Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games. They belong to Suzanne Collins.
Note: Another career… and the first District Two Female since Olga. I honestly didn't intend for such a lack of D2F Victors, but as is often the case with my stuff it just… kind of happened that way. But, hopefully Mercy makes up for the long wait. Rigged reapings are generally accepted as a thing that happens for a variety of reasons… so, naturally, I had to take things to the logical (illogical?) extreme. Let's see what the career girl makes of it!
"Rigged reapings?" Katniss said in response to Peeta's words. "Rigged in what way? Rebels."
"Not quite," Peeta paused, looking ill. "Apparently the districts had been acting up that year. Chaff told me about this; basically, it got out that he had been incorrectly reaped and was never meant to be in the arena. 'Chuff Mitchell' was. The Capitol stamped out rebellion, but it cost them time, resources and some lives."
"So they took it out on the reaping aged children," Katniss concluded, sighing. "Was it children of those who caused the most damage?"
"In some cases maybe, I don't know," Peeta paused, his face turning at least four shades paler. "The careers volunteered as they always did, but the kids reaped before them… and every single other tribute… was just twelve years old."
Katniss looked mortified at the very thought of this.
46th Annual Hunger Games
Name: Mercy Gregor
Gender: Female
District: 2
Age: 18
Kills: 3
Mercy Gregor arrived at the reaping for the Forty Sixth Hunger Games with a smile on her face.
A top graduate of Machete Ridge and excelling in all forms of combat across the board, she was deemed as the obvious choice for the female candidate for the Forty Sixth Hunger Games. Mercy felt confident of her own ability to survive and be the first girl from her district to make it home ever since headmistress Olga had done so over thirty years ago.
She wasn't just confident. She was honoured. Having grown up in a family of bricklayers she was the type to be very focused on structure and support. To her, the guidance of the Capitol was exactly the sort of support that Panem, the remnants of humanity, needed. Was their rule fair or just, exactly? Not always. But it prevented war, it prevented more widescale murder, rape and pillaging as was seen in the dark days she's been told of over the years. Compared to that two lives a year did not seem so bad in comparison.
More than that, the career system that Olga preceded over – her predecessor had already begun to fade from memory – was the exact system of support District Two needed most of all. It kept their youths strong, disciplined, healthy and, most importantly, readied them for the arena. So long as there were two strong young adults each year no kid had to face the arena when they were not ready for it.
Mercy would admit to letting out a sigh of relief any time she saw a twelve year old spared by a volunteer, whether it was in her district or another, because realistically they had no chance of winning.
That, and she liked kids. They were innocent, sweet… nice.
If killing was what she had to do to ensure the peace was kept and, in the grand scheme, as few people were hurt as possible then so be it. She could win with as few kills as possible; it was not a requirement for a tribute from Two to get as many kills as possible. Just as many as needed to keep themselves alive and, ideally, victorious.
She could handle taking down any sixteen year old that even looked at her funny.
It was with much pride that, when a twelve year old was reaped, Mercy volunteered for the Hunger Games and stood on stage. The applause was appreciated, but the knowledge of an innocent being spared and being able to play her part in keeping the nation and humanity itself stable as a perfect brick wall? That was priceless.
As Mercy and her burly district partner Kadrian were taken into the justice building to await any visitors that wished to see them, she felt like she was exactly where she needed to be. Exactly where the nation needed her to be. It had been drilled into her head for many, many years just how vital this was and the honour such a task truly was.
Mercy had no idea just how much she had been lied to nor how she was in exactly the wrong place.
The train ride started off as it normally did. The tributes of the year were fawned over by the escort, Olga would lay claim to the strongest tribute (Kadrian, though only by a tiny margin she would admit), Rook would be forbidden from mentoring at all, the other victors would decide amongst themselves who got the unclaimed tribute and who would be on sponsor duty (Rhyder was assigned to mentor Mercy) and the District Two team would settle down to a fine meal.
It was all Mercy had dreamed it would be and more. She felt nothing could ruin the wonderful day she was having, least of all the amazing gammon steak she had been served.
"What can you do?" Olga had soon asked her, after having asked the same of Kadrian. "Strengths and weaknesses."
"I scored top marks in swordplay, archery, long distance running, weight lifting and first aid," Mercy checked all of this off on her fingers as she spoke. "I honestly cannot think of any weaknesses I have. There was never a time where somebody at the academy told me I was falling behind in anything."
"You might be pegged as a threat to eliminate. Same for you Kadrian, given you're all that and even more muscle mass," Olga stated.
"You say that like it's a bad thing," Kadrian said, flexing. "We'll do fine."
"I'm sure you will, but don't get overconfident," Olga replied. "Also, never do what Rook did."
Rook casually flipped Olga off as he took a beer out of the cooler, idly removing the cap.
"Or, you know, do what I did. I won, remember," Rook said, sipping his drink.
"Yes, and I hate that fact more every day," Olga muttered, rolling her eyes.
Before long the new tributes were sat down to watch the reaping recaps alongside the mentors. Baron and Runa soon excused themselves, not wishing to look this year's dead kids walking in their eyes as they realised they were doomed. Boulder soon left, making up some meaningless excuse. Dragon just snorted as the married couple and 'half man' left.
"Wimps," he remarked, opening a beer can of his own.
Rhyder eyed the challenge runner coldly, but otherwise did not comment. Vercingetorix eyed him as well, also deciding to say nothing. It was a rare occasion when the victor of the first quell ever said a word, all the fight having been butchered out of him over twenty years ago.
Mercy didn't react to any of this, more concerned with watching the reapings with attentive eyes for any possibly allies or major threats to make note of.
