Hey y'all! How's everyone doing? In this chapter, the siblings finally reunite! Even though it's only been an entire day since they separated. But anyways, I feel like I should've given some warning in the last chapter but there's violence in this chapter but it's not super explicit? I don't know. If you're reading a Hunger Games Au/rewrite fic expecting zero violence to occur then I don't know what to yell ya. But yeah. Canon typical violence in this chapter and late useless warning for that shit in the last chapter.
Like always, I enjoy comments, in fact I thrive off of positive comments and love constructive critique ones cause it shows an author that their readers are actually paying attention and enjoying their work.
Thanks for continuing to read this story! Virtual hugs and cuddles to y'all.
Disclaimer: I still do not own anything except any OC's that may come up, any world building that has not yet been officially stated by the books or the movies, and any plot points/structures that have not been used in the books or movies.
Warning: No beta, we die like Rue.
Chapter 17: A Burning Betrayal
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Katniss briefly closed her eyes, struggling to steady herself. The complete look of trust her brother had just given her starts to shake her resolve.
'No. Bad Katniss. Remember the plan. The plan is good and important and it will only work if you make it work,' she thought, mentally smacking herself.
She opens her eyes and narrows her focus on the backpack and the point of entry to the forest straight in front of her. She had to do this. She needed to do this. Haymitch's plan is the only way that will allow her to protect her brother. And while she hated that she couldn't tell him about it herself, Haymitch swore on his flask that he would be able to send a message a few days into the arena. It would look suspicious and more importantly, weak, if a tribute gift was sent so early in the Games after all.
The countdown continued, mere white noise in the background, until finally the buzzer sounded and Katniss shot off the pedestal like a bullet. She quickly scoops the backpack up and continues racing across the field to the other side. She does her best to ignore the carnage around her, only barely flinching when blood spray from an unfortunate victim slaps her cheek as she runs directly through the blood bath.
'This is a terrible fucking plan and if I get caught by a Career then I'm going to haunt Haymitch for the rest of his miserable drinking days,' she thinks as she grits her teeth and powers through, hoping not to get caught in the violent action around her.
Luckily, the Careers ignore her and she manages to make it into the forest. She quickly dives behind a large bush and takes a moment to catch her breath. She then looks out from an opening in the bush to observe the scene before her.
She watches as Rue darts into the forest and disappears up the trees with Thresh following behind her on the ground like a large, intimidating shadow. She sees Fox Face running her way with a backpack in hand and quickly holds herself as still as possible until Fox Face runs by and further into the depths of the forest. She pointedly looks away from the cornucopia in an attempt to ignore the violence and bloodshed.
Her hand shakily comes up to wipe away the blood on her cheek. Her gaze refusing to look at the still warm, red liquid as she frantically wipes her hand on the back of her pants where she'll never be able to mistakenly see it. Then her heart jumps to her throat when she sees Kai chase after Val with a bloodied short sword in hand. Only when Kai throws the sword like the idiot he is and comes storming back with an enraged roar does she let go of the breath she had unknowingly held.
Katniss jumps, completely startled, when cannons start firing off one after another. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Huh. Not too many but not little either. Good. That means there's only twelve tributes in between her and what she needs to accomplish. And since the Careers always go hunting on the first day, that number might be reduced even further to allow her to implement the next step of the plan earlier then anticipated.
But first...Katniss returns her attention to the field, noting that the Careers were done killing and now gathering all of the supplies in and around the cornucopia together. Steeling her shaking nerves, Katniss throws the backpack she grabbed over her shoulder and steps out from behind the bush. She then purposefully strides to the Careers with as much faked confidence as she can muster.
"Hey."
All of the Careers look up from what they're doing and immediately get on the defensive, with the exception of Kai, who leans disinterestedly on his long sword, and Clove, who silently gauges her possible intentions.
"What do you want, Everdeen? Come to offer yourself up like a sacrificial lamb to the slaughter?" Kai drawls out as he twirls his sword with deadly grace, "And here I thought you would put up more of a fight."
"Ya know, it's a good thing my brother isn't here cause every time you say Everdeen, neither of us know who you're talking to," Katniss automatically retorts. Then she mentally berates herself as Kai scowls at her, sword now at the ready. Ugh, curse her smart mouth. "But anyways, I'm not here to get myself killed or anything."
"Then what are you here for, peasant," Glimmer spits out as she holds the bow and arrow with such poor posture and aim that Katniss would actually be surprised if it managed to hit anything at all.
Katniss grins, all nice and easy, as she says, "I'm here because I want to make an alliance with you guys."
The Careers all gape at her, slack faced in surprise. They've also lowered their weapons and as predicted, Glimmer accidentally released the arrow and all it did was fall harmlessly to the ground.
"Explain," Marvel harshly barks out, the only one to quickly gather his wits as he points his spear at her.
"Well it's simple you see. I wanna beat my brother," Katniss says as if it explained everything, which it really didn't.
"But what about all that talk of saving him and that united front act you've been doing since day one?" Amber asks, completely confused.
