vengeance 151 . weebly . com (remove all the spaces lol). Thanks for reading ! I'll be back hopefully soon with another update c:

- Nell