Disclaimer: I'm just playing with Suzanne Collins' characters and her world. They're hers. Not mine
Challenge Fic
AN: This was written for a challenge on tumblr, from Melika-Elena. She also graciously made sure it wasn't a mess for me, so many thanks to her for that.
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Egypt, 1935
Gale ducks behind the boxes of weapons, tries to block out the sound of the train as he attempts to listen in on what Cray and Thread are discussing.
He catches snatches of the conversation, 'Tribute' this and 'General Snow' that, but nothing Gale doesn't already know.
They drink, amber liquid sloshing out with the rhythm of the train as it cuts across the desert, chortling and blubbering about the accolades they're going to receive.
"I'll be made an Oberst!" Cray belches.
Thread rolls his eyes at that, as though the thought of someone as slovenly as Cray being made an Oberst before him is ridiculous, but lacks the desire to point such a thing out.
On the table between them, looking unimportant and lumpy, is what Gale snuck on for, what Katniss' sister was stolen as a Tribute for, the Palladium of Panem.
"That's what this is all over?" Birdy, the marginally helpful mercenary Haymitch had put them in contact with, had given the ancient drawing of the fabled Palladium of Panem an unimpressed snort. "A fossilized piece of bread?"
"It's a sculpture," Gale had explained, trying to push down his irritation with the setting and the company. "It's an eternal offering to the gods of old. Bread that will never spoil, never rot or mold."
"Never be eaten either," Katy-Jo Lewes, the other mercenary, had mumbled, grin of approval from her friend.
"It provides eternal protection to those who activate it, endless bounty from their fields, victory for all wars. It's priceless," Madge told them, her voice low to keep the conversation between the group. Not that that would've been hard. The bar was rowdy and noisy; Gale could barely hear his own thoughts over the drunken laughter and clinking of bottles echoing around him.
"Priceless?" Katy-Jo Lewes and Birdy exchanged a look. "I'm sure we can find a price for it."
"It's going to the museum," Gale ground out through gritted teeth. He wasn't some glory hound, like Johanna Mason, seeking his fortune at the cost of history.
"Of course it is," Birdy chirped. "But the museum surely has funds to compensate us for our troubles?"
Gale hadn't talked to them much after that, letting Madge do the bargaining for their help, safe passage to the lands where legend said the Palladium rested and back again to civilization.
Things had fallen apart after that.
The telegram had come from Katniss and Peeta, Gale's old colleagues from the University, the very pair that had set he and Madge out with Haymitch to find the Palladium, telling them of her sister's kidnapping. They'd deciphered the last bit of scripture explaining how the Palladium worked.
'Blood Tribute needed for Panem ceremony. Coin came back. Stole research. Prim taken.'
It had taken a few days to get in contact with Katniss, confirm the grim reality of her telegram.
"We were forced by the Dean of the Department to divulge what we'd found out to that witch, Coin," Katniss had spat before handing the phone to Peeta, too upset to carry on speaking.
Gale had nearly dropped the phone when he'd heard the name.
Coin was a curator for one of the University's 'sister' museums. Despite her title and work, she had no academic ambitions that Gale could see. She wasn't after money, because that would've made it too simple; Coin was after something darker. Coin and her colleagues had only vile things planned for the Palladium, and everyone involved knew it.
The first time they met Coin they'd sensed something unpleasant about her, and with a little investigation on the part of their friend from the local newspaper, Delly Cartwright, they'd learned about Coin's ties to occultist groups. It was unsettling and confirmed their ill feeling.
Still, unsavory friends and colleagues and a 'bad feeling', even if tied to somewhat solid facts, wasn't enough to convince the University that sharing their hard sought information on the Palladium was a terrible idea.
Money talked, and Coin had backers and investors from her museum in spades.
Their reluctance to share had irritated the woman, but there was nothing she could do before. Now she was taking her revenge.
"She just nodded and smiled, then, when we came back the next morning all our work, every last note and pad, was gone. She'd taken it," Peeta sighed into the receiver. "Then she took Prim. She's going to use her as the Blood Tribute, we just know it," Peeta had barely managed to breathe out.
Gale didn't doubt that. Coin and those working with her were just twisted enough to want to test out all the stolen information on the Palladium, no matter how grim it was.
"We'll get the Palladium and meet up with you," Gale had assured them. "We're going to get Prim back."
After learning about Prim's kidnapping, Madge had worked furiously, finishing up the maps and narrowing the areas they had to search through for the final location of the Palladium.
It had impressed Gale. Madge wasn't the quiet little mapmaker Katniss had introduced him to years before, when they'd been desperate to piece together their work visually. Back then he'd thought her to be a timid, frail thing, meant for nothing but calculations and directions. There's more strength, more determination, than he'd ever expected from her and it came through at the best of times.
She'd volunteered to accompany Gale on his quest for the Palladium, followed him across the world and into seedy bars, slept in filthy accommodations, all without promise of compensation. He couldn't help but hope part of her sudden desire to travel was to spend time with him.
Unfortunately, all her hard work, all her calculations and studying of ancient texts for the map were for nothing.