"It's just as you said, an act," Katniss responds with a shrug, "The Capitol folks ate up the narrative that I wanted to make sure my brother won just like he wanted to make sure I did. Then to really add drama, I'm now showing my real intentions of wanting to stab him when he's most vulnerable. After all, one of the two ways to win is to either kill everyone yourself or put on the best show you can," she finishes with a smirk as she thinks, 'Please buy it. Please buy it. Please for fuck's sake, buy the fucking story or I'll really have to haunt Haymitch for the rest of my afterlife.'
The Careers all look at each other skeptically, though Clove seems to be contemplating the meaning behind her words.
"I'll even offer my survival skills, I grew up hunting in the nearby forest at home and I learned a lot of stuff from my mother's apothecary practice," Katniss says, trying to sweeten the deal, "I'll even help you find my brother."
That last part certainly catches Kai and Clove's attention. Kai seems to actually be considering her offer while Clove looks as if she's managed to clue into what Katniss is actually trying to do. Katniss continues to smile regardless and offers out her hand. "Do we have an alliance?" she asks.
Kai stares at her outstretched hand like he's actually considering her offer. Glimmer notices this and asks, "Wait, Kai. You are not seriously considering her cheap offer are you? She could kill us all while we sleep like the low born worm she is!"
"Oh please, I wouldn't stoop so low as to pull something only a Career would do," Katniss responds, rolling her eyes.
Glimmer's eyes flash in anger and she takes a "threatening" step towards Katniss. "You little-"
"I'll consider your offer of an alliance," Kai interrupts, startling everyone around him, even Katniss who didn't think he'd fold that quickly. "But..." Oops, never mind. She spoke too soon. "Only if you find and kill your brother by the end of the day. Otherwise, we kill you," he says, matter of fact and with a shrug.
Katniss frowns. "You're kidding right? Do you see how big this forest is? And there's the fact that my brother spent a lot of time surviving on his own in the woods. If he doesn't want you to find him, you won't."
"Well then I guess we kill you," Kai says, sword ready to cut her down.
"Woah, woah, woah, hold on there you trigger happy dumb ass," she says with her hands up to wave him down, "I didn't say I wouldn't help you, just that it'd be hard to. I'd need more time."
Kai frowns unhappily but lowers his sword. "How much time?"
Katniss taps her chin in thought. "How about...a week?"
"That's too long. You'll have more than enough time to betray us if that's your actual plan. Three days," he shoots back.
"And once my brother decided to disappear for more than three days in order to bring back enough food to feed our family for a week. None of us could find him and we knew all his usual haunts and patterns so six days," she counters.
"Four days then."
"How bout five?"
Kai scowls. "Fine. Five days. Then we get to kill you."
Katniss smirks. "Cross my heart and hope to die, literally."
The two then shake on it and quickly let go, as if the other's touch could burn or poison them.
"Alright then, now that this little show is finally over, can we finish getting on with what we were doing? I'm getting bored just standing here," Clove says with a yawn as she lazily swings a knife.
Kai nods sharply and barks at Noah and Amber, "You two. Hurry up and do that thing you were talking about earlier. The rest of us will finish getting the supplies together. And be quick about it. We don't want to waste anymore daylight on useless tasks when we could already be out hunting." Then at Katniss. "And you will stay within our line of sight for as long as you're with us. No funny business and if you try to run away, the alliance is off and we kill you."
"No problemo, sir yes sir boss man," Katniss mockingly salutes as she goes to join Clove in getting the supplies closest to the pedestals.
Once the two are sufficiently out of earshot from the other Careers, Katniss turns to Clove and asks, "So what are Amber and Noah doing?" She gestures at the two tributes who were now carefully taking apart the pedestals.
"Noah had the idea to take out the explosives in the pedestals and putting them around the supplies like a trap," Clove responds as she gathers up a few spears and a backpack.
"Huh...sounds intriguing," Katniss says around her armful of packs and duffle bags.
Clove hums. "I know what you're doing."
"Oh? And what am I doing?" Katniss asks.
"You're trying to throw Kai off your brother's scent by offering yourself as a target. Then when the times right, you're going to cripple him in some way and book it without a second glance back."
"Guess you didn't buy that betrayal act at all huh? And here I thought I was a good actress."
"You're good," Clove smirks, "But I'm just better. And I want in on your plan."
"Huh?" Katniss asks, startled.
"Let's make an alliance. Just between the two of us," Clove patiently explains as the two drop off their goods and quickly make their way back out of earshot.
"And I should say yes because?"
"Because I too, have an interest in keeping your brother alive. Val is very important to me and I would hate to see him taken down by Kai of all people. Plus, I'd do anything to get out of the Career alliance. It's completely boring and the others just grate on my nerves."
"Ha! I can totally understand that and I've only been here for ten minutes. Alright, we got a deal. Alliance between you and me. When we get the chance, we both book it and promise not to stab the other in the back. Deal?"
"Deal."