District One had a pair of volunteers as it always did, both of them beautiful and strong. Obvious allies, per the norm. Mercy allowed herself to briefly smile as she watched herself volunteer, soon followed by Kadrian. Both of them looked formidable for all the nation to see.
Mercy's smile faltered briefly when District Three had a pair of twelve year olds reaped, not a single volunteer to be seen. Mercy couldn't think about leaving them to the other careers for long, bot when the reapings continued. District Four also had a pair of twelve year olds… strange, but not unheard of.
Mercy's smile was quickly banished to the great beyond and replaced by a growing look of horror and genuine panic. District Five had two twelve year olds. District Six had two twelve year olds, the girl in particular wearing an eyepatch. District Seven had twelve year olds! District Eight had twelve year olds, Mercy by now in too much of a shock to notice the little glint in the eye of the girl on stage. On and on it went in this fashion from District Nine right down to District Twelve.
Every single tribute outside of the career pack was twelve years old. Every damn one of them!
"This can't be happening…" Mercy whispered. This wasn't honourable, this was disturbing.
Kadrian leaned back, let out a low whistle… and began to applaud, laughing.
"Best reaping ever," Kadrian remarked, laughing on and on. "Seems we've only got two real opponents to go against Mercy. You know what, challenge accepted, I'm gonna try and beat Chassis' record for shortest games ever."
"Best of luck. I'll always accept a tribute sticking it to that mistake of a victor," Olga said, pouring herself a glass of vodka. "Now, as your competition is so pitiful there is no excuse for losing. I will not tolerate anything but a District Two victory. In fact, I'd be rather annoyed if both if you are not the last ones standing."
"Easy," Kadrian said, smirking wider. "Right Mercy? …Uh, Mercy?"
Mercy wasn't responding. She sat ridgid, staring blankly at the TV screen showing images of the twenty four tributes.
"Huh, she must have gone catatonic from shock," Kadrian noted. "Guess I understand, this is some seriously good luck."
"How is there anything good about this?!" Mercy shrieked, her eyes wide and ghost-like. "They're just tiny kids! Babies! This… this is abnormal!"
"No, this is random odds," Olga calmly remarked, sipping her vodka. "A bit strange, I'll admit, but random regardless. What's not to like about it? You're near certain to win."
"But… but… they're just kids," Mercy whispered, getting pale in the face and a bit green in the gills.
"Who cares? Twelve year olds have died in the arena in most years of past Games," Kadrian replied, already moving back to the dining table. "You volunteered knowing you'd have to kill people. Suck it up."
"He's right, this is weakness. This is not the way of a tribute from Two. Focus, strength and honour is. If you cannot perform your duty then there is nothing that can be done for you," Olga said, firm and cold. "Shape up, or ship out in a casket. That's your only choice."
Olga returned to the dining table to speak with her own tribute. They began to hit things off well enough while Mercy remained rooted to the spot. She seemed like she was about to throw up.
She'd made a terrible mistake.
"Are you… alright…?" Vercingetorix asked, looking just as sick in response to the reaping recap as Mercy did.
Mercy didn't say another word. She silently got up and heading off to her room, quickly and quietly. She didn't respond to Rhyder's call of concern.
Only when she locked herself in her room did she allow herself to start sobbing. The tough image was broken. The image of a powerful warrior was destroyed.
Mercy knew herself well enough to know that she couldn't bring herself to hurt little children. It wasn't the same as older people.
Only when she really thought on why there was any difference did Mercy realise how hypocritical this was and how there was no honour in this at all.
She'd bought it all upon herself.
The parade did not make Mercy feel any better. What was normally the opening spectacle among spectacles had been twisted into a grim, sordid affair. It was just a bunch of terrified children shoved into sparkly costumes.
Mercy briefly wondered, while anxiously waving to the audience in her gladiator outfit, if it had always been that way and she'd just been too enraptured by the system to notice anything was wrong.
Kadrian loved the parade. The Ones similarly enjoyed the event to the fullest. Mercy was mainly unsettled by the cries of the pair from Three in the chariot behind hers and the whimpers of the Fours behind them and, though it had been very hard to hear, the muttering of the boy from Five about how it may hurt less to just stab himself in the heart with a knife from the kitchen.
That was only the start. The first day of training was where things really became particularly gruesome.
As per every year the head trainer explained the rules, making sure the 'no fighting other tributes' rule was understood by all. After that everybody was free to do as they wanted until lunch time, and that was exactly the problem.
The careers got bored of training very quickly indeed.
While tormenting outliers was never an uncommon thing, careers tended to prioritise training to ensure they maintained their already vast upper hand in combat and other skills. Time was forever of the essence and there was always the chance an outlier to pull off a shock.
This year Kadrian and the Ones – smug Raphael and gorgeous Smooch – saw no need to train beyond the absolute bare minimum. What need was there when they only had three real opponents and a hoard of meat to hack and slash their way through? Egged on by Dragon and Bronze they quickly made a grand show of tormenting the twenty twelve year olds.
Mercy tried her best to focus on practising her archery while her fellow careers went about on their torment of all the meat. It became hard to focus on what she was doing when she heard the crying of the girl from Three, the agonizing sobbing of the boy from Four, the wails of the boy from Seven for his mother and the sounds of the girl from Twelve being laughed at for wetting her pants in sheer terror.
It was impossible to ignore it anymore once the Ones backed the girl from Six into a corner and began to insult her family while Kadrian tried his absolute hardest to get the girl from Eight to shit herself in fear.
He failed to notice the way, when she turned away from him in seeming fear, a look of pure malevolence passed through her eyes. She had plans for the big boy mocking her, oh yes indeed.