"They stole everything," Madge sobbed as she sat on the floor of her room and stared at the fluttering curtains over her open window, the thieves' exit. Coin had been watching them, ready to snatch up all their work to ease her way and sent someone to snatch all of Madge's maps, every note she'd made for herself on direction and distance, out of her room while she and Gale ate dinner.
Gale had dropped down beside her, pulled her into a hug and hushed her, promised her it would be okay, trying to ignore the scent of her perfume and the softness of her hair as he rested his cheek against it. There was too much to be done to focus on those things.
Nodding, rubbing the still falling tears from her face, Madge swallowed down a sob. "It will be. I'll make it be."
She'd redoubled her efforts, rebuilt the maps from memory, got the group to the site in what Gale felt was record time, but it wasn't fast enough. Coin's men were days ahead, and with each site the group reached, they found Coin's men had searched it already.
Now, on the train carrying Coin's men, Thread and Cray, a pair of lower level dolts that had accompanied Coin to the University during one of her earlier trips, Gale knows this is his last chance. It had taken the mercenaries several days to track the pair down and he doubts they'll be able to again. Thread and Cray may be idiots, but they'll cover their tracks better if they know just how determined Gale and Madge are. They have the Palladium, and he has to get it back before they pass it off to Coin. Prim's life depends on it.
Cray falls over, too drunk to get himself to the bathroom, his pants soaking through, much to Thread's disgust.
"Swine," he mutters as he gets up, to find an underling to remove Cray from his presence no doubt.
Thread gets up, swaying slightly, though from the drink or from the train's motion, Gale isn't sure, and stumbles out of the room, through the faded red door and out of the compartment.
Cray makes a few more noises before gurgling, his eyes rolling back and his head lolling nastily before he finally passes out. Gale sees his chance.
Quietly, he creeps out from behind the box of munitions, steps over Cray's inebriated body, and to the table.
He pulls a rock from his bag. It's not a perfect replica, but it will pass, especially with idiots like Cray and Thread. It's at least a plan, better than anything else anyone could come up with.
Picking up the Palladium, Gale stuffs it into his bag before replacing it with his rock.
It's as smooth an exchange as he could've hoped for, too smooth apparently.
Just as he steps back over Cray, is almost to his escape route out the back of the train car, Thread, with impeccably terrible timing, comes stumbling back in, a pair of young helpers behind him.
For a second they stare at each other, too stunned to make any move, until Thread makes a harsh noise. "Get him!"
So much for my plan.
Thread's boys trip and tumble, unobservant of Cray still passed out on the ground, giving Gale a few seconds of a head start.
He bolts out the back of the car, blinded by the sand and the sun when he flings the door open and falls out. Gale grabs onto the ladder leading to the top, and climbs up, ignoring the burn on his hands from the searing metal of the ladder.
The boys aren't long behind him, scrapping after him as he runs along the top of the car, trying to escape. He's at the end though, there's no place to run.
"There's nowhere to go, Dr. Hawthorne," Thread calls to him over the clatter of the train, as he emerges from over the side, just behind his boys. "A jump at these speeds will most likely kill you, and even if you did survive, where would you go? We're in the middle of the desert. We would simply come back for you."
Gale feels sweat bead up on his forehead as the sun bears down on him as he scans the sky. It rolls down the side of his face, followed by a hundred more. He looks around again, trying to ignore how sticky his clothes are becoming, saturated with sweat as they are.
"Going to sprout wings and fly, Dr. Hawthorne?" Thread taunts him, gesturing for his boys to move forward. "Give me the Palladium. Join our cause. You will have access to resources beyond your wildest dreams. We'll even find a place for your little harlot, the Undersee girl."
At the mention of Madge, Gale takes a step back. They've been watching them for a long time, clearly, so it's no surprise they've caught on to Gale's little infatuation with his colleague, but he hadn't expected it to be thrown so carelessly at him.
"So you do have a soft spot for your little mapmaker?" Thread laughs coldly. "She is a pretty little thing isn't she? Perhaps when you die she will be in need of comfort?"
He's trying to throw Gale off balance, distract him with thinly veiled threats against Madge, but Gale refuses to let him win. He won't let him get under his skin.
"She'll cut off your nuts and feed them to you through a sieve if you so much as lay a finger on her," Gale shouts back, earning a chuckle from Thread.
"I'll lay more than a finger on her, Dr. Hawthorne, I assure you that."
Blood boiling, Gale bites his lip. He won't rise to Thread's bait.
He's about to snap back despite himself, lie through his teeth and tell Thread Madge is a sharp shooter and any man that tries to force her into anything is asking for a swift death, but he stops. There's a whine in the distance, the unmistakable noise of a plane getting closer.
Squinting, Gale sees a pair of ancient looking planes, just as ancient as the train Coin had commissioned to Thread and Cray for their expedition, heading straight for them.
"Ah, reinforcements," Thread grins.
"Yep," Gale nods as the planes close in.
The leading one pulls further ahead, tips its wings and starts to the side of the train. Then the bullets start flying.
While Thread and his boys are dropping down onto the roof of the car, covering their heads and screaming, confused as to why their own planes are firing on them, Gale is standing firm, waiting for the second plane.