Then the two girls fall into companionable silence as they continue to gather supplies and drop them off by the cornucopia. Katniss also watches how Noah and Amber carefully remove the explosives from each pedestal and place them underground in haphazard patterns all around the supplies before digging up empty holes and filling them as decoys. She knows she'll have no way of remembering all of the real and fake mounds. Instead, she focuses on a single path which held only two mines and five decoys just to the far right of the supply pile.
Soon enough, the supplies are all placed together and the explosive traps have been set. Now it's time to hunt with Katniss dragged along as the unwilling participant (cough hostage cough). Kai orders for Noah to be left behind to guard their supplies. Then they all set off into the woods.
For the rest of the day, the Careers plus Katniss and minus Noah, wander around the woods in search of any tributes dumb enough to find themselves on their warpath. Kai, of course, leads the charge as their de facto leader. He jokes and rough houses with a jolly Marvel by his left side and a star stuck Glimmer hanging off his right. Amber hangs back a bit behind them but participates in the joking. Katniss and Clove walk as far back as they can from the quartet without setting off any alarms. Luckily, this year's bloodbath survivors seem to be of the smarter sort so they don't come across anyone as they trek through the forest.
The sun slowly sets and Kai makes the executive decision to start making their way back to the cornucopia much to his obvious displeasure. He immediately perks up when they all spot a fire going in the distance. A tribute had finally done something stupid and was now drawing the bloodthirsty Careers to them like moths to a flame.
Katniss follows along unhappily. She'd much rather go back to the cornucopia with Clove but unfortunately, the fire is also on their path back. So off they go, the Career pack and their reluctant add on. Katniss can only hope they don't find her brother or any of the young tributes still alive, especially Rue. She didn't know if her heart could take it if they found her.
Fortunately and unfortunately, the tribute they find is a soaking wet Demetria shaking from both the cold and fear when the Pack finally arrives at the small clearing she's in. She tries to stand and run but ends up tripping and stumbling onto the ground. Glimmer and Amber sneer at her as Demetria quickly turns to crab crawl away. Her fear and panic drains the strength in her arms and prevents her from pushing herself up off the ground to try and run.
"Hey guys, look who we got here," Kai sneers as he and Marvel slowly advance upon Demetria who continues to back up until she's unfortunately stopped by a nearby tree.
"P-p-please," she begs as tears stream down her eyes and her hair hangs damply around her face. The image she projects is pathetic and desperate.
"P-p-please," Kai mocks with a falsetto that has Marvel and Glimmer laughing hysterically like a gross human parody of hyenas.
Demetria whimpers and looks hopefully to Katniss and Clove who have yet to participate. Katniss looks away with a conflicted expression while a stone-faced Clove watches on, her eyes flashing with some unnamed emotion. Demetria chokes on a sob when she realizes that her last hope of making it out alive has completely vanished. It never even existed to begin with.
"That was a nice sound she made there," Marvel observes with sadistic glee, "I wonder what other sounds she can make."
Kai smirks as he pins his sword to Demetria's throat. "Why don't we find out?"
Then the torture begins. Each Career, barring Katniss and Clove, imparts some form of abuse on Demetria. Kai cuts her up all over with slices that bleed but not enough to have her pass out from blood loss. Marvel strategically stabs her in areas that intentionally avoid fatal injuries but cause her great pain and have her screaming out.
When Kai and Marvel have had their fun, they allow Glimmer and Amber to take over. Amber laughs out joyfully as she punches and kicks at Demetria's face and body. The poor girl's arms too weak to lift and defend herself from the blows. The cracks of her bones have Katniss flinching and shutting her eyes so as to block the scene from her mind but the sounds still echo loudly around her. Glimmer chooses to not dirty her hands up blood and instead takes to mocking her. She throws verbal barbs that could make a grown man cry. She especially takes glee in commenting on how they've finally gotten Demetria's poised face to crack and how she'd always been pissed by how some no name bitch from 9 was walking around acting like she was better than her.
Finally, the four are done and they step away to view their masterpiece. Demetria lies broken and bloody on the forest floor. Tears continue to pour down her dirtied and bruised face as she desperately gasps for air under her broken ribs.
"Oh lookie here, someone's still got a bit of fight left in her," Kai comments with mock surprise. "Should we put her out of her misery?"
Glimmer sneers. "Let's just leave her here and see how long it'll take for that fight to leave her."
The four blood thirsty Careers laugh and move as if they're actually going to do just that. It has Demetria whimper desperately and choke out painful sounding sobs. Katniss, who had finally opened her eyes, swallows thickly as the image of the slowly dying Demetria forever sears itself into her brain. Then Clove finally moves.
The Careers all shut up as Clove walks up and crouches beside Demetria who whimpers and flinches back as much as her body will allow her too, afraid that Clove would add her own brand of torture to prolong her suffering. However, she blinks in shock when Clove leans down as closely as possible to whisper softly to her. The tears renew as Demetria looks at Clove gratefully and whispers softly back. Then Clove pulls out one of her knives and stabs Demetria straight through the heart, quickly extinguishing her life and giving her a merciful end. Katniss turns away from the scene, sick to her stomach as its meager contents threaten to leave its current location.