"Hey!" Mercy yelled, tossing away the bow and arrow and making her way over towards the other careers. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"Having fun," Kadrian replied, turning away from the girl from Eight. "What, you want a turn? Hey, be my guest."
"No, I don't want a turn," Mercy took a deep breath, crossing her arms. "What is this achieving? The kids are already terrified, do you really need to make them feel even worse?"
"We're just asserting our dominance. Plenty of packs do it," Raphael stated, shrugging. "Who cares? They're gonna die anyway."
"If that's the case then, again, what is this achieving? It's shameful, that's what it is," Mercy said, her tone turning into scorn.
"Oh, like you have any right to judge us," Smooch added, sneering. "You volunteered to be here and would've had no issues if they were a bit older."
"I'll admit it, that was true," Mercy replied coolly. "Was. I'm gonna go for the unobtained record… win without killing anybody."
Mercy turned on her heel, heading back to the archery training station. Her rant had given the tiny tributes time to flee and hide away from the rest of the pack. Her words did not sink into her allies however. They simply shrugged and continued to stalk around in search of their younger opposition.
Mercy's heart pounded a mile a moment as she continued firing arrows. What she had just done, was it rebellion? Was it a disgrace to Two? Was it signing her own death warrant?
…Was it wrong she did not care what the answer was to any of those sorts of questions?
The second day of training was started off much like the first had. Training with a variety of skills, but sticking to archery for the most part. Only now it was a bit harder for Mercy to focus on what she was doing. Not just because of how the pack and many of the kids watched her, but also because of how Olga had given her quite the verbal tongue lashing the night before.
While apparently she was still above Rook, she was on very thin ice with the legend of Two and whether she lived or died her disobedience and disloyalty to all that made her a Two wasn't to be forgotten for many years to come.
Olga hadn't even needed to raise her voice to intimidate Mercy. A calm, cold tone was enough to achieve the same effect. Rhyder had privately assured her that she'd done the right thing, but Mercy had no idea what to think.
Everything she'd known for years was in one constant flux of chaos within her mind.
It was midway through the day of training, right as she'd sent an arrow through the eye of a dummy forty meters away, that Kadrian walked over to deliver her the news.
"The Ones and I talked it over and we came to a unanimous agreement. You're out of the pack," Kadrian said, matter-of-factly.
"Huh, why?" Mercy asked, fumbling with her bow.
"You're just not working out," Kadrian said, shrugging. "Talking against us was a dumb idea and the Ones are frankly offended. The opposition is so pathetic that we do not even need a fourth member, three is plenty. You're on your own."
"…Well fine. I don't need you," Mercy replied, cold as ice. "I don't need anybody!"
With that, Mercy let an arrow fly and skewer into a dummies throat. Kadrian couldn't help but lightly applaud.
"Perhaps not," he conceded. "If I don't win I'd like if you did. Still a win for Two. But if we find you in the arena all bets are off."
"Thanks for the warning," Mercy replied dryly. "Tell the Ones I'd rather not be in a pack with a group of people hounding little kids like wild animals."
"Will do, but you'd be a hypocrite to act like you're much different. If they were eighteen you'd be just the same as us," Kadrian retorted as he walked away.
Mercy did not reply. She didn't want to admit that he was entirely correct. It made her feel sick at herself, knowing just what she would've been capable of – was still capable of – and how she'd have never second guessed it.
It kept her silenced until midway through lunch. She'd kept her head down to eat her soup until the sound of footsteps approaching her had made her look up, expecting the career pack wanting something else. Only, it was not the careers who had approached her.
It was the girl from Six.
"Can I sit with you?" the girl asked. "The other seats are taken."
Mercy knew this wasn't true at all – she could see at least ten free seats dotted around the tables within the cafeteria – but nonetheless gestured for the small girl to sit down.
"Need something?" Mercy asked after a silent minute of the girl eating.
"Why'd you stand up for us?" the girl asked. "Don't careers love treated everybody else like animals? Isn't hurting people who cannot fight back your, like, defining thing? It's what Chassis said."
"…I never saw it that way," Mercy replied. "It never seemed that way to me, not when I grew up surrounded by people singing praises to all of this. I guess I just went with it."
"Sounds like brainwashing," the girl remarked, briefly stuffing her face with pasta.
"…I guess so," Mercy said, unsure what else to say. "Is that all you needed?"
"Well, no. See, us kids… we have a big problem. Three big problems," the girl from Six glanced over at the trio of careers. "They're gonna kill us… perhaps you'd like to be our bodyguard?"
"Aren't you scared I could kill you too?" Mercy replied, confused. "I would be… uh… what was your name again?"
"You don't listen to the reaping recaps do you?" the girl said, playfully huffing. "Honda Garret. And really, you're about the least scary person here. You're the only one that told the careers to leave us alone and said you'd win without killing anybody."
Mercy had no good response to this other than to nod dumbly. She tried not to focus on the sounds of disgust that came from the career table when she shook Honda's tiny hand. The idea of a Two allying with a Six was something that went against all she had ever been told.
Mercy found it amazing just how quickly she was no longer caring.
The rest of the pre-Games days passed by all too quickly. Honda had been all too happy to chatter about how she was the 'best pick pocket in all of Six' and roped her district partner Tank into the fold. He'd hit it off with Timber from Seven, their little gang expanding to be four members strong.
The trio of careers had laughed at Mercy and her 'army of rats'. Olga had been completely disgusted that a Two would do anything to a Six that was not murder and Rhyder… he'd told Mercy to be like him and not play by the expected rules.