It's only seconds after the lead plane passes that the second plane takes a pass, a rope dangling down from the passenger seat. As it comes near, Gale reaches up and grabs the end, letting himself be yanked from the roof with a grunt.
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When they finally reach their destination, a little outpost, landing their stolen aircraft less than gracefully, Gale falls out, feeling a little lightheaded.
"I can't believe that worked," he mumbles, his hands over his face, blocking out the still blazing sun.
Madge drops down from her spot at the front of the plane and rushes to him.
"Gale!" She begins looking him over frantically, dusting ever present sand from his clothes before pulling a canteen of water from her bag. "Gale, drink this."
Sitting up slowly, he takes a small sip, wincing.
"Are you hurt?" She begins her inspection again, lip between her teeth in worry as she crawls over him and begins to inspect the places she might've missed before. "Gale, are you hurt?"
His mind is sluggish, not just from the sun and the stress of being chased, having to make his escape by climbing up a fraying rope while in midair, but also from the gentle pressure of Madge's fingers against his fevered skin as she searches him for damage.
Finally, he grunts a negative. "Just…tired."
Sitting back on her haunches, Madge nods, pushes some of her sweaty hair from her forehead and nods absently.
Behind them Birdy and Katy-Jo Lewes, the now marginally less useless mercenaries, are whooping and cheering, dancing at their success with the mission.
Ignoring them, Gale reaches into his bag and pulls out the Palladium.
It's cool despite the heat of the desert, easily recognizable as bread, and as gray as Gale's own eyes. It doesn't seem like something worth killing over, sacrificing a young girl over.
Madge's cool fingers brush over Gale's hands, hesitant, then settle around them, cupping the stone.
"They're madmen," she whispers. "They're absolutely out of their minds if they think this thing really holds any power, that killing Prim will unlock something that will protect them. We have to save her, Gale."
She shakes her head, lets her hands fall from Gale's and into her lap where she starts toying with the tattered edges of her once pristine blouse, now covered in sand and sweat.
"We will," he tells her, his voice scratchy and forced. He takes another drink from her canteen.
Taking a breath, Gale lets his eyes follow a bead of sweat roll down Madge's neck, along the small patch of skin her blouse exposes, before vanishing behind the light material. Gale briefly lets his mind wander, imagines cutting off the next droplet off with his lips and investigating where its predecessor had gone.
He shakes his head to clear it. There are more important things to think about than what Madge's skin would feel like under his lips and how quickly he could undo the pearly little buttons on her blouse.
Pushing himself up, with a little unnecessary help from Madge, Gale brushes sand from his pants and runs a hand through his windswept hair.
"We need to get to the camels," he says, taking short strides so Madge can keep up. "The sooner we get to Cairo the sooner we get to Katniss and Peeta. Prim is depending on us."
Jogging slightly, Madge nods, pants a bit from the heat before turning to the still celebrating mercenaries and putting her fingers to her lips, letting out an earsplitting whistle.
"Ladies!" She shouts at them. "Time to head out!"
She jogs again, catches up with Gale as he makes his way to the camels. They smell, but they're reliable to cross the short stretch of desert they have to traverse. They'll do.
The man running the outpost brings two camels, smelly, disgusting, spitting creatures Gale has no love for, and hands the reigns to Birdy, mumbling something to her as he does.
"What did he say?" Gale asks.
Birdy shrugs. "I don't know. I barely speak English."
After helping Madge onto the mount, Gale hoists himself up behind her, settling himself with as much aplomb as he can manage. There's really nothing to be done.
Madge's cheeks flush a delicate pink, but Gale suspects it has nothing to do with the heat from dying sun.
"Follow us, Doctor! We know the way!" Birdy yells as her and Katy-Jo Lewes' camel takes off across the desert at a trot.
"I miss horses!" Gale hears Katy-Jo Lewes bellow.
Giving Madge a small look, Gale rouses the camel, tightening his hold on Madge as they take off.
"Do you think Prim is alright?" Madge asks, worry coloring her expression as she stares out at the seemingly endless desert.
"She'd better be," Gale answers. "There's no reason to hurt her until they have the Palladium, and seeing as they aren't getting that any time soon…"
Coin is as cruel as she is determined though. Killing Prim, even without the Palladium, isn't beyond her. He can only hope Peeta and Katniss have managed to track her down, figure out where she's hiding Prim, and have developed a plan to save her from certain death, or will have one before Gale and Madge arrive.
He also hopes the plan doesn't involve flying off the back of a train.
Dragging her eyes from the sands, Madge peers up at Gale through her bangs, gives him a faint smile. "She's going to be fine."
It's less a statement and more a reassurance, though whether for Gale's benefit or her own, he isn't sure, but he smiles at it anyway.
His arms, sticky and sweaty in his shirt, tighten around her and he lets his cheek come to a rest against her hair. He inhales deeply, closing his eyes and letting himself find comfort in the powdery smell of her shampoo and the sweet smell of her sweat.
Madge wrapped in his arms and the Palladium bouncing roughly against his thigh, Gale can almost pretend things are going to be okay.