"What'd you go and do that for?" Kai asks, slightly pissed that their entertainment for the night ended so abruptly.
"I was getting tired of hearing the noises she was making. Those whimpers were more annoying than amusing," Clove responds, face and tone carefully neutral.
"Oh come on, Clove. Why do you always have to take the fun out of everything?" Glimmer whines like the spoiled brat she is.
Clove rolls her eyes and glares. "We've already spent too much time here. We need to head back to camp so we can rest and get a fresh start in searching for the other Everdeen. Remember?" she says with a pointed look at Kai to remind him of why he even allowed Katniss to be their ally in the first place.
Kai scowls at the reminder and the fact that he needed a reminder. "Ugh. Fine. Whatever. Let's go," he barks as he storms out of the small clearing and off in the direction of the cornucopia.
Marvel shrugs and moves to follow him while Glimmer scowls and spits at Demetria's face before she also rushes off to catch up to Kai. Amber follows silently behind, now silent and meek again despite the blood splatters on her face and her earlier violence.
Clove frowns as she wipes blood and Glimmer's spit off of Demetria's face with a clean cloth she had taken out of her pocket. Then she gently closes her still open eyes and moves her still hands to clasp together. Clove tucks the cloth a bit under Demetria's hands and finally stands up.
Katniss glances down at the cloth and realizes it's a small handkerchief with a flower embroidered on. It's a white lily with pink shading on the inside. Restored innocence of the soul of the departed. Morbidly fitting.
"We should get going before Kai starts thinking that you tried to kill me," Clove says, startling Katniss out of her thoughts.
"Only tried? You don't think I could actually succeed in killing you?" Katniss curiously asks as she follows Clove out of the clearing.
Clove smiles bitterly in response and looks away from her and back at Demetria. Her silence was enough of an answer for Katniss and the two walk back to the cornucopia with a weighted silence around them.
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Val yawns as he stretches out while trekking around the forest in an attempt to continue his search for Katniss. Even though it seemed as though he slept enough hours, it sure didn't feel like it to what with his brain still attempting to complete its awakening despite it being about an hour since he got up. It's only been one day and already his sense of time is getting screwed up. His body was also definitely not happy with having been stuck up on a tree branch for the night.
All his muscles protested when he climbed down that morning and a spasm in his arm almost had him meeting an unfortunate end. Thankfully he'd already been within comfortable falling distance from the ground but still. He almost gave himself a heart attack when that happened.
For breakfast, he decided to have a few sips of water, just to preserve the original contents for as long as he can cause while he trusts the iodine tablets to do their job, the water he received in the pack is more reassuring than water he has to purify and boil himself, at least health wise. He also only had one packet of nuts thus bringing done his total packet count to four plus the packet with the leftover squirrel meat.
Then he made his way over to his traps, hoping that they had caught something, anything. And thankfully, the traps caught a couple somethings - a rabbit and a squirrel. However, due to not wanting to waste precious daylight that could be spent searching for his sister, Val decided to hang his kills off his pack for preparation later in the day.
So far in his search, Val had picked a random direction about northeast of his trapping grounds and decided to march on forward until he eventually came across another living person, hopefully his sister, or the edge of the arena which could make it easier for him to find her by completing a circuit around it.
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"Sir."
Seneca Crane looks up from a tablet screen held by a Game Maker. "Yes?" he asks as he makes his way over to the Game Maker who called for him.
"One of the tributes, Valerian Everdeen, is slowly making his way towards the barrier," the Game Maker says as she points at the holographic display where a single dot with Val's name and photo attached moves steadily towards the barrier erected around the arena.
"Well we certainly can't have that. Especially not since Abernathy is the boy's mentor. Pull up the closet video surveillance near his location. I want to see what he's doing," Crane says thoughtfully.
The Game Maker peers at the display, pulling up live video footage that shows Val walking while looking around as if searching for something. "It appears he is looking for something."
Crane hums, a light bulb moment. "Or possibly someone...Where is Ms. Everdeen at this particular moment?"
The Game Maker fiddles around with the controls and pulls up a dot, Katniss, surrounded by five other dots, the Careers minus Noah. The six dots are moving perpendicular to Val's straight path towards the barrier. Based on the video footage, Katniss seems to be in cahoots with the Careers. Crane smiles widely as he takes note of this fact.
"How about we make things...interesting?" he lightly suggests.
The Game Maker catches onto Crane's train of thought and brings up a screen with a variety of icons displayed. "Of course, sir. Which one should I deploy?"
Crane sweeps his gaze over each icon before finally settling on one with a fireball symbol. "Go with this one," he says with a sinister smile as he points at the icon, "Let's really make him the boy on fire."
"Of course, sir," the Game Maker responds, smiling along almost robotically. She presses the icon and directs the holographic displays of the fireballs to rain down.
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Val's mind wanders as he continues his search with still no sign of Katniss or any other human being. Despite the reminders that yes, he was still in a death arena and an unwilling participant of the Hunger Games, if this isolation keeps up, he's actually going to start believing his back in 12 and the past eight years were just a dream.