"We're all from Two, but we're all different," he had told her on the balcony one night. "I wasn't part of the pack in my Games and neither were my parents. Do it your way because that's the best way for you."
Mercy vowed she would.
The careers got meaner, the kids got more and more terrified, Mercy kept herself popular as a career breaking the common mould, not that she was dumb enough to speak against what she now saw as injustice, and Honda followed her all around like a loyal puppy.
The girl from Eight just watched them all, only speaking when spoken to. She acted cutesy, cuddly and sweet.
All of it was fake…
The careers and Mercy scored tens. The rest of the tributes scored between four and two. The girl from Eight alone only scored a one.
Nobody noticed the brief look of triumph in her eyes when the score was revealed to the nation. Nobody knew the plans Lillian Barrows had in mind.
The tributes were launched into a snowy forest, a freezing gust of wind billowing through the arena. The cornucopia was coated in snow as it sat in the midst of a clearing of the forest, the snow and trees leading off for miles in all directions. It was horribly cold, even with the thick and woolly tribute outfits.
Mercy readied herself to run in and retrieve the bow and quiver of arrows, only to notice something rather odd. The entire area surrounding the cornucopia was circled by a large wall. It was featureless aside from the number '8' being displayed on it in several places.
Mercy didn't have time to spare it much thought. Amongst the crying, the wailing and the cruel laughter of the careers the gong rang. The mayhem began only seconds later.
The careers, having longer legs, easily reached the weapons before a single twelve year old had grabbed even one knife. Seeing that the kids had no way to escape from the clearing they quickly went to work, slaughter and blood following their every step.
Mercy vomited at the sight, smell and sound of all the death and agony around her. She grabbed up her weapons, supplies and prepared to make a run for it.
That was when she noticed the number had fallen from '8' down to '2'. Six bodies were laying around, crumpled into tiny heaps of blood and gore. As soon as Smooch gutted the boy from Nine with a scythe the number fell to a one. It all clicked in an instant.
"Honda! Tank! Timber! Get ready to run!" Mercy yelled, making a break for the wall.
A loud crack filled the air and the walls began to lower into the snow. Mercy glanced at the source of the noise, recoiling when she saw Kadrian dropping Tank's lifeless body to the ground. The crack had been the sound of him breaking the boy's neck. He gave Mercy a wolfish grin.
Mercy didn't hang around after that. She ran away from the carnage going on, scooping Honda and Timber under each arm as she charged along. Her heart wrenched and her stomach churned as she passed the girl from Eleven crawling pathetically, missing the lower half of her left leg. Helping her was beyond her power.
"Watch out for the log! Jump!" Timber yelled.
"Mind the tree!" Honda exclaimed.
Mercy remained silence, tearing through the snowy forest and listening to the directions she was given. As she panted and wheezed the cannons began to fire as the distant bloodbath came to a close.
Thirteen cannons boomed, all of them to mark the deaths of children who had barely begun to live at all. Mercy only needed to take once glance at what was left of her little alliance and know what she had to do.
Make the ultimate sacrifice to send one of them home. She knew she'd never be welcome back in Two anymore, so what did it matter?
As the freezing afternoon became an ivy sunset the tributes who were still alive scattered around the arena, the worst yet to come for any of them.
Mercy, Honda and Timber fled to the north where a dimly lit winter village lay in wait for them.
The careers wiped the blood off of their weapons, exchanged high-fives and, after sorting through their plentiful supplies, split off solo in separate directions. With so little danger coming from the other tributes they believed numbers were not important like they would be in any other year.
The boy from Three, the girl from Five and the girl from Ten ambled off aimlessly in separate directions, all miraculously unharmed. Lillian quietly followed after the girl from Ten, completely unseen.
Time passed before, with a sigh of profound relief, the boy from Four emerged from his hiding place beneath several blankets inside a crate within the horn of plenty. With nobody anywhere near him he took his time to carefully grab the best supplies remaining, bury the weapons that were too big for him down into the snow and set off towards the south.
The cold only got worse.
Dawn arrived, a cannon following not far behind. Mercy had gotten herself, Honda and Timber inside the main lodge of the little village. The door had been locked and barricaded, the windows were covered by wardrobes and the trio sat by the barely lit fireplace. It was warm inside, but by no means without problems.
The kids had barely managed to grab anything from the cornucopia – Timber grabbed a pack of crackers while Honda grabbed a knife – while Mercy's supplies were not enough for all three to live on. They knew they could melt snow to drink, but when it came to food they had very little.
This was gonna suck.
"See anything?" Honda asked Mercy, the older girl having peered through the crack between the nearest window and the wardrobe in front of it.
"Nothing yet. Guess that's a good thing," Mercy replied. "Though, really, there are only three tributes we need to worry about."
"I don't know, the girl from Five had a bit of a look to her. You know the type," Honda remarked.
"She's a kid. Kids… they don't have the same 'look' to them as trained killers," Mercy made her way back to the sofa, starting to pace around it. "What do we do, what do we do…"
Time passed with Mercy struggling to make a plan, Honda using some chalk to draw on the walls in hopes of impressing sponsors and Timber trying his best to ignore the hunger that was slowly but surely building up within himself.
"We can't stay in here for long," Timber said after a while. "We're gonna run out of food by tonight."
"If we go outside you two might get hurt," Mercy replied. "I can't risk that."
"Wait, we'll be hurt? What about you?" Honda asked. "If you're so tough… maybe you could hunt something for us? Maybe a rabbit?"
"You know what… I think I will," Mercy agreed, gearing herself up in preparation for her hunt. "You should hide in the attic until I'm back. Lock the door when I leave. If it's me I'll knock six times."