Then all thoughts of dreams are shattered when an explosion has Val instinctively ducking and covering. He then lowers his arms and looks for the source of the explosion, seeing a smoking hole with burnt forest debris around it just thirty feet off to his left.
"Wha-"
But before he has any time to process what just happened, another explosion occurs. This time way to close for comfort as he ducks and covers again while dirt and burnt leaves fall on and around him. Val quickly recovers and looks at the smoking hole only about fifteen feet away to his right. He slowly walks over and sees a small, smoking rock that looks almost like charcoal about the size of two fists.
"Exploding rocks?" he asks himself, wondering where the hell they came from. Had a tribute somehow managed to make gunpowder? Or maybe it's the Game Makers taking his moniker as the "boy on fire" as literally as possible?
Unfortunately for him, he gets the answer to his question in the form of more fireballs that indiscriminately start raining down around him like burning hail. Val runs away from the almost constant hail of fire, mentally cursing at the Game Makers cause what the hell? Who the hell uses fireballs as an obstacle option in a forest arena? Val would like to have words with them. Maybe he'll even ask Cinna to set them on fire, see how they like it.
Then his thoughts are cut off when a fireball streaks by and manages to clip him, burning a thick line straight through his upper left thigh. Val goes down hard, hand clenching his leg as he tries to pull himself up and continue his mad scramble away from the fire still raining down on him.
His leg burns and his nose is filled with the smell of ash and burnt flesh as he quickly limps his way through the forest. He spots a river up ahead and makes his way toward. The hail fire immediately ceases as soon as he tumbles onto his hands and knees into the cool, refreshing water. An instant relief comes to the burning sensation on his leg as he shifts to sit back in the water.
Val pants harshly to catch his breath and from the pain that was only temporarily relieved by the river water. He looks down and sees some of the fabric of his pants had melted onto the burned skin. With trembling fingers, he pulls the fabric off the burn as carefully as he can, biting his lips to prevent any sounds from giving away his position even though everyone and their mother's probably heard the explosions that followed him to the river.
He breathes a sigh of relief once the fabric is pulled away and only the burn is left. It looks to be a second to third degree burn given the state of his skin. He'll still be able to put his weight on his leg even when the adrenaline fades away. He's also probably going to regret soaking this wound in a river and not purified water. Maybe he can ask Haymitch for some sort of medicine to treat the burn before it gets infected.
Val slowly pushes himself up. He should soak the wound for a little longer but he doesn't want to increase his risk for infection anymore than he has to. Besides, he has his iodine tablets so he can wash the wound further after he gets out of the river. Once he stands, he's about knee deep in the water and slowly limping his way back to dry land.
Then the sounds of distant laughter growing ever closer catches his attention. Fear grips his heart because the laughter can only be from one specific group of people. He turns around to see where the sounds are coming from, quickening his pace as adrenaline slowly overtakes him again as the limp becomes less pronounced the more he moves.
The laughter grows closer until he sees Kai coming out from the trees with Marvel and Glimmer following closely behind. Kai smiles gleefully at the sight of Val. "There he is! Look's like you actually are useful for something besides that mouth of yours," Kai shouts back to someone who had yet to walk past the tree line.
Val doesn't bother to stick around and see who he's talking to though. His burn now forgotten as the adrenaline fully courses through him as he runs off with the delightful shouts of the Career Pack following behind as they cross the river after him.
Val blindly runs and stumbles through the forest with no clear destination in mind even though he had already scouted out escape routes and hiding spots. The fear clouds his judgment as he continues to run as quickly as he can while the laughter of the Careers grow closer and closer. Pain and exhaustion finally starts to creep in though and Val is forced to stop and look for any trees that were sturdy yet tall enough to climb.
Quickly spotting one, Val quickly scrambles up the trunk, hands desperately grabbing at knobs and branches to haul him up as quickly as possible. Just as he's about half way up the tree, the Careers finally catch up to him, laughing and jeering as he finishes his climb.
Val sits heavily with his back against the trunk, panting heavily from exertion.
"Going somewhere Everdeen?" Kai gleefully shouts.
Val looks down to see Kai, Clove, Glimmer, Marvel, and Amber pointing their various weapons up at him.
"Oh hey there guys. How's the weather down there?" Val says as playfully as he can, trying his best to keep the pain from visibly affecting him.
"Why don't you come down and see for yourself," Kai shouts back.
Val shrugs. "I'll have to pass. Weather's rather lovely up here after all."
"Well if you won't come down, guess we'll have to force you to," Kai responds with a smirk.
Val responds with his own smirk as images of the Career pack's inability to climb anything come to mind. "I'd love to see you try!"
Kai scowls and marches to the tree, beginning to climb it with Glimmer cheering him on. Unfortunately, Kai is much too heavy and his arms strain from supporting his weight until finally, he falls onto the ground before he can even get a quarter of the way up.
"It's also a lovely day to get a neck injury if you want. I don't mind either way," Val yells down at Kai who bristles like an angry Buttercup.
"Let me try, Kai," Glimmer says as she makes her way to the tree and starts to climb it. Then she immediately hops back down with a pained cry. "My nail!" she shouts as she looks at her hand with a nail that had started to bleed slightly from a loose splinter.
Kai scoffs in disgust at her display and looks to the others. Marvel shrugs to say he too can't climb a tree, Amber mournfully shakes her head, and Clove rolls her eyes like Kai's an idiot for forgetting that climbing was not something their training focused on.
"Then we'll try this another way," Kai scowls as he hefts his spear up into position and launches it at Val.
Val quickly ducks behind the tree trunk but thankfully, he's too high up. The spear falls short and back onto the ground. Marvel steps up to try and the spear goes a bit higher than Kai's did but still a good foot or two away from reaching Val.
Clove gets pushed up to the plate and she glares at Kai as she readies only one knife. She throws it as hard as she can but only manages to lodge it about three feet below where Val is. Clove pointedly looks at Kai as if to say see? Your dumb idea didn't work and now I'm down one knife.
Kai scowls back and shoots a look at Glimmer who preens under his attention. She walks up to the tree and nocks an arrow in her bow. She draws the string back and Val almost laughs out loud at her posture. It screamed of her incompetence. Her shoulders were unstable, her arms were shaking, she had one eye closed for aiming, and even her tongue was sticking out a bit in concentration. Then she releases the arrow and it goes wide. So wide that Val actually let's a laugh loose before quickly covering his mouth to stop any further laughter from coming out. His shoulders shake though and Glimmer turns red in indignation.
"You mind if I finally get a chance at that bow?"
Val's laughter immediately ceases, the wind knocked out of his lungs when he hears that voice. The voice that always carried the right amount of snark and compassion to let you know when you were being stupid and when you were really being stupid. The voice of the person he'd been searching for since yesterday. Val forces his gaze down as he sees Katniss walks up to the Careers like she's an ally and his heart squeezes with indiscernible emotions.
"Yeah, no. I don't think so," Kai responds with a flat look.
Glimmer eagerly nods along. "Exactly what Kai said. How do we know you are not going to take the bow and shoot us all with it?"
Katniss scowls at them. "Cause I'm your ally and you guys outnumber me five to one," she said in such a "no duh" way.
"What the hell is this, Katniss?" Val asks, voice surprisingly steady despite how genuinely shaken to the core he is.
Katniss looks up at him, expression full of guilt but eyes still hard as steel. "Sorry Val," she says apologetically but it sounded fake to his ears, "No hard feelings, but I'm doing this for my own sake. I need to go back home to my family after all."
And it's like she had just taken a knife and stabbed him in the heart even though she was down on the ground and he was up in a tree. She needs to go back home to her family. Like he suddenly wasn't her brother anymore. Like he hadn't done all he did, sacrificed all he had, willingly put himself in the line of fire for her and their family.
"Then was all that talk about protecting and saving your martyr of a brother just for show?" he shakily asks, emotions threatening to bubble over as he clenches his fists in a sad attempt to rein them in.
She shrugs. "You said it yourself. This whole thing is a show and all I'm doing is making myself the main protagonist."
"Damn that's cold," Marvel hisses in mock sympathy. The other Careers laugh in response.
Clove stays silent throughout the entire exchange because what else can she do that doesn't endanger either of the siblings? If she said something to Val, it would reveal his connection to her and possibly clue in the wrong people about his past. If she said something to Katniss, the others might catch on to the fact that there was more to Katniss' alliance than they initially believed. Because despite their well founded distrust, the other Careers did actually believe when she said she was only in it to stab her brother in the back, not save him in the most emotionally damaging and convoluted way possible. Whoever helped Katniss come up with this plan, cause no offense but she didn't have it in her to be manipulative like this, was one crafty and sick son of a bitch. So silent she stayed, even though she could see the gut wrenching guilt in Katniss' eyes and the devastating pain in Val's.
"As touching as this family reunion is," Kai casually drawls out, "It'd be even more touching if you'd just come down, boy on fire."
Val takes a shaky breath to try and steady himself. "I'll have to pass. I don't take kindly to family members stabbing each other in the backs, especially not after all that they've been through together."
Katniss visibly flinches but quickly composes herself so that no one but Clove saw her reaction.
"Well you'll have to come down sometime. For food or water or even just to go to the bathroom," Marvel comments to which Kai nods in agreement.
"Well I've actually got enough food and water to last me a good while and who says I need to be on the ground to pee?" Val cheekily responds.
Glimmer and Amber look disgusted at the thought of Val doing his business up in a tree and the contents of that business potentially falling down on them. The two girls take a wide step back from the tree much to the other's displeasure.
"No point in arguing with him right now," Katniss says to Kai, "Val can be really stubborn about the stupidest shit so the best thing we can do is to wait him out."
"Yeah, it's not like he can actually go anywhere as long as we're down here," Clove interjects. "He's like a cat stuck in a tree with the only way left to go is down into our loving embrace."