The kids agreed without hesitation, wishing Mercy luck as she exited into the snowy wasteland beyond the lodge. The tough girl tightened her outfit, pulled up her hood and marched off into the woods, hunting for some sort of animal she could eat. A rabbit, a bird, a deer, she was not picky by any means.
Mercy didn't know it, but extreme danger was not far away from her. While the Ones hunted further south in the arena Kadrian had chosen to move towards the north, a casual look about him as he walked along. If anything he seemed bored.
He was also not the extreme danger by any means.
He never came close to finding Mercy just about a mile or so ahead of him. He did, however, come close to the sounds of crying. Like any good hunter he followed them to the source. He smirked widely as he saw the figure sobbing.
The girl from Eight. The tiny body of the girl from Ten lay still beside her, no doubt killed by something earlier in the day. A mutt perhaps? Kadrian didn't think any of the meat had it in them to kill, especially not so early in the games.
"Ready to die?" he asked, sword in hand as he moved closer to Lillian.
Lillian sniffled, tears pouring down her face as she looked up at Kadrian.
A malevolent smirk crossed her face.
"Are you?" she asked, bored.
It happened too fast for Kadrian to react. His foot caught something, a snap echoed and a rock was smashed against his head from a trap hidden amongst the snow. He fell to the ground half-concussed, fighting to try and stand back up. He could barely do a thing before Lillian strutted towards him, shoved a dirty rag into his mouth and knelt beside him.
He'd fallen for the oldest trick in the book.
"Isn't it funny how people assume cute, cuddly things are innocent?" Lillian asked, giggling. "That girl did. You did. The others will too. You really are an idiot Kadrian."
Lillian ceased her giggling and adopted a look of pure, cold calculation. She took a carving knife from within her thick jacket.
"Let's see what you look like on the inside," she said, calm as could be.
Lillian rolled up Kadrian's leggings and began to peel and tear the skin off of his legs. He writhed, screamed and roared in pure, utter agony. Lillian calmly punched him in the throat to shut him up and kept going with her gruesome deed.
The entire process of torture lasted over four hours. The last thing he heard, aside his own screaming, was Lillian remarking that it was funny that he'd tormented all the children and ended up begging for mercy from one of them.
She then stabbed him in the throat.
Mercy never came across the bloody massacre. She did, however, come across a deer and took it down with one solid arrow between the eyes. She and her tiny allies ate very well tat evening and throughout the third day. It was almost comfortable within the lodge, relaxing and eating deer meat.
Alas, it was hard to relax when the Hunger Games were still ongoing. Besides their own group there were still six others left alive. Two of them Mercy would fight if she had to. The rest… Mercy had no idea what to do.
She did not know the truth of Lillian Barrows.
She also had no idea what had led to Kadrian's early demise. She assumed the girl from Ten had been killed by him or the Ones, but what could've so swiftly ended the life of the brute from Two?
"I just don't get it," Mercy said for the sixth time. "He was so strong, so fearless… how'd this happen?"
"Maybe he froze? Or, you know, fell through a frozen lake?" Honda guessed. "It can't be easy to swim if you're overloaded with weapons right?"
"It's that or a mutt got him," Timber added, shuddering. "I won't miss him."
"Like, same. That guy was a jerk," Honda muttered, crossing her arms. "What about you Mercy? Was he less of a jerk back home?"
"We never spoke outside the academy," Mercy replied, taking a bite out of a slab of deer meat. "He was just a really good student across the board, that's all I ever knew. I can't claim to know him."
The topic was left alone after that. For a while the trio simply relaxed within the lodge, trying to keep warm and find ways to pass the time. Things passed particularly slowly within the warm building while tributes outside the village continued to bare the horrid cold.
The gamemakers decided to speed things along.
One moment the fireplace was lightly lit and pleasantly warm. The next moment there was a spark and then a few dozen more. The fire spread pretty quickly after that.
"Quick! The door!" Mercy yelled, practically tearing away all the objects that had been used to barricade it.
The lodge went up in flames, but thankfully nobody had been inside it at the time. The three tributes ran through the village as the fire spread, easily outpacing the inferno behind them.
It was harder, however, to find a way to evade the pair from One as they ran out from the frosty trees that surrounded the winter village. They had been in the area, the fire attracting them like how honey attracted flies.
"Don't come any closer," Mercy warned them, an arrow notched and the bowstring pulled back. "I'll shoot."
"So much for your vow to not kill a single person in the Games," Smooch remarked, clutching a pair of tomahawk axes.
"Go on then, shoot," Raphael replied, cold enough to match the weather around them. "Do it."
Mercy hesitated for just a moment, time which Smooch used to throw a tomahawk at Timber. She barely missed. Mercy let the arrow fly, purposely letting it pass just by Smooch's head to scare her backwards.
"Run! Now!" Mercy yelled, already yanking another arrow from the quiver. "We'll meet back up to the south!"
Honda and Timber ran for their lives into the blizzard, tripping over a few times along the way, while Mercy remained to confront the pair from One. It would be the fight of her life. One that she didn't feel quite the same aversion for as she did with fighting the other tributes.
Perhaps she was a hypocrite, but she wasn't a sadist. Not like the Ones at least.
Raphael worked to narrow the gap and strike his once-ally with his sword. While unable to fire off an arrow at such a closer distance Mercy was far from outmatched, not when she had always been particularly good at knife fighting. Blade met bigger blade, metal clanging and sparks flying.
Then the tomahawks were thrown.
Smooch had at least twelve of the handheld axes on her at that point, taking care with her aim. It would not do to accidently hit her district partner in the chaos. She aimed hard and threw harder, but the frantic movements going on between the combatants made it impossible to aim effectively, even when she stood rooted to the spot.
Rooted for a minute, all the time needed for the fire to spread towards her and set her luscious hair on fire. Smooch screamed and shouted, running in a panic and crashing into Raphael and Mercy. They all fell down, soon becoming one mangled mess of fists and feet. As the brawl went by a knife entered a throat and a cannon boomed.
Raphael ran off into the woods with his arm bruised and his right thigh bleeding from a painful stab. Mercy ran off to track down her allies, hoping that they had not gotten too far ahead of her. Smooch lay in a crumpled heap amongst the reddening snow, her neck sporting a nasty gash and her lips badly cut.
Mercy wandered for quite some time before, to her deepest delight, she finally found Honda huddling in a ball beneath an old snow covered bridge. The allies big and small embraced tightly as they knelt together under the cracked bridge, just glad to be alive.
"I was so worried," Honda whispered. "I wanted to fight, but I… I… I'm sorry."
"You did the right thing," Mercy assured her. "That fight as vicious. You'd have died. Running away from certain death is nothing to be ashamed of… especially as I told you to."
"Thanks Mercy… so, did you…?" Honda trailed off.
"I did. The girl from One," Mercy replied, shivering from more than just the cold.
Honda didn't reply. She only buried her face deeper against Mercy's shoulder. In one movement Mercy picked up her smaller ally and began to walk away one step at a time through the nasty stow storm.
"Come on then, let's find us a new shelter," Mercy said as they went on their way. "Where did Timber go?"
"We lost each other in the blizzard," Honda replied, her teeth chattering. "He said we should meet at the cornucopia."
"Then that's where we'll go. I think I know where it is," Mercy said, nodding.
Incidentally, Timber never made it to the cornucopia. He'd ambled through the snowy forest, freezing but very much alive, searching for any kind of clue as to where he was.
He found no clues, just a crying girl in the midst of a snowy grove.
Lillian.
His compassion was his doom. One moment he approached her with intent to help. The next moment he was on the ground with a pounding headache and his shirt was being torn off of him.
A cannon fired an hour later.
Luck seemed to be on Mercy's side, at least for a short while. The north winter village was ablaze, but it turned out that a southern one also existed and was in good shape. It made for a perfect place to spend the third night and much of the frigid fourth day in the arena.
The boy from Four had been hiding here since nightfall on day one and was fine to let the girls into the main lodge. He wasn't about to turn away Mercy, not when she was a potential bodyguard for him.
"Help yourselves," the boy, Admiral, said as he gestured to a box of fancy chocolates. "I think somebody out there must like me a lot, though I can't eat them all without making myself sick."
Honda was quick to take Admiral on his offer and stuff her face with chocolate. Mercy was a bit more polite and dignified with her own eating of the chocolate, but she could not blame her little ally for her eagerness. Capitol chocolate was amazing.
As the afternoon turned into the evening the three sat by the fire, trying to keep warm and hoping that it would not end up setting the place on fire as it had done to the village in the north.
"So, how many are left now?" Admiral asked. "I always spent the night in the basement and didn't see the anthems."
"Not many of us. Maybe… uh, Seven? Eight?" Honda guessed.
"You were right the first time, it's seven of us left," Mercy said, biting on a chicken leg she'd been sponsored. "Us three, Raphael, the boy from Three, the girl from Five and the girl from Eight. They could be anywhere."
"Maybe they'll freeze and we won't have to anything we'll… regret," Admiral glanced away, sickened.
Mercy couldn't deny that she liked the idea of the rest just freezing to death. Well, no, perhaps she had not liked it exactly, but it seemed a lot less painful and cruel than smashing somebody's brains with a mace or gutting somebody with a sharp scythe.
Sure enough freezing to death exactly what happened to the boy from Three after darkness descended within the arena for the latest horrible night. It was not, however, what became of the girl from Five. She fell victim to Raphael's sword piercing through her chest and out through her back.
All the while Lillian followed Raphael around from a safe distance, waiting for the right moment to make her move.
The fifth day was eerily quiet for the most part, the last five tributes not doing much overall. The three at the village walked around, trying to keep themselves warm by keeping themselves moving, while Raphael slowly hunted around with no idea Lillian was stalking him, getting closer to him with every passing hour.
It all kicked off just as the last light of day faded away.
One moment Mercy, Honda and Admiral had been huddling within their own respective blanket to try and bare the cold that had leaked into the cabin. The next moment a scream pierced the air from the darkness outside.
"HELP! HELP ME! SOMEBODY HELP!"
Mercy was on her feet in an instant, bow and arrow ready to go. She approached the door, taking a deep breath. This was it, the last battle against Raphael. After he was taken care of… she'd no longer be needed.
She was ok with that.
"I'll be back soon," Mercy said, unsure if she was even telling the truth or not. "Wait here."
"Be safe," Honda called after her. "Try not to die."
Mercy responded with a grim nod as she headed off towards the direction the screaming had come from.
It wasn't long before she stood at the edge of a forest grove. In the centre of the grove was Lillian, kneeling and cowering. At the far side of the grove stood Raphael, sword in hand.
Mercy didn't notice the confused look he'd briefly had in his eyes before he'd noticed she was there. She only saw a brute about to butcher a scared child.
A brute she may have been in another timeline if things had been just a bit different.
Mercy let the arrow fly, hitting Raphael right in the eye. He died before he even realised he should be feeling agony. The cannon boomed and he slumped over in a crumpled heap. Lillian looked up, sniffling. She watched as Mercy carefully made her way closer towards her.