Kai scowls at the thought of having to wait to kill someone but concedes to the points made. The sun's already going down anyway to the Careers might as well make camp for the night and kill Val in the morning or whenever he tries to make his escape. Once a fire gets going, the Careers start joking and playing around, coming up with all sorts of ways to torture or kill Val once they got their hands on him.
Katniss has been occasionally glancing up to where Val still sits on the tree. Her expression flits between stone cold and guilt ridden as her heart clenches at the pain she caused. Val was always the strong one in the family, both physically and emotionally. But any hurt that involved family was one that would fester within him before taking years to finally scar over.
Clove sits off to the side, silently watching Katniss and thinking about the bitter irony of how she was now the one who would have to play the therapist and relationship fixer to Val after years of him doing it for her when they were both younger. She shakes her head and sighs to herself. What the hell has her life become?
Val sits up in the tree in a daze, still shaken by what just occurred. A tear rolls down his face as pain shoots through him but he can't tell if it's coming from the burn on his leg or the wound in his heart.
"Hey Haymitch," Val shakily says up to the darkening sky, "I know it's kind of early. But I could really do with something to help stop the pain…Please."
Which pain? He doesn't elaborate because he still doesn't know which one is currently hurting the most.
XXXXXX
Haymitch absentmindedly sips at his brightly colored drink. It's just juice in a martini glass since he did promise that he wouldn't get drunk for as long as his mentees were alive but dammit, he still has an image to uphold.
His attention wanders back to the large screen broadcasting the Games. Previously, it displayed young Rue flitting through the trees as she somehow managed to chat the ears off of Thresh who was steadfastly walking down below with a sword at the ready for any unexpected foes.
Now the screen showcases the pained face of Val as he clutches at his injured leg from what looks to be a burn while pointedly looking anywhere but down. Before he could process his confusion at the sight, the screen quickly changes focus to the scene at the bottom of the tree, namely the Careers...and Katniss.
'Shit,' Haymitch thought as his mind clicks with understanding. The plan. They had reached that part of the plan much sooner than he had anticipated. He was originally going to send a gift with a note that would help clue Val in or at least soften the blow when it actually happened but damn. Haymitch quickly glances around to take stock of the reactions to the current situation before them and he's pleased to see many citizens murmuring in sympathy for Val. Some are even dabbing tears out of their eyes and bemoaning the backstabbing betrayal of the disloyal younger sister to her self-sacrificing older brother.
Well. The plan's working perfectly then. Guilt immediately floods his being. Because this plan was mainly his idea, one that he had off-handedly suggested to Katniss who had taken what he said and ran with it. The survival of her and her brother relying on an alliance with the Careers to make sure they held an advantage over the most dangerous killers in the Games.
Katniss had originally wanted to let Val in on the plan but he said it wouldn't do any good because Val's reaction to her supposed betrayal had to be as genuine as possible to really sell it, especially to the powers that be.
Haymitch sighs and rubs at the back of his head, heavily conflicted on his next steps. The entire situation has already gone way beyond anything he anticipated. The siblings really were turning into a tragedy worthy of the long dead and Burned writer, William Shakespeare.
Then the audio of Val's plea for help drifts through his ears. His words shake as he speaks them, he's still in shock as if his mind is no longer able to process what is happening before him.
Haymitch places his glass down with a groan. He suddenly felt very tired and in desperate need of an alcohol induced nap. But he had a situation to fix and a relationship to mend before it actually broke. Ugh. He's gotten so invested now that he's no longer able to see the edge of the hole he'd dug himself into by...caring.
He stands and gives the room a once over, quickly zeroing in on a small group of neon shaded citizens who were either outright sobbing or woefully lamenting for Val's predicament. He then turns up his charm, placing as engaging a smile as he can after way too many years of not giving a shit, and walks over.
XXXXXX
Night had finally fallen.
The Careers already asleep for the past hour or so, not even bothering to stay awake long enough to hear the announcements. Not that there were any announcements to hear since no one died today. Only the Panem Anthem played to signal the end of the day. No holograms, no pictures with numbers of the fallen. Val feels that he should be grateful that everyone managed to survive another day even though it was only the second one.
However, he's much too exhausted to muster up any emotion to break through the numbness he's feeling. He's still reeling from Katniss' rather sudden betrayal. Only through the obsessive use of the mental gymnastics his brain went through to justify her actions did the initial sting dull down to a throbbing pain.
They were only family by name, not by blood. He had only gotten lucky that her father had found him when he did otherwise he might be lying dead in from natural causes or bullet holes somewhere in the forests of 12 or stuck as an avox in the employ of the Capitol. She's only doing this to protect Prim, to distance herself from Val who's volatile past could catch up to him at any moment the longer he stayed alive in the Games.
Then his mind started going through what he could only describe as conspiracy theories. Katniss was actually a master manipulator this whole time, or a sociopath who only cared for the purely innocent such as Peeta and Prim. Val was actually already dead and had been since he arrived in the forests of 12 all those years ago and he's just stuck in hell now. Or even more crazier, Haymitch had actually come up with this plan where Katniss, the worst actress in the history of forever who couldn't lie without punching someone in the face, allied with the Careers to keep them off Val's track at the potential cost of her own life.