A distant explosion filled the night, mostly covered by the blizzard.
"Are you… my friend…?" Lillian whispered, hiccupping on her own tears.
"Yes, I'm your friend," Mercy whispered, letting her weapons fall from her grasp. They'd not be needed anymore. "It's all gonna be over soon. He was the last one."
"He was?" Lillian asked, sobbing.
"He was," Mercy confirmed, getting closer to Lillian. "He can't hurt you now."
A cannon fired. Mercy whirled around to glanced back towards the village that lay beyond several trees. Only this change of her position had spared her from a rock trap smashing against her head.
It did not, however, prevent Lillian from leaping up and using a large pebble to bash Mercy's head. Not anywhere as badly as the trap would have, but enough to send the older girl to the ground and onto her back, reeling in pain.
Mercy gazed up, her vision blurring. Alas, it wasn't blurry enough to stop her from seeing the look of pure cruelty and malicious glee that filled Lillian's eyes.
The careers had never once been the biggest problem and only now did Mercy see the truth.
"Thanks for taking out the Ones. I couldn't have done it without your help," Lillian said, taking out a carving knife coated in dried blood. "Or maybe I could've. That boy who came with you screamed pretty loud. He was pathetic."
"W-what… you did… all of that?" Mercy sounded like she wanted to scream, only to find herself hardly able to speak. "Why… would you… just a kid…"
"It was funny," Lillian said, shrugging. "Once you're dead, it'll be just the little one from Six, or four. Not sure who that other cannon was for, but you're dead either way. Thanks again. Ok, time to die."
Mercy kicked her feet out at Lillian, trying to scramble back in the snow away from the little monster. Lillian was punted backwards, but quickly rose again with her scowl deepening.
"Ok, now I'm annoyed," she said.
Mercy yelled and cried out as she was kicked twice in the head. It was hard for her to make out Lillian's expression anymore. She felt this wasn't really such a bad thing.
"Get away from my friend!" a voice yelled from just beyond the clearing.
Lillian hardly had any chance to react before Honda, somewhat burnt from just barely escaping the gas explosion within the lodge, tackled her to the ground. In moments the two young girls were screaming, shouting, clawing and grabbing for an advantage over each other.
The nation could only watch on as the tiny pair tried to kill each other, neither quite getting the upper hand over the other, while Mercy continued to lay in pain. During the fight Lillian was knocked back upon her, driving a knife into her leg. The little monster merely giggled before diving back into the duel against Honda.
Mercy felt herself starting to fade out, whether from life or consciousness, as Lillian finally drove her knife into Honda's chest. Right as Honda was tossed down beside her Mercy closed her hand around something metallic.
"Whoa… what a workout… you girls didn't make it easy. Not appreciated," Lillian muttered, gasping for air. "I'm not gonna make this one slow. Think you can hold on longer than that meathead Kadrian did?"
"Can… you…?" Mercy asked, wheezing.
Lillian paused for ranting to turn around. She only had an instant to react with terror before Mercy fired off a final arrow, the point skewering right through her left eye and piercing her brain in the same moment. The cannon boomed as Lillian crumpled to the ground, a look of everlasting horror etched onto her young face.
Mercy lay in pain, her head throbbing and her leg bleeding freely. As she stared up at the falling snow a small hand took hold of her own. Weakly, she turned to look at Honda. The girl wasn't far off dying either.
"We… won…" Honda choked out. "Just us… left…"
"You were… brave…" Mercy felt like she was going to pass out at any second. "You should… win…"
"You were… awesome… best career ever," Honda shivered, tears falling down her face. "…Win…"
"No… reason… to," Mercy whispered. "Honda… win…"
It became too hard for the allies to say a word after that. They remained holding each other's hand, just watching the snow fall from the sky above. Both soon passed out from pain and blood loss.
A cannon eventually fired.
It wasn't Mercy's.
Mercy's victory spawned quite a few reactions. Every victor who ever lived had their fans and their haters, whether they were as noble as Mizar and Crown or as despicable as Bronze or Logger, but Mercy really split the fanbase and the districts in a lot of different sides.
Within the Capitol she was rather popular with the citizens for the most part, though perhaps not those who had bet on other tributes. It was those in power that really didn't like her. The idea of tributes from Two questioning the system was a dangerous one to be stamped out. Vercingetorix and Rhyder were enough to try and control, a third was a problem. Snow was confident he could keep any sort of rebellion stamped out.
Sure enough, threatening to kill a few twelve year olds in each district if Mercy stepped a toe out of a line did the trick. The thing that made the president's threats work was how he would follow up on them if he had to. Such was the nature of a man lacking any particular amount of morals.
Those who lost their children to the Hunger Games were inconsolable per the norm, but outside of vengeful District One it was hard to hate Mercy, exactly. She wasn't the one who had killed the little children, outside of the monster from Eight of course. The other careers had done the vast majority of that, the rest being left to Lillian or the Gamemakers. Mercy's hands weren't stained with blood the way most career tributes' were.
The outliers even seemed to respect Mercy, at least to some degree. It was still hard to ignore how this side had only been bought out in response to the reaping and murder of so many little children.
The most mixed response of all came from within her own district. Her family loved her, Kadrian's family were mostly heartbroken their son had failed to make it home and the warmongering district were either disappointed the weakest of them all had won… or, in the eyes of some, happy that the strongest among them won without even needing to use the bulk of her strength at all.
Within the most mixed district there was one group that had the most mixed opinions of them all. Mercy's fellow victors. None of them shared quite the exact same opinion.
Baron was fine with her winning. He was especially happy that she had realised how wrong the system was, feeling it was one step among many towards repairing the damage to Two he'd accidentally started over forty years ago.