Okay so maybe that last theory might not be as crazy as it sounded but Val firmly refuses to believe it because Katniss would never agree without giving him some form of a heads up that wouldn't leave him reeling with an emotional pain he hasn't felt since his dad died. And even if she did on the off chance that Haymitch would find a way to signal to Val what was to come, she wouldn't be able to lie the way she had without looking or even subtly acting like she wanted to stab herself with a knife instead. Because Katniss hated liars and she especially hated people who emotionally manipulated others no matter the reason.
Regardless, it's not like Val can ask her. She's fast asleep on the ground, her position close to the rest of the Careers but still far enough away that if one of them so much as twitched her way, she'd already be long gone. And even if he could, depending on what wild theory in his head was true, he'd either give himself more grief or be the cause of her death. Neither option was appealing.
Val's thoughts are broken when he shifts a bit and his attention is drawn back to the pain in his leg. He bites his lip to stop a cry of pain as he clutches at the area around the burn, squeezing the muscle around it to numb the pain.
Then he hears a faint yet steady beeping sound coming from above him and growing closer by the moment. Val looks up in confusion that's cleared when he sees a small parachute with an even smaller metal container attached at the end floating down towards him.
He holds out a hand to catch it, thankful that the parachute hadn't gotten tangled up on the way down. He pops open the metal container and takes a small metal tin out. After placing the container to the side, Val pries the lid off to reveal its contents. Within the tin is some kind of gel, most likely for his burn. The strong medicinal smell of the gel shocks him a bit as this gel is definitely the high quality stuff that only the higher elites could ever afford in 2 and no one in 12 would ever be able to let alone even see in their lifetime. Well, considering it was still rather early in the games, the price for this gel probably hadn't reached unprecedented heights yet.
Val scoops a little bit of the gel out of the tin and gently rubs it onto his burn. He hisses at the initial sting when the gel comes into contact with his injury. Then he relaxes when the sting becomes a cooling sensation that leeches the pain away the more he spreads the gel.
Once he's spread enough of the gel over his burn, he wipes any excess back into the tin. Waste not, want not, especially with a medicine of such high quality and the very distinct possibility the Game Makers might want to have another go at setting him on fire for real. He puts in the tin in one of the many pockets his jacket so conveniently provided.
Then Val grabs for the metal container and parachute. He carefully removes the parachute from the container, making sure not to break the rather strong string and durable cloth as they could come in handy in the future. He takes another look at the container and realizes that there is a small, folded note inside.
He takes out the note which says "Your eyes only. Read carefully." At first he's confused. But then Val remembers that there had to be millions of cameras all over the arena in order for the Game Makers to keep track of them and to broadcast whatever they wanted to. Val pales slightly as the memory of what he did last night comes to mind before immediately dismissing the thought. The Hunger Games were live but never actually live. They were still heavily edited to only show what the Game Makers wanted and his little send off would definitely be in the top ten things that will never be aired.
Still keeping the warning in mind, Val hunches over the note and opens it in a way that his palms also formed a bit of a shield around it's contents. Against the white paper were the black ink words "I'm sorry this got to you too late. Don't blame her. Keep playing along."
Val immediately crumbles the note in his hand and shove it into a pocket. He wants to scream. He wants to rage and shout and curse at Haymitch for manipulating Katniss into participating in one of the few things she hated with a passion of a hundred burning suns.
And he also wants to rip Katniss a new one for actually believing that Haymitch, their perpetually drunk, probably has alcohol for blood, mentor, would actually follow through on his side of the deal when he knows what would better entertain the Capitol citizens than either of the siblings. Real emotional trauma versus somewhat faked reaction to familial betrayal. It's a no-brainer really which one the Capitol would much prefer to watch. And it's also still surprising that no matter how tough or jaded she acts, Katniss can still be so naive.
Then he wants to rage at the Capitol for allowing this to happen in the first place, for approving such acts for the sake of quality entertainment.
But he's still numb from the pain of Katniss' "betrayal" and he's still tired from all that had occurred today. It's already nighttime anyways. He might as well just sleep it all off and see what tomorrow brings. Maybe things will actually go his way. He could escape from this tree, from the Careers down below, and grab Katniss on his way out where they could just live off the arena land until everyone else killed each other off without the siblings having to lift a finger. The morphlings from 6 managed to do it, even though it scarred them so heavily that they were forever addicted to the painkillers that gave them their Victor moniker.
Oh well. All he can hope for now is to find a way out of his current situation and maybe take a Career or two down with him.
And the reunion is done! With a rollercoaster of emotions that I hope was believable for you guys instead of like one of those joke, trolling coasters where stuff's missing that people build in game simulators for the lol's. I also hope the logic behind Val's thought process and Katniss' actions make sense and don't feel like I'm just trying to be plot twisty to be plot twisty. Anyways, in the next chapter we get to see Thresh and Rue and get to have more interactions with Clove! So I hope you guys are looking forward to it. Until next time!