Runa embraced the company of another woman who came whom victorious and, like herself, hated the experience. Mercy may have volunteered, but Rina felt it did not matter how a story begun, moreso how it ended. She and Mercy shared much in common, starting their own bond that would last for the rest of Runa's life.
Olga was disgusted by Mercy, even more than she was with Rook. That boy had turned his back on the pack but, as much as she detested him, at least conceded that he fought like a warrior and showed no fear. Mercy had outright refused to fight and called the system Olga dedicated her life to 'flawed' and 'cruel'. She hated Mercy with every fibre of her being. She was no victor, especially not for working with a tribute from Six.
Rook liked Mercy. That said, all the stuff such as her avoidance of fighting, caring for the little ones, questioning the system and so forth had nothing to do with it. He was just inclined to respect anybody who managed to piss Olga off just as badly, if not worse, than he did.
Boulder, as he did with most things, kept a neutral perspective. He had a very 'self-district mindset' and tended to only consider how things effected Two. As it stood Mercy's win meant more food and other such goods throughout his home, so he felt it'd be foolish to complain over her win. She lived, the rest didn't, so that was the end of it. No sense dwelling in the past.
Vercingetorix was just glad that he had somebody to talk to who truly shared his pain. Somebody who hated what they would've been in a 'normal year' and how haunted they felt by memories of the arena and thoughts of what 'could've been yet never was'. The pair vented to each other quite often.
Dragon thought Mercy was pretty lame all things considered. She set herself a no killing challenge and then blew it. As far as the challenge runner was concerned she was a phony, a big fat phony. Still, he would admit after a few drinks that her point blank arrow sent at Lillian was pretty cool.
Rhyder gave Mercy a hug and told her how proud he was of her for breaking the mould. Aside the unbeatable top spots that his parents shared, she was officially his favourite victor and somebody he was glad to call a friend.
Mercy herself had no idea what to think. Was she a terrible person who just got a rare chance to be a good guy? A good person who had gone down an awful path she barely got away from? A combination of the two? All she knew as that she wished she'd been able to save just one of those little kids.
She missed Honda.
She wanted a chance to make up for failing at her planned goal and save other children whom, like Honda, lacked any way to really fight back. Even if Snow would forever and always get in the way of her doing anything of the sort she wanted to try.
Years later after the Third Quell, when rebellion, war and carnage tore throughout Panem and especially within Two, Mercy readied herself with a bloodied sword in hand. A brutal fight a massive pack of experimental reaper mutts loomed near.
She was ready for it.
Anything to save all those little orphans.
She charged.
"It's bad enough when just one twelve year old is in the arena. Having twenty in there? That's just…" Katniss closed her eyes, shuddering. "I don't want to think about it."
"Me neither," Peeta agreed. "Shall we go to the next one down the street?"
"Yeah, let's do that," Katniss agreed.
The couple walked onwards, soon coming to the next imprinted face of many. A girl stared back at them, one with shoulder length hair, a somewhat blank and direct stare and a somewhat shy, uneasy looking half-smile. Katniss and Peeta lowered their heads, a sense of sadness overcoming them at the sight of one of their fallen friends.
"Rest well Wiress," Peeta said, quietly.
"I'm sure you were one hell of a victor back in your day," Katniss said, similarly subdued.
It's always fun to write the tales of the careers, especially those that break the mould. Like Platinum Mercy was not ready for the arena, though unlike Platinum it took a bit more of a 'specific' sort of Games to bring out her better side. The question remains, was she a bad person who went good, or a good person who avoided becoming twisted? Either way, hope you liked the tale that unfolded and the rather irregular reaping therein. Next up is another canon and a favourite of mine, Wiress! Expect her chapter sooner rather than later. Her special format ought to make her chapter easy to write. A real page turner, wink wink.
Stats
District 1: Peridot Gaudy (8th Games), Crystal McCree (14th Games), Bronze Marley (19th Games), Crown Martins (24th Games), Dollar Dettwieller (32nd Games), Mascara Court (41st Games), Platinum Twist (44th Games)
District 2: Baron Overwhill (4th Games), Runa Peace (7th Games), Olga Machete (10th Games), Rook Valiant (17th Games), Boulder Atherston (20th Games), Vercingetorix Carnby (25th Games), Dragon Batofel (27th Games), Rhyder Overwhill (39th Games), Mercy Gregor (46th Games)
District 3: Honorius Perthshire (5th Games), Pi Orbit (22nd Games), Beetee Latier (37th Games)
District 4: Museida Selkirk (3rd Games), Mags Flanagan (11th Games), Tide Luther (23rd Games), Librae Ogilvy (35th Games)
District 5: Shunt Gaspar (12th Games), Isobel Sparks (18th Games), Crimson Flanders (29th Games), Porter Tripp (38th Games)
District 6: Chassis Macalister (31st Games)
District 7: Pliny Aransio (2nd Games), Fir Buzz (9th Games), Jack Tylos (21st Games), Snag Nakamura (34th Games)
District 8: Woof Casino (16th Games), Paige Murphy (30th Games), Spool Nylon (42nd Games)
District 9: Mizar Aldjoy (1st Games), Gwenith Rosebud (13th Games), Teff Withers (28th Games), Laurel Flamsteel (36th Games), Tabbock Summers (43rd Games)
District 10: Stallion March (26th Games), Lammy Phyronix (40th Games)
District 11: Bear Redfoot (15th Games), Seeder Howell (33rd Games), Chaff Mitchell (45th Games)
District 12: Duke Saint-Rose (6th Games)